Professional Stringer of Words

book working and a black keys video

2012-02-08T17:01:00.000-08:00

Last week's sickness really slowed me down last week. However, I am feeling much better. Woo healthy!

I did an evaluation of where I stood on Sunday and was like whoa. I have some serious stuff to finish before the book is released. I do have to do one more read-thru because I made a mistake. I thought I could do a hands-off edit with a printed manuscript. That did not work. If there's writing on paper in front of me, there is a 90% chance I will scribble something on it.

So there will be one more, very quick read-thru that will take me down to the wire on the editing deadline. That's ok because I have enough time, she says hopefully. I will use the kindle this next round.

I have moved most of the website to a new home. The domain hasn't been transferred yet, however, and the wyrm page is still at the old site. I should get all that business resolved by the end of next week if all goes as planned. I wasn't able to get everything on Blogger as I had hoped. When you create pages aside from the primary blog page, they don't have the same functionality as the blog home page.

I decided to use Google sites for home base. The interface is awkward, but I can work with it. It's free too, which is always good. I'll do a post on that when everything is settled.

Have I mentioned my love of The Black Keys? Their music is just this gritty, beat-heavy rock and roll, genius, really. They put out a new video for Gold on the Ceiling, which is one of my favorite songs on the new album. I embedded it below for your viewing and listening enjoyment.

movie: The Hangover 2

2012-02-06T15:38:00.000-08:00

Did anyone else think Madonna was awesome in the halftime show? I loved it. I thought it was amazing. I couldn't believe people were ripping on it today. Then I decided that ripping on the halftime act has become a tradition. Musical artists, good or bad, if you play the superbowl, expect some disses. Also expect every molecule of what was on stage to be dissected and evaluated for flaws. geez.

Anyway, so The Hangover 2.

Loved it. Here is the description from IMDb: “Two years after the bachelor party in Las Vegas, Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug jet to Thailand for Stu's wedding. Stu's plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, however, goes seriously awry.”

It was quite hilarious. I read some reviews when it was first out in the theater that said it was exactly like the first, they just did some minor changes. It was similar in places. They wake up with a man lost, this time the bride’s brother. There were a few other parts that I caught, but I’m not going to risk spoiling anything. Despite the similarities, nothing about watching the movie felt stale to me. It was still very entertaining.

However, should there be a Hangover 3, they're going to need to switch the story up some more. The formula they're working is going to get old by episode 3.
The Hangover 2 gets a B-.

And, just because I think it’s super sexy, here is an interview with Bradley Cooper in delicious French. Oh my.

tossing the website into the juggling act

2012-02-02T16:18:00.000-08:00

I am so displeased with Microsoft at the moment. For the last couple of years, I've used their website hosting service. The price was great. I never had an issue. I get an email yesterday that they’re discontinuing the service I use, turning it into some kind of Office related mess and jacking up the price by about 600%.

They can keep their overpriced mess as far as I'm concerned. I'm leaving, of course. However, this has presented a couple of problems.

Hosting is a lot more expensive now than it was when I first set up my website. Seriously, ouch. Every company I've looked at charges about $10 a month after their introductory offers expire. That's fine and dandy if you're setting up a storefront, but my website is basically a showroom for my books. I make $0 through the site directly.

I’ve found a couple of free hosting services, but I’m not loving them. I will probably continue looking around.

I have a plan for the moment. It's a pain in the ass, but I think I can make it work. I'm taking my domain name with me by transferring to godaddy. I'm going to link it to this blog and basically turn the blog into my website. That might actually work better in at least one way.

When I first set up my website, I wanted to feed the blog into one of the pages. I wasn't able to do it. If the website moves to the blog, that won't be an issue. Everything will be all close and snuggly.

There is one other problem, however. I've been setting up my blog tour stops using the email address that goes with the website. Once I move on out of Microsoft, that inbox will be no more. That means I'm going to have to notify all the people I've been talking of the new email address and hope no wires get crossed in the process.

I'm working I'm transferring everything this week, so you might see some craziness and new pages popping up in the blog in the next week or so.

Taking Aim at the Comfort Zone

2012-01-31T16:23:00.000-08:00

I hope you will excuse any nonsense that appears in my post today. The cold seems to be winning at the moment.

Scheduling the blog tour is going pretty well. I read about someone else's experience while setting up his blog tour. He said that about 20% replied to him. My ratio is probably slightly higher than that, so I’m happy. For the most part, the blogs that responded are the ones with the most followers. I thought that was interesting.

I sometimes have these moments of nervousness, like the most introverted part of me suddenly realizes that I've ventured slightly farther out of my comfort zone. But I'm working through it. I know that if I ever want to write novels to make a living I need to be out in the world, making sure that people can actually find the books.

A few people have actually asked for review copies, which also makes me nervous. I'm terrified of reviewers. I've never solicited reviews before a book release before, mostly because I have a fear that my work won't stand up to a certain level of scrutiny.

I've seen reviews (hopefully not by professional reviewers) that were over the top cruel. They were for authors other than me, but when I read them, I internalized them as a potential thing that could happen to me.

However, when the first request for review copy came in, I did not say ‘no thank you’. Because I am doing my best not to live like a total coward, I said yes. The book isn't quite ready for all that yet, but I've started a list of people who get pre-release copies either in preparation for an interview or a review copy. Hit me up if you want one. Bloggers get preferential treatment. : )

Movie: Your Highness

2012-01-30T16:53:00.000-08:00

The weather was AMAZING when I got off work today. Sunny and relatively warm. It was kind of strange because usually by this time, we’re knee-deep in snow or trying to chisel ice off of various surfaces.

The bad news? I think I’m coming down with a cold. Ergh.

Anyway, movie.

Your Highness

Description from IMDb – “When Prince Fabious's bride is kidnapped, he goes on a quest to rescue her... accompanied by his lazy useless brother Thadeous.”

Aw, that’s not a very nice description. Thadeous is actually the main character.

Your Highness is a very interesting movie. It's kind of like The Princess Bride meets South Park (uncensored) meets um, The Labyrinth but with cgi mixed in with the puppetry. The quest takes many strange turns.

I really liked this movie, but it's a lot to take in. A lot of the humor crosses merrily over into obscene, which I find hilarious more often than not. However, the movie tries almost too hard to be offensive in parts.

Your Highness was entertaining but not exactly cinematic genius. C+

some book trailer talkin'

2012-01-25T16:32:00.000-08:00

I was trying to think of something to write about today when I realized that I just slapped up the new trailer yesterday without really saying anything about it. So today, I’m doing some book trailer talk.

Creating the trailer for Lair of the White Wyrm was much easier than the Fate Binds trailer. You might remember that one had some blooming flower animation…or you might remember not depending on whether you read the blog then.

The animation for the Lair trailer consists of some moving words and also panning around a grove, which is a scene from the book. The grove picture is a composite image created from two digital photos I took at a public park during a day last summer. There used to be a skate park in the background of one of them.

Bouncing back and forth between Photoshop and Fireworks, I extracted the trees and some of the grass, nixed the skate park and other background stuff, and darkened the whole deal to night time. Then, I created a radial glow in the background. Oh, some of the trees are drawn in, mostly the ones in the back.

Also fun was the brush I found (in Photoshop?) that had a leaf-shaped tip. Awesome, right? I used that in various colors to get all the trees to blend together and also add some contrast to the image.

That’s a lot of work to end up not using the graphic. I was really glad that the trailer allowed me to do something with it.

Animating the pan around the grove was a piece of cake. In Flash, you can set a couple of locations and create a tween. I had to mess with the timing a little but overall, it was WAY easier than the blooming flowers, plus you get a peek at some scenery from the book.

The other major graphic in the trailer is the head of the wyrm. If you guessed that it is a skinned over version of the skull on the book cover, you are correct and I have awarded you an extra 5 bonus points for your attention to detail.

Skinning over the skull actually took longer than I thought it would. I figured it would be an hour, tops. I mean the shape is already there. It was probably double that by the end of it.

I’m embedding the video again so you don’t have to scroll down to yesterday’s post.

lots of stuff

2012-01-24T17:51:00.000-08:00

Hello! How are we this wonderful evening? This past weekend was very cold. I took this picture of the field behind the house to give you an idea of the fantastic dreariness. Have you even seen a place so white and desolate? This was taken at about 5pm on Sunday.

The good news is, things outside are warming up.

Earlier today I read about reactions to the Academy Award Nominations from various stars. There was a variety of reactions ranging from gratitude to, well, not as much gratitude. I wondered, how much does one’s reaction quote say about their personality? So I compiled this quick guide about what people might think when they read what you said about being nominated for the biggest award in the industry.

Gratitude personified : These are my favorites. They thank specific people by name, regardless of whether they are less famous. I would guess that these are the people who work hard and appreciate the hard work of others or at least realize that they should appreciate the hard work of the people they work with. These people win first prize for class.

Witty: Some stars said funny, witty things. Very nice. Not quite as gracious as the above but a willingness to put thought into what is said shows a certain level of intelligence and friendliness.

Academy Awards? What the heck are those?: Sigh. They try so hard to look cool. They don’t thank anyone. They don’t seem to even appreciate the fact that they were acknowledged. I would guess that these people might not be a joy to work for or with. I picture them in my head as spoiled, rich children who never had to really work for anything.

End Academy Awards talk

Guess what other excitement is here today. Go on. Guess. No, don’t look at the embedded video below. That’s cheating.

Ok, it’s a new book trailer! This one is the prerelease trailer for Lair of the White Wyrm, which is due out 2/21/12.

There will be a second version after the book is released with availability, etc.

Also sort of up is the book page.

Some of the links aren’t active yet, of course, because they don’t exist, but you can get a feel for what the finished page is going to look like. Plus there’s a synopsis. That might not be the final version.

Book Page

a movie and some rambling

2012-01-23T16:46:00.000-08:00

Next is a movie starring Nicolas Cage and is about a man who can see about two minutes into the future. There is an exception to the rule. He sees a woman he hasn't met.

There’s a government agency after him because they want to use him to help prevent a nuclear disaster. He is unwilling to assist them, so they pursue him in an effort to basically force him to help.

The plot is well-paced and never boring. Special effects were cool. Nicolas Cage's hair is just as horrendous as it pretty much always is. Jessica Biel’s hair looked better than usual. She had this wavy thing going on.

Next is one of those movies that advances and reverses time but not annoyingly so. It adds a certain level of excitement, I think, because anything can happen to any character and they may or may not get a rewind. Next gets an A-.

We actually bought this movie. We went to our local Blockbuster to rent a movie and discovered they were “moving”. They were selling their DVDs and Blu-rays for like $2 so we figured we may as well try to find a movie we hadn’t seen and just buy it.

When we reached the counter, I asked the girl where they were moving to. Her answer was “online” and she truly looked like she was going to cry. I felt really bad, of course. Silly me actually thought they were actually moving like the sign out front indicated.

Husband and I are quite unhappy about the store closing. We do have Netflix, so we still have access to movies, but I liked being able to walk into a store and choose something off the shelves and watch it the same night. Call me old-fashioned, I guess.

Our economy is evolving in this strange way. Everything is moving to the internet, which causes people in retail stores to lose their jobs, which is sad and not good for the general state of things. But there’s no stopping the future.

I think as time goes on, people are going to have to depend less on companies like Blockbuster to provide jobs. They might not have a choice in the matter.

People who adapt their skills and experience to the internet-driven economy are going to fare better.

Until the terrorists learn how to take it out and drain all of our bank accounts. awww...

plotting and scheming

2012-01-18T16:46:00.000-08:00

First, let's see what was accomplished last week. I finished the edit on AnnaBeth 2. It won't be the last, of course but it is finished regardless.

I received Lair back from Lady Editor and made those changes.

I updated the home page on the website with book cover and release date for Lair.

On the to do list, finish the damn Lair synopsis. I worked on that today and I think I’ve got it. There might still be revisions, but I’m 95% happy with what I’ve got.

Also on the task list is book trailer work. I hope to have the trailer and the book page (minus buy links) ready for a prerelease launch by the end of next week. We'll see how that goes. I will put the link here on the blog when that’s all ready to go.

Then I’m going to start soliciting interview spots and such for release time (book release 2/21/12). I figure if the book trailer and the page are up and running, that would add to my writer cred. I have an order in which I want to accomplish certain tasks. There is method to the madness.

I’m strongly considering releasing an excerpt before the book is available, like a preview or whatever. I'm not totally positive I want to do that, but it's an idea that currently lives in my head.

two movies: You Again and I Am Number Four

2012-01-17T17:32:00.000-08:00

Being late with the movie post is more acceptable.when I gave two movies, right? right.

You Again

description from IMDb: “When a young woman realizes her brother is about to marry the girl who bullied her in high school, she sets out to expose the fiancée's true colors.”

You Again brings the star power - Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Betty White, Kristen Bell. I love seeing all these ladies together. They are awesome!

Of course the movie is very funny. There are actually two bully relationships in which the hurt feelings and competitiveness have been carried into adulthood. Girls (and women) can really make each other crazy. This story takes that over the top.

There was a character that I wasn't big on. That would be Will, brother of Marni. He's the one planning to marry the bully. I though he came off cheesy and annoying.

You Again gets an A-.

----------------------

I Am Number Four

description from IMDb – “Aliens and their Guardians are hiding on Earth from intergalactic bounty hunters. They can only be killed in numerical order, and Number Four is next on the list. This is his story.”

I read some bad reviews of this movie when it first came out. I actually thought it was awesome. The acting was fine. The story was interesting. Timothy Olyphant was in it. That's always good.

The special effects were amazing. Toward the end, there were some really awesome fighting sequences. Loved it, seriously.

Unfortunately, I don't think it did well enough in the theatre for there to be a sequel. It cost about $60 million to make and only made about $55 mill. Awww…that’s too bad. I really liked that movie. I Am Number Four gets an A.

Off the subject of movie reviews and on to new releases, had anyone seen the trailer for The Woman in Black with Daniel Radcliffe? He's so grown up! You may remember him in the very small role of Harry Potter. lol. I want to see how he does with that role. The movie looks really good.

That’s all I have for now.

Friday 13

2012-01-13T15:58:00.000-08:00

Today is Friday the 13th! I was trying to think of something interesting to slap up here for the occasion. The husband showed me these commercials, which were supposedly banned in the US. If you watch them, you will see why. Those kooky Brits. Gotta love 'em.

author vs writer

2012-01-12T15:42:00.000-08:00

I read a post on another writer's blog yesterday about the difference between being a writer and an author. He started out with a bit of a, hmmmm, shall we say a 'superior' tone? but by the end of the post, I knew what he meant and I agreed.

He broke it down like this (my paraphrasing) - an author is someone who writes a book and focuses more on promotion than the next project. A writer is someone who is already immersed in the next project. They focus more on the writing activity than the advertising push.

Guess which class I'm in, or at least the class I think I'm in.

I do some extra things with the books like the trailers and the illustrations, etc, but the actual act of putting it out there for audiences to find, not my forte.

I would really like to write novels full time. I probably won't get there by ignoring my lack of promotional efforts.

So here's my plan. I'm going to finish up my edit on AnnaBeth 2, finish writing Llewyn's Faith, which I swear is thisclose to being done, and then I'm going into author mode for the next month or two. I have to. It's the only way for me to get what I want out of this next release.

Lair of the White Wyrm will be out 2/21.

book working and other stuff

2012-01-10T17:20:00.000-08:00

Tuesday. it's like riding a bike with nails in the tires.

What is going on? Anything exciting?

I'm working on another read-thru on Devil (AnnaBeth 2). This time around is exponentially smoother than the last time. Today was day 6 and I'm almost done. That previous edit that was so tortuous was well worth the trouble. I'm actually enjoying it now, which is a good sign.

Other projects. I work on Llewyn's Faith a bit each day. It's going to round out to long short story length, if that makes sense. I think it's between 8 and 9000 words, and I have a couple of scenes left.

I'm also reading The Success Principles by Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer. An author whose blog I read on a semi-regular basis recommended it. I like it so far. There's a lot of positive thinking stuff. I need that, being the die-hard pessimist/cynic that I am.

One of my favorite parts in the book was about reverse paranoia. Operate as if everyone is part of a plot to help you succeed; that was the advice. I thought that was kind of funny.

I'm posting less on Journey Reader. I decided while on holiday hiatus that I need to spend more time promoting my own books on other blogs. I like what I do there, but it's really time consuming. I'm still taking interviews and stuff though, so there will be posts, just not 4 days a week like I was trying to do before.

What else? Ah yes. I have been ungrateful, not intentionally, but ungrateful nonetheless and it's gnawing away at my innards. In my rundown of last year’s events, I forgot to thank my readers.

If you downloaded or purchased or even read one of my books, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Reading books takes time. I hope mine were worth the minutes and/or hours you devoted. And even if you only read the blog, that's okay too because I'd like to think I'm not randomly tossing out words that just float around in cyberspace with no one to read them. Lonely words are sad words.

I would write even if no one read my work, however doing so would not be as much fun.

movie: Green Lantern

2012-01-09T16:41:00.000-08:00

I said I didn't want to see this movie. Husband put it on the Netflix queue, so it showed up in my mailbox. What was I supposed to do? Not watch it?

Here's the description from IMDb – “A test pilot is granted an alien ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers, as well as membership into an intergalactic squadron tasked with keeping peace within the universe.”

The movie has weird parts - surreal scenery and aliens and bizarro superpowers. I didn't think the movie was bad. However, the only people who would probably appreciate it to the fullest would be Green Lantern fans.

Personally, I'm not a member of that club.

The plot was interesting. The special effects were big budget Hollywood. Ryan Reynolds is still pretty. Its worth watching if you have nothing better to do. It gets a biased B- -.

tired

2012-01-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

After running pretty much nonstop for the past few days, my brain is tired. I've been editing the Devil in the Branch manuscript and finishing out the rough draft of Llewyn's Faith.

I have a post planned for JourneyReader, but I can't spare the energy to write it at the moment. I should have it up tomorrow evening. Until then, please enjoy this picture of this morning's badass sunrise.

cover art

2012-01-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

Here we go! This is the cover art for Lair of the White Wyrm. My starting point for the skull was the dorsal view of an alligator skull. I'm fancypants like that. Skull shading took a while. I did it by hand on my Bamboo.

I reserve the right to make minor adjustments in the future.

If you've been hanging out on my blog for a while, you might have noticed that I didn't use the original illustration I put up on the blog. I changed course, and I think this looks better and fits the book better. I put together a whole evolution of the cover art thing that will go up with other Extras on the media page for the book.

2011 in review, 2012 in planning

2012-01-03T16:25:00.000-08:00

Hello, 2012!

Let us evaluate the progress made in 2011.

My work was downloaded well over 20000 times thanks to the blessing that is an amazon freebie. I was in the top 20 free titles for a few days. That was awesome. I did sell some books too, which us equally awesome.

I have released no new work since February 2011. Boo.

But I finished writing two books, which are currently in editing. Yay!

I learned to make book trailers, first in PowerPoint, then in Flash. And I made great strides (in my world) in web page design by deviating from the Microsoft Live Builder. Yay, DreamWeaver!

I started a book blog – http://www.JourneyReader.com which is returning from holiday hiatus in the next hour or so. Through that, I met a lot of very nice authors.

I feel like I’m leaving something important out. Hmmmm…oh well, moving on.

Lair of the White Wyrm will be released in either February or March. Cover art reveal for that will be tomorrow.

Devil in the Branch will be a summer release if all goes as planned.

Goals for 2012 - Write another book or two, be better about marketing and soliciting reviews and other similar kinds of exposure. I think that's it. I would like to get a book on a library shelf. I planned to do that last year but then chickened out.

Oh yes, I will probably get a print book storefront running on either lulu or createspace. My print book sales on amazon are abysmal, so I probably won't bother making them available there. We'll see, though. I'm good at changing my mind.

guess what

2011-12-29T17:21:00.001-08:00

I got an xbox for Christmas! woo! It was courtesy of the husband and actually intended for all of us, but I got.to install the present, therefore it is mine.

The boy (8 yrs old) was quite impressed with my tennis skills. I have spent a fair amount of time playing tennis on the Wii. The experience was similar. Even though it was a kinect game, I held a controller in my hand because, well, it’s tennis. Youre supposed to hold a racket.

Aforementioned boy is freakishly good at darts, I mean like bullseyes pretty much whenever he feels like getting them. Is there a Tiger Woods of professional darts? I mean like young, promising Tiger, not old, skeezy Tiger. I'm thinking of putting my boy to work. It’s high time he started pulling his weight.

The girl (14) keeps beating me at fitness games, except for a wallbreaker activity. We both like Dance Central 2, which sometimes makes me feel uncoordinated and sort of lame, but at least the music is totally awesome.

Do not love the camera all the time. It insists on taking many pictures, all of which are unflattering. I look slightly large and not very sexy with my hands over my head and my pale belly hanging out from beneath my shirt. The girl agrees the camera is unflattering. The husband has indicated the camera is accurate. He will not be missed when the zombies come and I use him as bait.

Husband has not played the xbox much at all. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe he's afraid I'm right about the camera.

progress.

2011-12-28T17:23:00.000-08:00

I wrote some words. I know I said I wouldn't write anything until I got at least one book out, but my notes were just sitting there looking at me all pitiful-like with puppy eyes. It's not a start of the next book though, not really, so all will be fine. I won't start and stop in the middle again. I promise I learned my lesson.

The piece I worked on is going to be a fiction freebie and companion to the next book I plan to write. The title right now is Llewyn's Faith. It's sort of a prologue to the story but not actually part of the book. Llewyn is the protagonist in prologue and an antagonist in the book. That's right, chew on that bit for a minute. Flavorful, yes?

The big project this week is the wyrm cover. I decided not to use the graphic I created initially or the second graphic, both of which I do actually like. I just decided to go with a more minimalist approach. It's going to be awesome. I won't give up all the details yet because surprises are fun, but I will say there is a skull involved.

I hope to finish by this weekend but the going is slow. I'll explain why once the thing is finished.

Still waiting to get the Wyrm book back from the editor. patiently. waiting.

Grouchy Moo does not wish to be bothered.

movie: Captain America: The First Avenger

2011-12-26T17:22:00.003-08:00

This weekend movie selection was Captain America.

Here’s the description from IMDB: “After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending the USA's ideals.”

The thing I loved most about this movie was the fact that it was set during World War II. That really made it unique in a sea of superhero movies. The hair and the costumes were awesome.

There was a lot of action, of course, fighting and shooting and such. One scene in particular that had us cracking up was a motorcycle chase in a forest. There were several moments that were blatantly lifted from the Star Wars movie with the Ewoks . Was it homage or a lack of imagination? You can decide if you watch the movie.

Chris Evans was super hot as Captain America. He made for nice scenery. However, I thought his character lacked personality. The most interesting thing about him was extreme selflessness. I missed the antics and ego of Tony Stark in Iron Man.
Oh, that reminds me. One of the characters, a technology guy, named Howard Stark is actually supposed to be Tony Stark’s (Iron Man) father. See how it all links up? Yes.

Also worth noting is the guy who was Mr. Smith in the Matrix movies (Hugo Weaving) plays the bad guy. Love him.

Anyway, the bottom line: fun to watch despite incredibly boring protagonist. Captain America gets a B.

reading and a sunny day

2011-12-22T16:59:00.000-08:00

Refraining from starting another book is really, really hard for me. I’m on break from AnnaBeth 2 and waiting for Wyrm to come back from the editor. I don't want another book in the mix. Three is too many for me to focus on anything properly. Not writing is like having an itch I can’t scratch.

But I’ll persevere. I’m reading The Hunger Games on kindle loan from the boss lady. I like it so far. It’s different from what I usually read, which is a good thing. I might read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo next if I have time. The movie is out, and for some reason I feel compelled to read the book before I watch it. Though, I probably won’t catch it until it’s out on DVD.

If I hit the movies any time soon, it will be to see the new Sherlock Holmes.

Now as my early Christmas gift to you all, I am giving you a sunny day…desktop wallpaper, that is.

I took this picture at the Indianapolis Museum of Art garden. Click on the little picture to reach the big picture. By the way, this is the wallpaper that I am currently using on my laptop. We can match! Matchies!!!

a couple of things

2011-12-21T18:39:00.000-08:00

First, the title voting results were unanimously in favor of the second title option for the wyrm book. Therefore, the title will be Lair of the White Wyrm.

Second up, I finally finished a project I've been planning for a while. The Fate Binds trilogy now has its very own online home. You can find pretty much everything AnnaBeth there. I've been calling it a media page. There's probably a better word for it.

I will probably do one for every book or series from here on out unless my schedule doesn't allow or a publisher picks me up and decides they want someone else to handle it.

Implementation took a lot of hours Saturday and Sunday. I got to use my new to me version of Dreamweaver, which went pretty smoothly. It works a lot like the old Dreamweaver from Macromedia I used before.

Anyway, the link is below. As always, feedback is welcome. I probably didn’t edit some of the content as well as I should have, so if you alert me to any typos, I shall bestow upon you 20 extra bonus points for awesomeness.

http://learyan.com/Documents/fatebindsHome.html

movie: Conan

2011-12-20T16:48:00.000-08:00

This weekend movie selection was Conan.

I really wanted to like this movie.

But I didn’t.

The story is thus: Conan is from a tribe of Barbarian-type people. A bad guy is scouring the land for pieces of a magical mask and murders Conan’s father (played by Ron Perlman!!!!) for his piece. Conan sets out to avenge his father’s murder.

There was a lot of fighting and special effects. They were cool. Rose McGowan was all but unrecognizable in her role as the freaky, evil witch. Jason Momoa was super-hot. However, the story fell pretty flat. The character of Conan wasn't very interesting. Maybe that was part of the problem.

Conan gets a C-

Want to help me pick a book title?

2011-12-14T15:52:00.000-08:00

ok, here's the deal. I'm having trouble deciding between two titles for the book I have coming out early next year, so I thought I toss out the options and see which people think is better.

The book is a modern story based on Bram Stoker's Lair of the White Worm.

I've been calling mine The White Wyrm. Note alternate worm spelling and lack of lair reference. But I've also considered Lair of the White Wyrm, which retains my spelling but adds back in the lair reference.

I like the simplicity of The White Wyrm title, but I'm not sure it carries the same drama Lair of the White Wyrm does. Hopefully this poll thingy works.

Which do you think is better?

book working

2011-12-13T17:40:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wish I was one of those self-published authors that can just slap any old thing up for sale without a lick of editing. I will say that most do not do that. Most independent authors understand the importance of editing.

But what freedom it would be to just keep plugging away with complete abandon. And then when you hit "the end" just start on the next one. How awesome would that be? Probably not very awesome for whoever tried to read the finished work.

I'm still editing. Can you tell? I'm daydreaming about the freedom of poor quality, so I'm guessing you probably can.

I keep assuring myself that the next readthru will be 100% better. That keeps me going on the long evening hours of transferring paper changes into the computer.

I’ve started making notes for the next book already and it’s increasingly difficult for me to not write it. I'm infatuated with a story that doesn't exist yet.

Seriously, I have a good ten pages of notes and illustrations are planned. I'm itching to start it. However, I will not write one word of the actual book until my current two projects are done, or at least one has been released. I’ll just continue making notes. Lots of notes.

movie: Hanna

2011-12-12T16:04:00.000-08:00

Hanna is an AMAZING movie, seriously. It stars Saorise Ronan, who you may remember as playing Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones.

The beginning of the story finds Hanna living in some freakishly remote and snowy location, in the uber crappiest cabin I think I’ve ever seen. The thing barely has walls. She and her father live alone and he teaches her important skills like how to kill people and how to speak various languages. They read books and she learns facts about animals, etc.

Hanna tells her dad that she’s ready to leave. He warns her that if they leave the crappy cabin, a woman named Marissa will hunt them and won’t stop until they’re both dead. She insists that she’s ready, then embarks on a mission to kill Marissa.

Hanna is a combination of super powerful fighter girl and vulnerable child. She knows a lot of facts, but really nothing about socializing, especially with kids her age. Her situation is heartbreaking at times. She doesn’t understand who she is really. However, she also has this hopeful, joyous quality that makes her endearing. Ronan did as great a job playing this part as she did in The Lovely Bones.

Hanna is awesome. It gets an A.

editing aargh

2011-12-07T16:22:00.001-08:00

I’m hard at work editing the Devil manuscript. That thing is a mess. I know I said this before but I’m bouts to say it again. I will never again take time off in the middle of a rough draft to write something else. Ever.

I’ll fix it up pretty before anyone else sees it, but right now I have people having conversations twice, inconsistent details like who drove where and objects not where they’re supposed to be. Just…argh. Sometimes I really annoy myself.

You know what makes me feel better? Pictures of birds. Here are some cardinals from our back yard.

trailer time

2011-12-06T17:31:00.000-08:00

Ello, lovelies! Trailer time.

The trailer is not yet listed. I have to wait until the book pops up on Barnes and Noble because the trailer indicates that the book is available there. I also have to wait to launch the series webpage because I don’t really want to have to go back and update the page right after I put it up. That would be annoying.

I did change the thumbnail image to one closer to the beginning of the trailer, but that change might not have taken effect when/if you view it.

Also, I realize the picture ratio is a little off from the standard youtube size. I’ll do a better job of fitting the next one.

movie: Bridesmaids

2011-12-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

Bridesmaids is a comedy that proves women can do humor just as raunchy as men can. That’s what makes it awesome.

Kristen Wiig is Annie, a failed baker who works as a rather ineffective jewelry saleswoman. She’s broke and dating a jerk. Her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), gets engaged and makes Annie her maid of honor. At the engagement party, Annie and another bridesmaid initiate this weird competition for Lillian’s attention that interferes with wedding plans.

Wiig and Rudolph (SNL alums) were quite awesome, but Melissa McCarthy (of Mike and Molly) as Megan all but stole their show. I don’t think her character could have been any stranger or farther from the one she plays on television. That girl can act.

Bridesmaids is very funny and a little chick-flicky but not annoyingly so. It gets an A-.

I’m going to go see if I can hunt down some pretzels. Tune in tomorrow for a blog only (temporarily) sneak peak at the Fate Binds Trilogy Trailer. That’s right. I finished it.

covers and additional thursday things

2011-12-01T16:46:00.001-08:00

I have various items for this fine Thursday. First up, MacDowell Sisters and AnnaBeth has received its official makeover. The title is now Destined for Darkness. The trilogy is called Fate Binds, which is pretty appropriate for the story. Here is the new cover.

This has all been changed on amazon and smashwords. changes to other outlets are pending. they'll probably take a few weeks to update. Please note that Destined for Darkness is exactly the same book as MacDowell Sisters and AnnaBeth with minor changes to formatting.

Here is the cover for book 2, Devil in the Branch.

That should be out maybe next summer-ish, possibly spring but probably not.

Ok, next up is website talk. I'm working on a web page for the Fate Binds Trilogy. It will contain the series trailer, info about the books, buy links and bonus materials like author commentary pieces I've written and maybe the illustrations I did for MacDowell Sisters and AnnaBeth hardcover edition, which is no longer available.

I plan to launch that page when I have some more links to the book, or at least the one for Barnes and Noble. I'll announce it here when everything is up and running.

Thats it for now. I'm going to go attempt to finish the book series trailer.

stuff

2011-11-29T16:49:00.000-08:00

I don’t know if the whole Authonomy thing is going to work out. I haven’t been on there networking because I’ve been working on a lot of other stuff. I mean, I’ve read a bit, but I didn’t participate. I just occasionally lurked. I do plan to leave the excerpt on there for a while, but I have a feeling that without participation on my part, I’m not going to get as much out of it as I would otherwise.

I had doubts when I was looking at my profile and determined that you’re supposed to have “friends” on there and sometimes they “invite” each other to things. LOL. The social media thing I’m most active on is probably Twitter. Second is probably Goodreads.

In book news, Lady Editor officially has the manuscript, as does my husband, who is beta-reading for me for the first time. He’s actually pretty good at finding word weirdness.

FYI

2011-11-28T16:31:00.000-08:00

The movie post is off for this week. I am preparing to send the White Wyrm manuscript off to the editor. I'm making some last minute changes, because you know I can't stop monkeying around with the words. I have a lot of other stuff to do this week too, so my presence on the blog may be lighter than usual.

Bookishness - remix project

2011-11-27T15:55:00.000-08:00

Ok. I put the first three chapters of the new book up on Authonomy. Hopefully I won’t make a complete ass of myself by doing so. I guess if I did make an ass of myself, it wouldn’t be the first time…or the last.

Anyway, this book is called The White Wyrm (working title that might be changed before it is actually published). My monster and some other similarities are lifted from a Bram Stoker novel called Lair of the White Worm, which is available on Project Gutenberg. I should warn you that some people might find parts of it offensive as the “N” word is used multiple times. I did not carry that over to my book, FYI.

When I told my grandmother about this project, she was like – Isn’t that plagiarism?

No, grandma, it’s not plagiarism. Lair of the White Worm is in the public domain. Also, I took no passages from the genius Mr. Stoker. This is not a “mashup” like Pride, Prejudice and Zombies . It’s an all new story, I promise. Dracula was also one of his monsters and how many people have written about Dracula or similar characters?

Here is the link if you want to check my book out. You probably have to have an account on Authonomy though.

http://www.authonomy.com/books/39441/the-white-wyrm/

My cover image that I tried to upload didn’t work properly. I need to mess with it to figure out what I’m doing wrong.

making creepies

2011-11-22T16:15:00.001-08:00

Good Tuesday, weblings. It is a dark and somewhat stormy evening, perhaps a good day to share the recent creepy additions to my stuff. Now, when I describe an object as creepy, I don’t mean it as an insult. I love creepy things. I would live in the Haunted Mansion at Disney World if they let me.

First up is a wine box my dad made for me for my birthday. As you can probably tell, it’s a velvet-lined coffin, complete with lid and handles on the side. Awesome, right?? I love it very much. He texted me a week or so before my birthday to ask, “Do you like coffins?” interesting question. I guess so?

He not only made the box, he also made the wine in the bottle. I think he said it was ice wine. Thanks again, Dad!!!

Next, we have a teddy bear. What’s so creepy about a teddy bear, you ask? Well, it just so happens this particular snuggly-wuggems is made from actual fur, like from an animal. Don’t get all PETA-y on me, though. My grandmother hand-made it out of an heirloom fur stole. Seriously, the fur is like way old. She said she thought it was muskrat, but wasn’t sure.

He hangs out in the curio cabinet with the Grateful Dead bears because I was afraid Max and/or Sneaker (feline residents) would try to eat him.

This third item is the handiwork of yours truly. I sculpt things occasionally. My original plan was to make a dodo skull replica. However, after looking at some pictures, I decided that it exceeded my skill level. I settled on a more abstract version.

This next guy probably isn’t so creepy, but he might be a little skeleton-y so I’m including him. He was drying on a drawing board when I took the pic.

movies: Scream 4 and Bad Teacher

2011-11-21T16:38:00.000-08:00

Ah, a Scream movie. It seems like the others were so long ago. I do like the Scream series and was happy to have a new one.

I snagged the description from IMDB out of laziness: “Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with Sheriff Dewey and Gale, who are now married, as well as her cousin Jill and her Aunt Kate. Unfortunately, Sidney's appearance also brings about the return of Ghostface, putting Sidney, Gale, and Dewey, along with Jill, her friends, and the whole town of Woodsboro in danger. Written by Joey “

There are a TON of known actors doing cameos and such. We had some fun picking them out. Here are a few: Kristen Bell, Anna Paquin, and Emma Roberts.

As with the other Scream movies, 4 was pretty bloody. *extremely minor spoiler* There seemed to be an excessive number of stomach stabbings.

If you liked the other scream movies, you’ll probably like this one. There was a lot of running and screaming, etc. There was a bit of a twist at the end. We didn’t see it coming. Scream 4 is stabby good fun. B+

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Bad Teacher

From IMDB again: “A comedy centered around a foul-mouthed, junior high teacher who, after being dumped by her sugar daddy, begins to woo a colleague -- a move that pits her against a well-loved teacher.”

The movie is pretty funny. Cameron Diaz’s character, Elizabeth, wants to find a rich man to take care of her. In order to do this, she decides that she needs bigger boobs, so she starts finding ways to get extra money at the school in order to afford a boob job.

The movie was pretty funny. I did think that Elizabeth could have used a slightly better personality. She was supposed to be bad, yes, but a redeeming quality or two (other than being over the top hot) would have improved the story. Bad Teacher gets a B-.

remix project update plus a new cover for an older book

2011-11-17T17:22:00.000-08:00

I have to push out the date I planned to put a portion of the remix project up on the writing feedback websites. I need to read it one more time. I promise I'm not caught in a rewriting fit.

I just need to pick through it one more time to make sure there's no jacked-uptedness. I’m shooting for beta readers and feedback websites to get the book the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is probably not the best time to expect people to read it.

I did finish a readthrough today. I like it a lot, even when I'm trying to find something wrong with it.

I'm a bit intimidated by putting the writing out for the purpose of feedback from strangers. I think anytime you solicit someone's opinion, you have to prepare yourself for the worst.

Not all feedback is helpful. I saw this guy on a website once tell a writer that they had too many sentences that began with the letter "T". um, what is the proper number of sentences that should begin with T? Does he count them in everything he reads? I have follow-up questions.

If I could choose one thing that could happen with the feedback that is close to being the worst, I would have to say that it would be someone pointing out an incredibly annoying writing tic that I've been afflicted with all along but never realized. That would be lame. but hey, I guess if I can resolve it only a few books in, then I wouldn't be too bad off. right?

I almost forgot. I redesigned the clockwork cover the other day. Here it is in case anyone wants to see it.

I thought the other cover had too much going on. I don't know how long it will take for the various ebook retailers to update their screens. I know amazon has it up already. I haven't updated my website yet, but I will at some point.

procrastination plus book trailer update

2011-11-16T16:42:00.000-08:00

Today I was reading through the remix project and I discovered that somehow like 200 words or so had vanished from the manuscript. It’s weird because I have no idea how or why they disappeared. Luckily I still had a hard copy printout of the previous version, so all I had to do was find the corresponding page and type the missing part back in. I’m just glad that I hadn’t taken the pages to the recycle bin yet. Yay procrastination!

Ok. Guess what. No…not chicken butt. Book trailer update! I have completed the flower animation. I have also resolved the problem of the crap-ass picture quality.

Flash animation does not convert to avi format well, which is why the video looked blurry or grainy or whatever the first time I put it up on the blog. The problem was even worse when I converted the completed animation to avi. It was so bad that when I tried to play it on full screen, the flowers looked like straight up 8-bit graphics. After working so long on the thing, the bad picture made me want to cry.

But I did not cry. I looked for and eventually found a solution. The conversion from Flash to Quicktime (mov) went much smoother.

I haven’t made the final adjustments to the timing of the flowers yet. The roses will start before the rest of the foliage, with the exception of the grass blades. There will also be words in the middle, of course. The flowers, etc are just the border.

movie: Horrible Bosses

2011-11-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

Horrible Bosses is a comedy about three guys who have really terrible people running their work lives. They finally decide they've had enough and the bosses must die.

The movie is, of course, very funny. However, the three primary (and bumbling) characters aren't the most colorful. The bosses are by far the best. Each of these personalities is wonderfully over the top. Kevin Spacey is psychotic. Colin Farrell is a cokehead moron. He’s almost unrecognizable as his usually luscious head of hair has been replaced with a grotesque comb-over. And Jennifer Anniston is crazy perverted and sexually aggressive.

Horrible Bosses gets an A-

movie trailer squee

2011-11-14T15:53:00.000-08:00

Regular Monday movie post has been postponed so that I can bring you a trailer for a movie that I can't wait to see.

wanna hear it? here it go.

2011-11-10T17:01:00.000-08:00

Thursday! Which means tomorrow is Friday! I do love Fridays.

I read the other day on an author’s blog that this publisher believed that an author should put out a book every 4-6 months in order to keep a steady stream of income.

4-6 months?? Holy crap. The logic makes sense because new releases usually trigger sales of the old books too, but geez. I’m not sure I could do that if I had the opportunity to write full time. Well, maybe. It wouldn’t be a leisurely keyboard tapping schedule; that’s for sure. I would be terrified of running out of ideas.

Talk about pressure.

Anyway. I learned something earlier this week. I should not edit on days in which my mood is not very good. Reading my words on days that I hate everything actually causes me to dislike my own writing, even if I’m reading something I previously. Those days are very few and far between, luckily.

I also learned that I should not let my daughter go through my mp3 player song list. She’s 14. She saw various titles containing the “F” word and another especially wholesome song called “Sex for Breakfast”.

Yes, I am mother of the year, thank you very much. She showed me the title to the breakfast song, and I honestly had no idea what it was. I took the mp3 player away from her to see what classy artist sings that ditty. Christina Aguilera. It’s on Bionic.

That’s all the wisdom I have for now. I’m going to go do some editing so that I might someday release another book.

flower!

2011-11-08T16:24:00.000-08:00

What up? I'm still sick, but am feeling better. Last night I was only woken up by one over the top coughing fit. progress! woo! I'm trying to get over this thing before I have to resort to antibiotics.

So what have I been doing? Ya know, usual stuff, probably less of it. The book trailer is cruising along. I'm dividing my time between that and tweeking the remix project.

My animated stems now have acceptable leaves. Last night I worked on the rose blossoms. I had some trouble figuring out how I wanted them to look. I didn't want photo realistic because nothing else in the animation is. I did a couple of sketches. They were too abstract.

I ended up using a photo from a recent shoot of roses. I found the one I liked best, plugged it into PhotoShop, cropped and applied a filter that converts photo to drawing. Then I took it over to Fireworks and made a few adjustments by hand, added lines and such. This is what I ended up with at the end of the evening.

This is, of course, much larger than it will appear in the actual trailer. Also the background won't be black. The flower looks sort of Warhol-esque, I think. When it goes into the animation, there will be various adjustments made. Not all the rose blooms will be exactly the same size, shape and color.

I will probably show what I have on the trailer again within the next week or two after I finish the blooming sequences. The video took like a freaking hour to upload to YouTube last time. I want to make sure there's significant progress before I go to that trouble again.

movie: Unknown

2011-11-07T16:56:00.000-08:00

Unknown stars Liam Neeson as a biochemist named Dr. Martin Harris. He and his lovely wife, Gina, arrive in Berlin for an industry function. When they arrive at the hotel, she checks in. He discovers that they left a bag at the airport.

He catches a cab with the intention of returning to the airport to retrieve the bag. He doesn’t make it. He is in a car accident and wakes up in the hospital 4 days later.

People who should know him don’t and some guy seems to have stolen his identity. Even his wife doesn’t know who he is.

Unknown has a fair amount of action, a couple of car chase scenes. There are some twists and turns in the story, as you can probably imagine. The pacing was decent.

I think what really added an element of danger to Dr. Harris’ situation was him being in a foreign country where every little thing wasn’t at his fingertips. He has no family nearby, other than his wife. The only acquaintance he had in Berlin was a scientist who he had never met in person. All in all, a pretty good movie. A-

wednesday sickness and ranting

2011-11-02T17:01:00.000-07:00

ugh I think I'm sick. I've been trying to fight this stupid cold off for a couple of weeks now. My efforts have been valiant but they're failing. I don't think travelling all over the state last Saturday helped. Walking around outside in brisk fall weather for Halloween also didn't help.

I'm doing my best to power through what I need to do. I hate being sick mostly because it slows me down. I’m already short on time due to the nature of my life.

Today I read a message board post for an author who was bitter about indie authors offering some of their work for free. He said that they are stealing attention from traditionally published authors that he felt were more deserving and trying to make a living. Rrrrright.

I think that if a person really wants to read a book, they aren’t going to change their plans because they found a freebie instead. Well, maybe if it’s nonfiction (with instructions on how to do something), but certainly not fiction.

Anytime I see someone exhibiting an angry us-versus-them mentality when one isn’t necessary, I automatically assume they have some problem with themselves that they aren’t willing to deal with in an adult manner. For example – low sales rank, can’t be the fault of the author, it MUST be those darn indies with their free fiction!

Bitch, please. Here’s a tip - work on writing a better, more exciting, more appealing book and then use your time to promote that book instead of spending time whining on message boards. Or if you want some of that freebie attention, put out some free fiction of your own!

/rant

movie: The Adjustment Bureau

2011-11-01T16:29:00.000-07:00

From IMDB summary: “Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate us? A man glimpses the future Fate has planned for him and realizes he wants something else. To get it, he must pursue across, under and through the streets of modern-day New York the only woman he's ever loved. On the brink of winning a seat in the U.S. Senate, ambitious politician David Norris (Damon) meets beautiful contemporary ballet dancer Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt) - a woman like none he's ever known. But just as he realizes he's falling for her, mysterious men conspire to keep the two apart. David learns he is up against the agents of Fate itself - the men of The Adjustment Bureau - who will do everything in their considerable power to prevent David and Elise from being together. In the face of overwhelming odds, he must either let her go and accept a predetermined path...or risk everything to defy Fate and be with her.”

The movie was slow at first, but once the story got going, it was good. There are some shades of the television show Fringe (one of my faves) and other parts were Matrix-esque minus the sci fi. The Adjustment Bureau was romantic and full of action. It gets an A-.

Happy Take Candy from Strangers Day!

2011-10-31T17:50:00.001-07:00

naughty, naughty goblin. I put the movie post off tomorrow due to the Halloween festivities. Don't eat too much sugar, my darlings.

not a humidifier

2011-10-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

I was clicking around on wikihow the other day and landed on an article about how to alleviate sinus headaches. Below is a screenshot of a portion of that article. The object pictured does not match the caption. Do you know what it is? I do; I do! 200 bonus points if you can identify the object pictured. Hint: it is NOT a humidifier.

drum roll please

2011-10-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

ok, it's not really worth a drum roll. Here is what I have so far on the trailer. It looks kind of blurry and weird at the moment. I'm not sure why. It looks fine on my computer. There might be some issue with compression. I will try to see if I can get that resolved before I get the whole thing up and running for real.

It has taken several attempts for me to get this far. The rose vine is not the original vine I previously talked about completing. The good news is that I have my methods down, so I'm moving much faster than before.

I'm still not entirely happy with the drawing tools available inside Flash. They're awkward and there isn't enough control for me to make things the way I really want them. I draw up what I want in Fireworks and then take it over to Flash. It works, somewhat.

There will be a lot more to the trailer than growing vines and blooming flowers. I just wanted to start with the most difficult part to get it out of the way.

book update plus trailer working

2011-10-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

Hello, world. The birthday weekend was pretty awesome, despite the husband working most of it. The festivities will continue this weekend when I visit the fam. Perhaps next week I'll do a complete birthday breakdown.

I worked my ass off. It was truly amazing. I transferred almost 50 pages of paper editing changes into the computer for the remix project. That's on schedule to go up on the writing feedback sites in November, maybe a week or two in. I'm sending it to lady editor at the same time.

I'm really pleased with how it looks so far. I don't have to slash and burn as much as I used to. I'm either becoming a better writer or a crappier editor. Let’s hope for the former.

I spent most of my time this weekend working on the book trailer. My Saturday night was watching Arthur, drinking a bunch of wine and animating leaves. The leaves ended up looking not awesome, so I deleted them on Monday. What's the moral of the story, kids? Don't drink and animate.

I tried to upload the video to Blogger but that function doesn't appear to be working. I shall try again upon the morrow.

Rapid fire movie post

2011-10-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

I have many movies and not a lot of time to spend on them. I took each synopsis from IMDB.

Arthur
“A drunken playboy stands to lose a wealthy inheritance when he falls for a woman his family doesn't like.”

Not bad, not great. It was funny and tragic in places. I didn’t see the original, so I can’t offer a comparison. Extra points for Helen Mirren’s presence. Arthur gets a C+.

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Fragile

“At her new job in a rundown children's hospital, a nurse desperately tries to keep her patients safe from a plague of random, mysterious attacks.”

This movie was from 2005 and is currently listed on Netflix streaming. The scary parts were good. There could have been more of them. The hospital setting had a nice, creepy atmosphere. Calista Flockhart started out with an accent but lost it about 20 minutes into the movie. That was kind of funny.

Fragile gets a B-.
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Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon

“The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the Moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and to learn its secrets.”

If you liked the first two, you’ll probably like the third one. Big robots, lots of things blowing up, etc. The movie was a little too long. They could have shaved off like 30 minutes. A-

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Hall Pass

“A married man is granted the opportunity to have an affair by his wife. Joined in the fun by his best pal, things get a little out of control when both wives start engaging in extramarital activities as well.”

Very funny. A little ooky in spots. B+

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Piranha

“After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the area's new razor-toothed residents”
Cheesy, gut-wrenchingly (haha, get it?) gory, decent special effects, takes some filming methods from really old movies, example: parts of the underwater filming similar to Creature from the Black Lagoon.

There were a lot of topless women. Really, a lot. Like boobs galore. Also, some really good actors appeared, which was strange – Jerry O’Connell, Christopher Lloyd, Ving Rhames, Richard Dreyfuss. Piranha gets a C-.

The completely impractical thing that I want but am probably not getting, but maybe eventually

2011-10-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday! Wheee!!! I have a new cappuccino machine. This one functions. My dinner steaks are thawing on the counter. Grandma called to sing to me. Overall, it’s a good day so far.

A birthday is a good day to talk about what you want. There is a thing, a pair of shoes, actually, that I’m a little obsessed with. They are Adidas Millennium Falcon hightops. Here are a couple of pics.

So why not just buy them? Well. It’s a complicated situation. First, they’re $160, which is a lot for my oft-broke ass to drop on some shoes. Second, if I got them, I would want to wear them. In perfectly dry weather, to indoor activities because if they got wet or mud on them, I would probably cry. If someone who appreciated what they were saw me in them, they would probably be like – why are you wearing collector’s items?

I have this personality quirk in which I actually want to use/enjoy my stuff. I have a pretty decently sized toy collection. The only toy that I left in the box is a 12” Han Solo action figure circa 1996. So yes, I would want to wear the shoes.
I will have to be content with continuing to stalk them on the website for now. Maybe Adidas will make them down eventually. Right? Maybe?

animation update, part, uh, 3?

2011-10-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

I did a little work on the trailer this week. I had hoped to have a significant bit of it to show off on the blog by now. I'm still relatively new to the whole animation thing, and I'm still trying to find my rhythm in Flash.

Since I last posted, I have determined that tweening is not the miracle I thought it was. Tweening is where you create two keyframes on the timeline and Flash automatically creates the states between those keyframes. Tweening works flawlessly for movement, not so flawlessly for shape morphing. Adobe hasn't quite worked out the bugs on that one.

The shapes I'm using (plant stems and vines) are complicated. Whenever I try to tween them, even if it's just a little, they implode. They get all wonky on the screen. It's kind of trippy sometimes but not really the effect I was going for. I'm spending more time trying to fix implosions than I would spend just animating frame by frame.

So I'm switching over to frame by frame. I'll bust out the bamboo tablet and get to painting. I'll have more freedom with the drawing that way anyway. There is a slim chance I might have some part of the trailer finished and ready to show off next week. But I also have 30+ pages of on-paper editing changes to enter too, so I guess I'll have to see which way the wind blows this weekend.

car

2011-10-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

this car looks like a cartoon hippopotamus.

freedom and ederting

2011-10-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

The internet technician man came. I am no longer isolated! I am happy to say that I am NOT typing this on my phone.

I started working on the edit for the remix project. Diving back in for an edit or a rewrite makes me nervous. I have to spend a day or two mentally preparing for whatever word wonkiness I might find. So far, the edit is going well. There are changes on almost every page, but most of them are small.

I did find a scene that needed more effective conversation. There was a second scene that I tried to work through, moved on out of frustration and then ended up going back and rewriting it almost completely. I should have just done that the first time through.

I’ve read the book a couple of times and that scene never felt right. I think I kept it because there were parts of it that I liked. Other parts didn’t make sense, the way the characters reacted. One character went from distressed to resigned in a matter of like two sentences without any real reason to do so. Yikes.

I also found three consecutive sentences that said the same thing. That was a special moment.

Are you impressed yet?

I’m about 25% of the way through, so I’m moving at a decent clip. I notified lady editor that she should receive it next month.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

still no net

2011-10-18T16:31:00.000-07:00

I am still in a state of argh due to no internet. I did want to pop on via phone because I forgot to mention a quick thing yesterday. I'm changing the price structure for my books when I rerelease MacDowell Sisters and AnnaBeth under the new title and with the new cover. Right now, none of my ebooks is over 99 cents.

With the next release, the ebooks are going to $1.99. I realize that percentage-wise, that's quite a hike. However, when you take into consideration that most ebooks backed traditional publishers are priced at 5.99 or more, that's still a pretty darn good deal.

Babylon Dragon will remain 99 cents for now. And Clockwork, which is free everywhere but amazon, will also stay the same price.

That's it for now. The internet technician man is supposed to come tomorrow. If he doesnt, I may scream.

stranded

2011-10-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

I have no internet right now! Aaaaaaarrrrgh! I feel like someone chopped off my left hand. I am typing this on my phone. There is no movie post because that would be insanely annoying to attempt on a phone.

However, I do have good news. I finished a book! Woo! AnnaBeth2 is done. I am setting a tentative release time of sometime next summer, maybe sooner if I get itchy. The title is Devil in the Branch.

Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to go work on some book trailer animation.

spider time

2011-10-15T07:17:00.001-07:00

It’s that time of year again! The weather gets colder. The spiders decide they want to come inside. We found three this week. Lucky for them, spiders are on a catch and release program at my house. I catch them under a glass and then toss their happy little butts back outside. I don’t like to kill things. It bothers me…unless it’s a mosquito.

The spiders we get usually look about like this.

I walked into the kitchen yesterday morning and found that my daughter had left a spider under a glass for me to toss out. There was a purple fruit loop in there with him, in case he got hungry, I guess. I threw him out on the front porch in the cold, rainy weather. He did not seem pleased. He freaked out and ran around.

Is it weird that I don’t mind spiders very much? I mean, I care if they bite me of course, but the sight of one does not cause me to freak out, as it does my wussy brother in law. Lol. He shrieks like a girl. That reminds me. I need to picture message him a close-up of a spider face.

Catch ya later.
_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

fightin' and such

2011-10-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

Writing fight scenes is difficult. I finished one today for Ab2.

Before I began, I knew I needed to get the whole thing worked out in my head. I didn't want to just start in with whatever because that would likely be a mess by the time I finished.

So I put some upbeat Missy Elliott on the mp3 player and visualized what I wanted to happen. First thing, where was everyone at the start? How did they feel about the people nearby? What were their expectations?

I decided which of the six people would make the first move. Then I ran through various scenarios, what if so and so did this, etc. I had memorized the scene I wanted before I wrote a word of it. Doing so worked out pretty well, I think.

Working all the action out beforehand is good for consistency as well. Sometimes when I'm typing furiously, I get ahead of myself and forget details.

I am almost finished with the book. I may finish this week. If I am delayed for whatever reason, it will be next week. I have the climax scene and an epilogue left to write and that's it.

word count update: 72559

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

A Rising Moon and Coxhall Gardens

2011-10-11T17:00:00.001-07:00

The first pic is of the moon rising over the field behind the house. I loved how bright it was and the colors of the clouds.

The rest of the pictures are from a little park in Carmel, IN called Coxhall Gardens. We visited this weekend.

This is one of a pair of twin bell towers. There was one on each end of the park.

Just beyond that concrete doughnut is a fence that features poorly rendered naked people, and beyond that fence is an amphitheatre. We couldn't go all the way into the amphitheatre because it was rented for a wedding. This part was supposed to be closed as well. There was actually a do not enter sign behind me when I took this. I'm a rebel like that.

This is as far into the ampitheatre as we got.

Aquatic Flora

Gratuitous bee on flower shot.

This is the children's garden. It was so cute! This section was a little village. I would like to see it in summertime when the flowers are in full bloom.

I took this picture when we first arrived. I thought the view was cool.

TTFN
_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

movie twofer

2011-10-10T16:48:00.000-07:00

There were two movies this weekend! I have a book I’m trying to finish, so this is going to be quick.

Toll Hunter

From IMDB - “A group of students investigates a series of mysterious bear killings, but learns that there are much more dangerous things going on. They start to follow a mysterious hunter, learning that he is actually a troll hunter. “
Norwegian flick with subtitles. They went for a Blair Witch feel and did a decent job of pulling it off. The special effects were AMAZING. If you have a surround sound system, turn that thing UP when watching this movie.

I have a significant complaint – not enough parts with trolls. Most of the movie was blah-blah and walking around woods. As far as story goes, not bad, not great.

Troll Hunter gets a C.

----

Paul

Also from IMDB – “Two British comic-book geeks traveling across the U.S. encounter an alien outside Area 51.”

Paul is a cute comedy that stars Nick Frost and Simon Pegg and several other well-known stars. Seth Rogen is the voice of the alien.

The Brits find the alien and agree to take him to a spot where he can get picked up by his people. They encounter various people who serve as obstacles along the way – a men in black kind of guy, super religious wackadoodles, and rednecks.

Paul is very funny and entertaining. There is a fair amount of action and many geek culture references, which is always a plus in my book. Paul gets a B+.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

friday bloggin'

2011-10-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

Glorious Friday! I am so excited to be heading into the weekend. The day was warm when I got off work. We had sunshine too!

Here is what the field behind my house looks like right now. Pretties!

I need need need to finish AnnaBeth 2!!! Like yesterday, like 10 minutes ago. I am going to be writing my ass off the next week or two to finish it.

I would like to post at least the first few chapters of the remix project up on a couple of writing feedback websites before November starts. That means I need to finish the AB2 rough draft and read through the beginning remix chapters in a very short period of time.

So this weekend, there will be no animation. There might be a little Journey Reader working. Mostly, there will be a lot of writing. I swear it.

AnnaBeth2 word count update: 67738

lookie, books!

2011-10-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I read this blog that consists mainly of showing what’s in peoples’ closets. These are artists and fashion people, not us ordinary folk. They pose in their favorite (usually weird) outfits and sometimes bits of their apartments or houses are included. The photographer also likes to show the books on their shelves. This is usually whatever they would like to be seen reading, that’s my take on it at least.

So today I’m sharing a snippet from my bookshelf. These aren’t necessarily look-how-smart-I-am books. They were just selections that I found interesting for one reason or another. Here is the pic.

The book on top is Traitor’s Purse, by Margaret Allingham, 1942 edition. I bought this book at a library book sale for $1. The 1958 edition is currently listed on Amazon for $82.69. How much do I like this book again? Lol. I chose this book at the sale solely based on the freakishly awesome binding. It’s in such good condition that I did end up reading it and it is very, very good.

Book number 2 is What Your Hands Reveal, by Jo Sheridan, 1973. My mom gave me this book. I’m not sure where she got it. It’s about palm reading. I’m not sure why I hang onto it. I pick it up and read some of it every once in a while, but then I am distracted by something shiny and I walk away. I really like the cover of this book, which you can view at the link below if you so desire.

http://www.amazon.com/What-Your-Hands-Reveal-Sheridan/dp/B0047AO9AG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317858237&sr=1-1

Book 3 is also from mommy dearest. The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved! By Ken Ham. Once upon a time, my mother dated an overly enthusiastic religious man. He didn’t believe in evolution or gay people. When he and my mother broke up, he left behind some freaky religious books. I took a couple of them to keep as curiosities. I haven’t read through the whole thing but I believe this book is intended to help religious people come to grips with the existence of dinosaurs.

The next book down is The Mustang Buyer’s Guide. I bought this book from a bookstore when I was about 13 years old. To say that I heart Mustangs is an understatement. I did finally get one last year. It’s a sweet ass black and white 2007 pony.

Book number 5 has part of the title concealed by tape that I have used to reassemble this book. I think this is another one from mommy dearest. The title is Baby Names and Announcements. I sometimes use this book to choose names for characters in my stories and books. It lists names, meanings, and cultures of origin.

Book 6 is Knitting with Dog Hair by Kendall Crolius and Anne Montgomery. Do I knit with dog hair? Heck no. My dog smells like a dead fish. I would rather wear a garbage bag. I bought this book at a library sale because it made me laugh. Like the dinosaur book, it is also a curiosity.

Book 7 = Graphic Design by Michael Bierut. I started reading this book like 6 months ago and put it down. I should finish it some day.

Book 8 – Essential Dali. I LOVE Salvador Dali. What a brilliant eccentric amazing artist. He is probably my favorite.

That’s it for now.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

movie: Priest

2011-10-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

Today was really tiring. I had a dentist appointment first thing. I associate the dentist with pain and lectures about flossing. It’s not my favorite place to visit. The children were with me too. I was there for a really long time. Then, on the way to work, my new phone arrived! Woo! So I swung by the house to pick that up and get it activated. I’m going to work on getting it set up after I jump off here.

Anyway, movie.

Priest.

I’m grabbing the synop from IMDB because I’m rushing.

“PRIEST, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, is set in an alternate world -- one ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest from the last Vampire War who now lives in obscurity among the other downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church. When his niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on a quest to find her before they turn her into one of them. He is joined on his crusade by his niece's boyfriend, a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess who possesses otherworldly fighting skills.”

The action was great. Fighting was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon style, though not quite to that extreme. The vampires were very creepy. They didn’t even look human. They reminded me of the Lickers from Resident Evil. They had no eyes and large fang-filled mouths.

Priest was like The Book of Eli meets Underworld. I think this was one of those movies that tried to cram too much story into too short a time. The characters weren’t well developed, especially the main character.

Priest was okay. It gets a C+.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

stuff

2011-09-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

I need to go into hiding with my laptop. I can't seem to finish this freakin' book! I'm not blocked or anything. I just can't seem to get a really good run of working time.

AnnaBeth 2 word count update – 63089

I will probably finish within the next month or so if I can stay productive.

Off that subject, I got to order a new phone! I am moving from Blackberry to Droid.

I like the Blackberry ok, but it suffers from some significant flaws. Web browsing capabilities are limited. It can’t see flash websites. The camera on it is probably the worst camera I've ever had on a phone before. As you might have noticed if you read the blog, I really like to take pictures, so that's a problem for me. I also don't like how small the screen is.

My husband has an android phone and I swear it can do just about anything you would want to do with a phone. He can even watch netflix on it, which is freakin' awesome.

This morning I had to do a hard reset on the blackberry. When it came back up, I suddenly had all these app update notifications pop up as though the phone was begging me not to abandon it. It was saying - look I can give you new things too!

It's not going to work, blackberry. Our relationship has been fun at times, but it's over.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

animation update

2011-09-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

I spent a lot of time studying adobe flash, etc this past weekend. I plan to incorporate animation in my book trailers.

Adobe is really good at providing instructions on their products. The training video library on their website is extensive, which is wonderful because I need all the help I can get.

One thing adobe is not very good at is letting fireworks play nice with flash. I do all of my digital illustration in fireworks. It would be nice to be able to draw in fireworks and send it over to flash. Weird things happen when you try to do that. Textures are lost. Vector shapes magically change size. It's frustrating.

However.

Flash has its own drawing tools. Not as good as fireworks but they're sufficient. Do I sound like a spoiled baby yet?

I can do vector shapes. That's the important thing. As far as creating movement, Flash is pretty darn awesome. It can insert frames between two states so i don't have to work frame by frame. That handy function is called “tweening”. It’s very cool, even if there are some limitations.

I estimate the blooming flower animation to take about 8 hours to complete. I am somewhat relieved to feel like the animation is something I’ll be able to handle.

So where am I on the next actual trailer? I have story boards with words and pictures. Next I'm working on rough sketches for the finer points of the animation, like the blooming flowers. They will probably not be anatomically (should one use "anatomically" when talking about plants?) correct but still interesting to watch. That's the important thing.

The only animation I completed so far is a stem growing across the bottom of the movie. That is not very interesting to watch so I'm going to wait until I have more to put it up on the blog.

TTFN

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

movie: Take Me Home Tonight

2011-09-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we watched Take Me Home Tonight. How 80s-alicious was that flick? The answer is v-e-r-y.

The movie takes place in the late 80s. Matt (Topher Grace) hears that the girl he crushed on in high school is coming back to town. His twin sister, Wendy (Anna Farris), and his friend Barry (Dan Fogler) convince him that he should ask her out at a Labor Day Party. He starts lying about his job, etc. to impress her and manages to get her attention. Hijinks ensue.

There was nothing exceptional about Take Me Home Tonight. There were a lot of 80s movie clichés, which was probably intentional. It was a bit chick-flick-y and predictable, but it was funny in parts. The soundtrack is rad to the max with 80s hits.

Take Me Home Tonight is ok. It gets a C+ with extra points for having a bangin’ soundtrack.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

making things move

2011-09-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

I've been watching a lot of book trailers lately for the work I do on Journey Reader. Some stand out. Others don't.

I have created one book trailer. It was basically some illustrations and words put to music. Nothing dynamic, really. Nothing special about it. Well, maybe the illustrations were special enough to count for something.

I tried my best to keep it from being too powerpointy, but it could have been better. I don't find slideshows all that compelling. Don’t get me wrong, using a slideshow set to music is better than no trailer, for sure.

However, the fact that the trailer has almost no movement to it bothers me. All trailers I do from here on out will probably have some kind of animation to them. I don't mean like Disney style animation, of course, but some movement on the screen is far more preferable to none.

The next book trailer project will be for the annabeth series.

Here's what I'm thinking.

There are some gardens and flowers in the first book so I'm using that. I may also include Poe the crow and maybe Dorian, AB's gray tabby as well.

At the end of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (genius, truly), the credits roll in this frame of flora. As a song is playing, flowers and toadstools and vines are appearing and blooming around the credits. It's very cool. I want to do something like that with the AnnaBeth trailer, but with, you know, my stuff. Mine probably won't be quite that cool because I'm not a professional animator, but one has to try, at least.

You may be asking - didn't she just say she WASN'T doing Disney-style animation? Yes I did. You are right. Technically Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland was a Disney production. Award yourself 6 points and eat a cookie. I meant like Cinderella or Lion King kind of animation.

I have never animated anything before, so this should be an interesting learning process. Flash and I will be getting to know eachother better very soon. If I get any preliminary animations going, I will post them, unless they look like crap, in which case you'll never know they existed.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

movie: Thor

2011-09-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

Thor is a movie about a space Viking who is banished to Earth by his father. That’s right. Space. Viking.

So, King Viking Daddy (played by Anthony Hopkins) sends Thor and his hammer off separately. He also strips his son of all his powers. Thor meets an adorable but plain scientist name Jane (Natalie Portman). She is in charge of her own space research team.

While Thor is away, his brother Loki starts causing some trouble back home, as characters named Loki tend to do.

So. There was action. There were many special effects, especially in the scenes depicting Thor’s home planet.

Thor’s character was a little cheesy (really, how could he not be?) and Portman’s character was probably a bit weak, but the movie was good. I will say that it probably could have been shorter. It was almost two hours. A longer movie format is justified for say, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Thor? Maybe not so much.

I would like to see a sequel. Thor gets a B+.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

Star Trek vs Star Wars

2011-09-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

Today I read about William Shatner comparing Star Trek to Star Wars. Of course, Star Trek wins out in his mind because, well, Star Trek is pretty much most of his life. I understand.

I grew up on both Star Wars and Star Trek. I really can’t say that I prefer one over the other. I know there are people out there who feel like they can only like one, like they’ve sworn some kind of nerd allegiance. But I could never choose.

The two series are very, very different. Star Wars is flash and art. Star Trek is/was some flash and art, but it was more human and character driven in my opinion.
Shatner makes some really good points in this article, especially about the female characters in Star Trek. There wasn’t a lot of girl power going on in Star Wars. That situation is a little better now with the Clone Wars animated series but it is still very much a male dominated world.

Here is the article if you would like to give it a read.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2037981/Star-Trek-supersedes-Star-Wars-level-Captain-Kirk-actor-William-Shatner-weighs-debate-sci-fi-fans.html

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

thinkin', readin' stuff

2011-09-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

I'm on a sort of writing break at the moment. I say sort of because I am writing, I'm just having a bit of trouble deciding which direction I want the story in AnnaBeth2 to go. It took a turn that I hadn't anticipated but totally makes sense. It's a part of the story that will carry over to the final part of the trilogy.

I'm figuring out how to integrate certain details while ratcheting up tension to move toward the end of the book. Basically, I'm spending a lot of time working through various scenarios in my head to decide which will serve the story and AnnaBeth3 the best.

While I'm on semi-hiatus, I started reading two books - Bossypants, by Tina Fey and Empire State of Mind, which is about Jay-Z but not actually written by him. The latter is like an “unauthorized” biography.

I know. Celebrity books. Gag. I can't help it. Even though I prefer not to interact with the majority of the people around me, I still find the lives of others (strangers?) interesting. It might be a writer thing.

Reading these books (at the speed of light because I have stuff to do) has made me realize that memoirs and biographies are excellent ways to learn about creating realistic characters, especially if the goal is to give aforementioned characters a lot of depth. And memoirs are really helpful for learning about people who are nothing like you too.

For instance, let's say I want one of my characters to be an opera singer. What the hell do I know about the motivations of such a person or their obstacles? I don't even like opera. But if I read a Luciano Pavarotti biography or memoir, I bet I will have picked up quite a bit about both him and the opera thing by the end.

Aside from personality traits and career stuff, the reader also gets information about people around them, the culture, the time period, etc.

I'm not saying one should copy all the family and life experiences from memoirs, but spending 300+ pages in someone else's world/head/time can be enlightening.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

in which there was Tuesday

2011-09-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh. We have been insanely busy latey. The fact that I have gotten any writing done at all is frigging amazing, seriously.

The boy has boy scouts about one day a week and soccer three days a week.

The girl has cross country and guard, one or the other or sometimes both 5-6 days a week. And the occasional orthodonist or eye doctor appointment.

Plus they both have homework and everything else associated with attending school.

Crazy times. I love to watch the kids compete and perform, etc but getting everywhere we need to be is hectic. The husband keeps track of most of the scheduling and picks up the girl most of the time, which is very helpful. I can't wait until the schedules slow down a bit. That should occur some time in October, I believe.

So I grab writing time where I can. I'm also trying to read 2 books that libraries will expect back at some point. Does anyone have a time machine I can borrow? That wouldhelpsomuch, thank you.

Tomorrow is the one-month anniversary of the Journey Reader launch. I am really pleased with it so far. I can't believe it's only been up and running a month! So far, JR has over 20 authors either already on or plugged into the scheduler for the near future.

Sometimes I worry about running out of people who are willing to promo books there, which is completely silly. I'm currently scheduling November posts because I'm out that far. I've delayed some blog-to-author marketing activities because I know if my inbox gets out of hand, I'm done for. While I love JR, I don't want it to consume my whole life, which it hasn't done, yet.

Anyway, that's all I have for now.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

movie: The Gathering

2011-09-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

The Gathering stars Christina Ricci as Cassie. A woman driving her car hits Cassie and ends up taking her home, because that’s what you do with strangers who might have negative feelings about the fact that you struck them with your vehicle.
Luckily for the rich lady, Cassie is not a psychopath. She suffers from amnesia and ends up staying with them for a while.

Cassie starts hearing things and having nightmares. The little boy who lives in the house has nightmares and hears things as well and she comforts him while she tries to figure out the deeper meaning behind the mysterious happenings.

Meanwhile, the rich husband is involved with some archaeological work for the church. They’ve unearthed that they believe is a church in a hillside. The statues and some reliefs on a wall depict a scene that they determine is an account of the crucifixion by people who witnessed it firsthand.

Sounds exciting, right?

The Gathering has a really interesting concept. Unfortunately the story moves agonizingly slow. What could have been fascinating and action packed ends up dragging. There is something about it that feels undeveloped or…something. The Gathering gets a C.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

One Last Trip to Borders

2011-09-09T19:11:00.001-07:00

I had my last visit to Borders this evening. They had two days left in their going out of business sale. It was very sad. It was crowded, of course. When you mark anything down 80-90 percent off, that tends to draw a crowd.

The atmosphere was weird. There was tension in the air, maybe because every time you turned around someone was RIGHT behind you. There were people in front of every shelf, poring over the leftovers from previous levels of markdown.

Seeing what was left was interesting. Most of the nonfiction was gone with the exception of some outdated software and business titles and books about the operation of various models of Nikon and Canon SLR cameras. There were a LOT of books about 2012 end of the world theories and such. Apparently the literate masses aren’t overly concerned about it.

Two shelves of Manga remained. They may have overestimated demand on that one. Many romance novels remained as well.

We found zero children’s books and zero toys. In fact, the once very adorable and fun children’s section looked like this.

A woman there picked the foam decorations off the wall and took them to the counter to purchase them. Talk about depressing.

The worst part was when we went to check out. These two little shithead (that’s right I said it) eleven year old, obnoxious boy brats in front of us actually hassled the cashier about losing her job. By the time we reached her to check out, she was practically in tears. I wanted to give her a hug. And I am not a hugger of strangers or mere acquaintances.

It was truly disgusting. I understand they’re just kids, but I mean damn, they were old enough to have some kind of compassion for someone losing their job. If I ever caught my kids treating anyone like that, please believe the consequences would be significant.

Anyway, thus ends the beautiful Borders store. I hope someone else bookish moves in. Bonus points if they hire the Borders employees and put in a coffee bar.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

really a lot of words

2011-09-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

I finally crossed over 50000 words in AnnaBeth2! Woo! Very exciting. The thing isn't finished of course but at 50000 words, I've crested the hill and I'm rolling on momentum. If I remember correctly, the first installment was a little over 70000 words.

If I really get moving, I can probably finish before the end of October.

I'm eager to get back to the remix project; I have to admit. That's probably a good way to feel when editing time rolls around.

I was starting to get sick of it during the last round of rewrite. That happens with everything I write after a few reads. Now I have distance and the enthusiasm I need to work on it effectively.

I like working two projects at a time. That was a good plan. Releasing the books takes longer, but there are benefits.

However, I won't put a book down in the middle of a rough draft again like I did with AnnaBeth2. That was not my best move. I don't think it will affect the finished product, but picking back up and remembering where the subplots were and who was doing what was very difficult. A novel is a complex thing. I'll probably still have to sort some parts out in the rewrite.

So future writing schedules - two works in progress at a time.

Book One rough draft to completion (no hiatus) plus 1-2 rewrites.
Stuff Book One into a virtual drawer
Book Two rough draft to completion (no hiatus) plus 1-2 rewrites.
Stuff Book Two into virtual drawer
Book One - more editing plus feedback from beta readers
Book Two - more editing plus feedback from beta readers

Two book releases in a relatively short period of time, which will depend on marketing schedules and such. Be free, my pretties!

Have I mentioned this is work?

I did take the day off to read a chunk of Bossypants, by Tina Fey. She is awesome. I have great admiration for people who can achieve insane levels of success and remain true to who they are and where they came from. If I’m ever lucky enough to reach a Janet Evanovich level writing career, I want to be like that. Still me, just with enough money to do what I love for a living and enough skill to do it well.

TTFN

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

guest post: The Magic of Changing Your Perspective, by Jackie Lapin

2011-09-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

For most of us, dealing with changes and events that move us out of our comfort zone instantly takes us to a place of fear and negative thinking.

It is the rare person who doesn’t emotionally invest the experience with anxiety and assign a negative value to it.

Yet the truth is that all things are neutral, they just are—until we lend our perspective to them and assign value. More importantly, every experience brings with it an opportunity for growth—for greater wisdom, for new knowledge, for redirection from the Universe, or for expansion in some way, shape or form.

The task for us as Conscious Creators is to retrain ourselves not to immediately go to that dark place, but instead to seek the light and—assign positive value to every experience. The best way to do that is to learn new perspectives, and to apply them to each situation. You can magically turn a perceived problem into a blessing by asking the right questions or applying the right filter.

Let’s expand our thinking and open up to the many new ways to look at things. By having these “tools” in your tool kit, testing the ones that work best for you, then applying them through practice many times over, you will be able to change your knee-jerk negative pattern of thinking to a welcoming and positive perspective that raises your frequency. And eventually will become your new permanent pattern of perspective.

Here are some really insightful questions that will lead you to look at your perceived challenges, problems, and issues as your next opportunities, gateways, and gifts:

• What is the joy to be found here?

• What is really great about this?

• What can I learn from this experience?

• How can I apply this in the future?

• How does this ultimately serve me?

• What is the upside to this experience?

• What is the takeaway here?

• What message is the Universe offering me?

• How can I turn this experience into something positive?

• What is the underlying truth about this experience—what is the reality

without my emotional charge?

• What is the good that can come from this?

• Who can I help with this wisdom, knowledge, and experience?

• Where is this experience directing me?

• What is the invitation here?

• What new opportunity does this open up?

• How can I grow from this?

• Where is my expansion in this?

• What is this calling me to let go?

• What burden is being lifted through this experience?

• What deep calling within me wants expression through this change—even though it may be subconscious?

You undoubtedly know that everything happens for a reason. Here’s an opportunity to look at that reason as Source does. You would not be offered this

experience if there was not purpose here for you, your life, and your spiritual growth. But the Universe gives you these experiences out of its desire to help you reach your own truth and highest good. Use these questions for a more objective view of what is in your highest good.

Illustration by Richard Crookes

Jackie Lapin tours the world teaching Practical Conscious Creation. She is the bestselling author of "The Art of Conscious Creation; How You Can Transform the World” and "Practical Conscious Creation: Daily Techniques to Manifest Your Desires." Filled with specific and imaginative practices, Practical Conscious Creation offers 70 articles with step-by-step actions to achieve greater empowerment and a more satisfying lifestyle.

To learn how to become a better, faster manifestor, secure a free chapter of “Practical Conscious Creation” or receive Jackie Lapin’s daily manifesting tips, visit http://www.jackielapin.com/.

The book is available here.

Jackie Lapin is also the founder of LifeWisdomNetwork.com, the Virtual Village that is the Marketplace, Directory and Information Resource for the fast-growing Consciousness and Transformational World .A place where mind/body/spirit entrepreneurs and self-help experts connect with their next customers and clients worldwide. Go to www.LifeWisdomNetwork.com for more information or to learn how to become a Village Member.

Discover the Tools to Make You a Better, Faster Manifestor!

movie: Season of the Witch

2011-09-06T17:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is going to be quick because I feel like crapola. I seem to have come down with something that is not very fun.

Season of the Witch
Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman (Hellyboy) star as a couple of crusade knights who decide to take early retirement due to the whole cruelty of war thing. They lose their faith in the church and go awol.

The pair end up in a town that's been hit by the plague. The townspeople request the knights' assistance. They decline. They later reconsider and agree to help some town representatives escort a woman accused of being a witch who brought the plague to a holy city where she will be judged and presumably, put to death.

Season of the Witch is creepy in parts. There are some great special effects and some really gross plague makeup.

The movie was pretty good, but short. The story had great potential and it would have been nice to see just far into weird/creepy they could take it, but alas. It gets a B-.

There's a guest post on the scheduler for tomorrow. Woo! I know I said I moved them all, but I had a nonfiction author request one and I only put fiction on Journey Reader, so she'll be here instead. Was that a run-on?

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

state park fun and stalking

2011-09-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

I had the day off today for the holiday, so I took the children to Mounds State Park in Anderson. It was a really cool park. There are Native American ceremonial mounds there and some scenic trails. There are some pics below. But first, a story about stalking.

For some reason, I have a tendency to attract stalkers, which is rather unsettling because I am very much an introvert. I first noticed today’s stalker at the Great Mound. That’s the first one you find when you hike on the main trail. She was this nerdy sort of lady with glasses and a ponytail. She had 5 or 6 kids with her.

I noticed her because one of the children was walking around wrapped in a Strawberry Shortcake comforter, quilt thing. When I took a picture of the Great Mound to send to my husband, I caught a little corner of it in the picture. Here it is.

My two non-quilt-wearing children and I left the Great Mound to head further down the hiking trail. The lady and her kids were a bit obnoxious, so I hoped they wouldn’t follow us. They did. We took a right at a trail junction, so did she, we made a brief trip off the trail to the edge of the White River, she took her herd of younglings that way too. She followed us for quite a while.

I finally stopped my kids on the trail and told them to let the lady pass. She took her time walking up. I stood there texting my husband about the crazy lady. She did finally come up next to me and ask me if I had been to the park before. I hadn’t. That was our first trip.

She went ahead on the trail like ten feet and stopped. I swear she was waiting for us to start walking again so she could follow. She did eventually give up and she turned around and took her crowd of children back the way we’d come.

Creepiest park experience ever.

Here are some pics.

This is the left part of the circle on the Great Mound.

Toad! or frog...whatever. He crawled into a hole in the mud about 10 seconds after I took this picture.

The White River

There were tiny creeks and waterfalls everywhere. This one was next to the trail. It ran down a hillside on our right, under the trail into the river.

There were a lot of seemingly dead trees.

I like the reflections on the water in this shot.

Also interesting, there are some people who believe the mounds are haunted by blue gowned dwarves called pukwudgies. lol. Here's some info on that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pukwudgie

Here is the link for the park website - http://moundsstatepark.org/

_________________________

Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!

There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:

http://www.LeaRyan.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

I heart True Blood

2011-09-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

Ok. I've been really resistant to the whole vampire culture thing. I think the Twilight craze and general vampire pop culture overkill (I make no excuses for puns) really turned me off of anything vampire related, which sucks (still not sorry) because I love Anne Rice and various other vampire related books and movies. Underworld, Blade, you probably get the picture.

Anyway, so I first heard about True Blood, I rolled my eyes and went on my merry way. I caught a few minutes of it on TV by accident a couple of times, saw fangs and changed the channel.

The husband and I recently decided to give it a shot because we're kind of out of shows right now. I have to say that I love it. A lot.

I really like the characters. They're varied enough to make things interesting. Plus they're Southern, the sexy, intelligent kind of Southern. I like most of them so much that sometimes I get a little jealous that I didn't come up with them. We're only on season 1 (DVDs from the library) but I'm sure we'll get caught up soon.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

book working updates

2011-09-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost over already! I can feel autumn in the air and I LOVE it. Fall is great – the cooler weather, the smell of burning leaves, the food, Halloween!, my birthday.

However, there is sadness. I don’t think I’m going to get any books out this year. I just work too slowly, and I don't want to pick up the pace because doing so pretty much guarantees that I will screw something up.

I was hoping to get AnnaBeth2 out in the fall but September begins tomorrow and I don't even have the rough draft finished. If I were to have it ready in fall, I would probably need to be editing by now.

I am disappointed. I like to release things. It gives me joy.

Lack of writing time is really a huge obstacle for me. I know I've said that before. If I can ever work this gig full time, I'm going to crank 'em out like James Patterson.

Ok, maybe not THAT fast because I don't have a staff, but sure as heck faster than I can now.

But on the bright side, next year should be really exciting - probably at least two books in the first few months and at least one more novella, maybe two if I can get Juniper2 going.

I may check in with a traditional publisher or two for the remix project. You know, throw out a line, see if anyone bites. Some portion of that novel will likely appear on authonomy within the next 3-4 months, so anyone who is interested and has an authonomy account could grab a sneaky peek there. I will announce when/if it appears on that particular website.

AnnaBeth2 word count update: 46919

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

word vomit

2011-08-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

I have a scene that I'm writing for AnnaBeth2 in which there is information (aside from the actual scene happenings) that I wish to convey. It's sort of a story within the story about previous events which reveal motivation for one of my supporting character's actions.

I don't want to do a flashback, but I also want to keep from the infamous information dump. For the non-writerly types out there, an info dump is when an author just vomits a bit of story (usually back story) onto the page. It's quick and relatively painless but the cost is a loss of flow.

To prevent an information dump, I did the following. I vomited in a notebook. I wrote the back story all out in basic form. No fluff. Just go. I got it all out of my system, now as I write the actual scene that will go in the book, I weave in the necessary pieces gradually.

Doing this is kind of like spilling all of the puzzle pieces out of the box so you can get a look at what you have before putting them in order.

I'm keeping what's important and losing nonessential aspects or details that could be implied. I like it. Yes I do.

_________________________

Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!

There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:

http://www.LeaRyan.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

things watched this weekend

2011-08-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

I had flashbacks of my childhood and teenage years this weekend while watching TV. First up was Peewee's Playhouse on Broadway. I used to watch the show when it was on and revisiting that was surreal.

Peewee was just as funny as always. My 8 year old son thought it was hilarious. There was some really, really adult humor but it was so subtle that he didn't pick up on it. If you haven't caught Peewee on Broadway and you used to love the TV show, you must check it out.

Also in the TV time machine weekend, VH1 was showing In Living Color reruns. That was great. I used to watch that show religiously. I walked into work this morning with the theme song stuck in my head.

On to movies.

I’m doing quickie reviews today because I have two and I don’t want to prattle on all evening.

True Grit. I actually didn't want to see this movie. It's a western, as you probably already know. I expected some long, drawn out drama. Boring.

True Grit wasn't boring at all. It's about Mattie Ross who travels to a town to have her father's body shipped home and stays to hire a man to avenge her father's murder. She is so no-nonsense and intelligent that her dealings with the adults around her come off funny. She runs circles around them.

She hires a man named Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), who is an alcoholic bumbler but also brilliant in his ways. Matt Damon is LaBoeuf, a Texas Ranger who also happens to be after the same man.

The three of them venture into the wilderness. For most of the trip, it's
Mattie and Rooster. They bond and they argue and fight the bad guys.

True Grit is really entertaining. Don't let the old-timey look deter you from watching it like I almost did. The movie is really, really good. A

Limitless
Ah, Bradley Cooper. So pretty. In this one, he is Eddie Morra, kind of a loser with an excessively dirty apartment. He claims to have a book contract but he hasn't even written the book. His girlfriend dumps him. He's about to get evicted from his apartment when he runs into his ex brother in law, Vernon.

Vernon hands off a mysterious pill, which Eddie ends up taking. The pill makes him freakishly intelligent. He learns fast, reads fast, and is able to use memories that were buried deep in his brain.

When it wears off, he decides he wants more, of course. He discovers he isn't the only one after the meds. There is a whole mess of trouble for him. Some weirdo keeps following him around. A foreign man he borrowed money from decides that he likes the pills and would like some for himself. There are some rather bad side effects when the pills wear off.

But, there are blessings too. Lots of money. A shiny new job, etc.

Limitless is a roller coaster. One minute Eddie is way up, the next he's down, then he's way up again. This movie was also very good. There is a lot of danger in this lifestyle Eddie chooses. It also gets an A.

Two As!

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

Are tablets worth the price?

2011-08-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

I got a tablet recently. Mine is an Archos Android tablet and I love it. Seriously, it’s awesome. I can watch videos or listen to Pandora, play games, draw in a sketchbook app, look stuff up on the internet and the whole thing is so portable. It’s smaller than a spiral bound notebook.

But.

It does not replace my laptop. No way. I can’t get my Adobe Suite or Microsoft Office on there, mostly because they’re Windows programs. Even if the tablet could run the software, there isn’t enough memory and no CD drive to install it.

To anyone who might be on the fence about whether a tablet might be used in place of a computer, I can tell you that tablets are not the same. Maybe for the really light user who only wants to check email, play some app-type games or get on the facebook, it might work, but there are significant limitations.

And tablets sure as heck aren’t worth the price that the major brands are charging. Mine was like $200 something, which is a good range for what it does. I really don’t think I would pay much more than that. As I type this, the Samsung Galaxy is $500. It has 16gb of memory. For less than half that price, you can get a Toshiba netbook with a 250gb hard drive and it’s compatible with more because it runs Windows.

Of course, the netbook doesn’t have a touchscreen or apps as Android defines them, but in the end, it’s almost as portable and a lot more versatile.

I didn’t expect my tablet to do as much as my laptop. I knew what it was before I bought it. The point is that I don’t think a tablet is worth what certain brands are charging. I love my tablet. I would not pay $500 for it.

The end.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

don't be lame, homemade butterfinger bars, random word count update

2011-08-25T17:37:00.000-07:00

I was reading a blog yesterday. It was actually a guest post on someone else's blog by an author who decided that Smashwords didn't work out for his ebook distribution. His books. His decision. Whatever.

I thought some of the comments that people left were kind of rude. I can understand if people don't agree, but when comments don't contribute to the blog or the conversation, I think not posting them is better. Keeping thoughts inside one's head is ok sometimes.

Anywayz. Check this out. This Momma lady has a video on her blog that shows you how to make homemade Butterfinger bars. AAAAAA!!!! spoiler: one of the ingredients is melted candy corn.

http://www.mynameismomma.com/2011/08/i-tried-homemade-butterfinger-bar.html

random annabeth 2 word count update: 40867

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

book working plus fun facts

2011-08-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

Oy, my brain is tired. There was far too much thinking today.

There is rain outside, in the distance. I just got back from signing the boy up for cub scouts and we saw it falling over the fields. I kind of wanted to take my camera out there and get a shot but at this point, that would require way too much energy.

Anyway, book working update – AnnaBeth 2 word count is at 39,456. Almost to 40, woo! Crossing those 10,000 word marks is exciting for some odd, dorky reason. I really like the story so far. I know I say that about everything I write, but hey, if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t waste time writing it. No I would not.

There is a lot more action in the second installment. The romance element is still there, of course, but the action is definitely up a notch this time around. There is a demon involved. Not in the romance. There’s just one present in the story. She’s a girl.

Unrelated to book working updates, I have a random fact. This is from the new issue of Allure that I received in my mailbox on this day. In the 1770’s, French women used eyebrow wigs made of mouse fur.

Rodent fur. On their faces. Ew.

Bonus fun fact – sugar-free hershey’s chocolate tastes how lightning bugs smell. Yummers! Please do not injure any lightning bugs while trying to smell them. Understanding my comparison is not important enough to warrant a sacrifice of a helpless creature. Plus they’re awesome.
_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.
Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

movie: Sucker Punch

2011-08-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

Ah, Sucker Punch.
Where do I begin?

The beginning of the movie finds our heroine in a bad situation. Her mother dies. Her stepfather comes after her, presumably to do something naughty to her. Drama ensues. She ends up accidentally shooting and killing someone.

Stepfather has her locked up in a super crappy mental institution. She creates a dream world in which she is in a whorehouse (they don't actually call it that if I remember correctly. It's more implied.) and the girls are forced to perform dances on a stage for clients. Her name in the alternate reality is Baby Doll.

In her alternate reality, the people force her to dance and when she dances, she descends into yet another place. Kind of like Inception - a dream within a dream. At this next level, she's fighting a war against zombie soldiers and dragons and robots and such.

Complicated, no? Yes.

Sucker Punch takes a while to really get going. Visually, it is stunning. It's gritty and the action is way over the top. The outfits are very cool.
There's a lot of music too, with words. The characters aren't singing but the soundtrack (which is awesome) is very present, almost like a character in itself.

Every man in the movie, save two, is an evil and/or perverted bastard. That was very noticable.

The end left a lot to be desired. Some issues are left unresolved.

I didn't love Sucker Punch, but it does have merit as entertainment. It gets a C.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

The Ruins

2011-08-18T16:31:00.000-07:00

The first time I saw the ruins was about 10 years ago, maybe not quite that long. My daughter was much smaller, of course. I took her to the Holliday Park in Indianapolis just to check it out. The ruins were there then, next to a run-down nature center that wasn’t open while we were there.

They sort of looked like someone’s giant, tacky lawn ornament. That was my first impression. Seeing them there in a park smack in the middle of the city threw me off, I guess.

A couple of weeks ago, I returned to Holliday Park with the boy. Before I went, I looked at the website to make sure that I got the location correct. There was information about The Ruins there. I’m going to grab a bit of their description and slap it on here.

“In the 1950s, the St. Paul Building, at 220 Broadway in New York City, was torn down to make way for a modern skyscraper. Karl Bitter, one of the outstanding architectural sculptors of the late 19th century, had designed the facade of the original building, including three massive statues made of Indiana limestone called “the Races of Man.” To find a new home for the sculptures, the building’s owner, the Western Electric Company, held a competition among U.S. cities, which were required to submit plans for their display and preservation. Indianapolis proposed to place them in Holliday Park, which was then an arboretum, and the city was ultimately awarded the highly prized sculptures, valued at the time at $150,000.

Elmer Taflinger, who provided the sketches for the proposed structure, was chosen to carry out the design. He worked to complete the project over the next 20 years.”

Since I was last there, the park people had torn down the old crappy nature center and built a beautiful, new nature center in a different spot in the park. The Ruins now stand alone in a field, which is a much better situation. They don’t look like tacky lawn ornaments anymore.

Photo number one is The Ruins from the front. The second is the view from the back. It’s pretty overgrown with weeds in the middle but still looks kind of cool. The third picture is a creepy statue. She had a sheep sans head on the opposite side.

http://www.hollidaypark.org/

Link to History of the Ruins pdf

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

Journey Reader Backstage

2011-08-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

Journey Reader is going really well. The response has been great. I am booked out for weeks assuming that a significant number of people who I sent interview questions and such get back to me soon. It's hard to believe the blog has only been live for four days.

I'm still tweaking some things and contacting various people and trying to streamline some processes, like sifting through email. One of my projects tonight is seeing if I can tell Twitter to stop notifying me when new followers hop on. I'm getting three pages of email a day, at least one of which is follow notifications, not that I'm really complaining. I just need to pare that down a smidge.

One thing is really want to do in the next week or two is find a website or sites with author readings on mp3. I know they're out there; I just need to look. I would like to make the blog as multi-media as possible.

Another goal is to do something with book covers, maybe interview some book cover designers, get a nice visual going with those images. Books are more than the words inside.

I find that I am very afraid of getting someone’s name or information wrong. I probably will at some point. It’s only a matter of time. Lol

I also have a fear that I will post the wrong entry on the wrong blog and another one that I will type Journey Reader as Journal Reader at an unfortunate time.

That's all I have for now. I have some pics of ruins that I keep meaning to post here. I may put those on tomorrow.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

2sday

2011-08-16T16:29:00.000-07:00

What is up? I have been hard at work at various tasks.

I jumped back into the AnnaBeth 2 rough draft. I decided that I don't want to drop a writing project in the middle again. I knew that wasn't a really good plan to begin with, but I couldn't help myself. Sometimes the Attention Deficit takes over.

It will all be alright in the end, of course. I'm just working through a period of minor disorientation. Also, I think I lost some notes. Did I mention that before? I think I did.

The situation isn't as bad as it sounds. I just have to go back and check on who was doing what and proceed with the story.

I'm off and running with the actual writing in spite of the obstacles. I think I've slapped down about 2880 words since picking it back up.

The husband didn't help matters this weekend. He enjoys many activities, none of which is letting me work. He has the energy level of a toddler with a king-size bag of Skittles. Let's go see a movie, then bike a few miles, and go out for mexican food. Crikey.

That's all for now. I'm going to go work on Journey Reader for a bit. Check it out if you haven't yet. Today is Book Trailer Tuesday.

http://www.JourneyReader.com

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

movie: Cowboys and Aliens

2011-08-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

Cowboys and Aliens! That's right. I got my happy self to an actual movie theater this weekend.

The movie starts out with a cowboy waking up in the desert with a piece of alien tech around his wrist. He has no memory of who he is or how he got there. But what he does remember, apparently, is how to kick some ass.

He travels to a nearby mining town where he finds some trouble, and just when local law enforcement is about to ship him off to the big city for justice, guess who shows up.

Go on.

Guess.

Aliens! That's right. They fly in and snatch up some locals and engage in various shenanigans. Our hero manages to down one of the flying pod thingies and the alien takes off into the night. A group of locals decides to track it because they would kinda like to get their kinfolk back.

Cowboys and Aliens is awesome! When I first heard about the movie, I wondered how they could mesh a concept we think of as futuristic with a time period that's pretty far into the past.

The movie people made it work well.

There are gun fights and alien fights, tense moments between criminals and well-behaved civilians and Native Americans. We have creepy aliens and a ton of action.

And Harrison Ford!!! You can never go wrong with Harrison Ford.

Very good. Cowboys and Aliens gets a big fat A.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

announcement

2011-08-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

Whattup, yo? I set up a whole, spankin' new blog for author interviews and the guest posts, etc. I thought having another spot just for that would be better than trying to squeeze it in here.

www.journeyreader.com

If you're an author, book publicist, or publisher, be sure to check out the submissions page for more information.

Don't fret, dear hearts. I do not plan to ditch the splendiferous journal. Movie posts, book working updates and release info and that stuff will remain here.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

Gone Fishin'

2011-08-11T17:04:00.000-07:00

Yeah, right, like I would really go fishing. Well, I might accompany someone else who was fishing if the weather wasn't too hot and if they provided me with mass amounts of beer to consume. Does that count as fishing?

I will probably be away from the blog for the next few days. I am finishing up the rewrite and then writing like crazy on AnnaBeth 2 this weekend.

Until I return, please feel free to peruse these pictures of Walt Disney's house. It's for sale for a meager 3.something something million bucks. If I had the moola, I would buy that thing in a heartbeat. It probably has secret passages and naughty illustrations stuffed under the floorboards.

Seriously, it is amazing. Here's a link to the slideshow.

http://waltdisneylahome.com/

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

book working

2011-08-10T18:24:00.000-07:00

Today was day 3 of drastically reduced sugar intake. Day 1 was awful. Day 2 was worse. I barely had enough energy at the end of the day for a 2 mile bike ride. Today I actually feel better. I am still easily irritated, however. The word of the day was 'stupid'. Lol, I guess there are worse insults I could be slinging around.

I got to watch my son eat cake and ice cream at a school function this evening, so that was fun.

I did come up with what might be the best book title ever. It's for MacDowell Sisters and AnnaBeth. I'm changing the title with series relaunch. I can't say what the title is yet because someone will probably steal it before I get to use it. And that would make me very angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry, especially when I have a nonexistant blood sugar level.

Remix project update:
I'm on page 80 of 106. Word count 63000 words.

I may actually finish before my self-imposed deadline of friday. I would say there is an 80% chance.

I am starting to get excited about writing more on AnnaBeth 2. Writing on a blank page is different from a rewrite. It feels more adventurous somehow.

That's all for today. I leave you with a photo of some band people we watched. This was a dress rehearsal for an event at Lucas Oil Stadium. They were all highly skilled and very tan. I looked very goth next them.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

movie: Battle Los Angeles

2011-08-09T16:15:00.000-07:00

Extraterrestrials invade. They are assholes. Our army fights them.

A tried and true Hollywood sci formula if there is one.

I really wanted to like this movie. I was excited about finally seeing it. I expected to be blown away, given what I'd heard about its supposed awesomeness.

Our reaction was more like - meh.

What this movie does really well is realism. We follow a group of soldiers onto the battleground as they fight. They move from building to building and shoot things and try to figure out how to foil the invasion. There are explosions and such.

The most obvious comparison is Independence Day, but that movie was more compelling. The characters were more developed. The story was more interesting too.

Battle Los Angeles gets a little stale after the first half hour or so. It becomes a lot of the same thing over and over. Points are also deducted for the use of the same sound effect they used for the aliens in Independence Day. Lame.

The special effects were good. The aliens were creepy.

Battle Los Angeles gets a C+.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

adventures in weekending

2011-08-08T16:57:00.001-07:00

This weekend was unexpectedly busy. I mean crazy 9am to 9ish pm both days crazy with almost constant walking.

What I did not do: work on the book I should be working on. Both Saturday and Sunday, I planned to have this wonderful sit down and work time that never happened. I have a scene I wanted to add to the remix project. I had it all plotted out and everything. It was going to snap right in like a jigsaw puzzle piece. Alas. The scene is still on but it did not get written yet.

Instead I took the boy to the Arts Park in Indy which was like a miniature Indianapolis Museum of Art, only much of the art was for sale. They had a nice gallery and then a sculpture garden on the grounds. The primary function of the center is art classes, but we didn't take any. Then later that day, we went to several stores to purchase various extravagant items such as school supplies, groceries and a garage door opener remote.

Sunday, we went to Gen Con which I had no intention of attending. My husband was the one who really wanted to go, which was weird because I'm by far the geekier of the two of us.

Why wouldn't I have gone? The convention is mostly card and board games, which those are cool but not my thing. I'm all console gaming, baby. They did have some video games, but not many. Most of the video game action was relegated to one room off from the primary convention area. They projected the games onto the wall, which was wicked cool. Here's a shot of the dark room. The game on the left was Guitar Hero something.

The convention was not centered around one of my primary pastimes. Does that mean I didn't I didn't have fun? Hecky naw, that place was awesome! There was a lot to see and do, a lot of cosplay stuff, a lot of art and just...wow, a lot in general.

The boy got some Naruto cards, Magic the Gathering cards and a game mat, which he is currently using as a giant mousepad.

I got a Dalek action figure at a Doctor Who booth. That's right. A Doctor Who booth. How fricking awesome is that?!?! And I got a pair of steam-punkesque goggles, which I've actually been talking about getting for a year. Why? I don't know. Sometimes I just want odd things.

We also each got a copy of the Rift for PC. I saw commercials for that game and they looked pretty awesome. If I can find the time, I may give it a go.

Here are a couple more convention pics – a giant troll statue and a giant something else statue.

That's all for now. Movie post tomorrow.

Thurzday

2011-08-04T16:43:00.000-07:00

Alrighty Thurzday! Tomorrow is friday, glorious, delicious, fabulous friday!

I don't have much to say. Remix rewrite project update - page 59 of 106. 61,600 words. The part I'm at doesn't seem to need as much rewriting, so I'm able to move a smidge faster.

I really wanted to try to get a book out this year, but I'm not sure that will happen. I can finish writing both books I'm working on, but editing and such takes so much longer. Realistically (not ideally), it's going to be at least very late 2011 or the beginning of 2012. I wanted AnnaBeth 2 out in fall, but I'm just working too slowly for that, which is aggravating.

I am giving myself a firm rewrite deadline. A week from tomorrow, I'm putting down the rewrite no matter where I am on it.

The kids are gone next weekend (my babies!!!), so I get some real work time. Super golden daytime writing time. I can guzzle a gallon of caffeine put on some classical music (or george washington songs as the boy calls them) or some weird new age-y instrumental crap and go to.

Aw yeah, it's gonna be on like LeBron. Just me and the laptop and Max trying to lie wherever he can most be in my way.

Are we friends on the Goodreads? If not, we bloody well should be. Lately my non-indie book reviews have gone there. You can follow them if you like. I don't do many and I don't write long, official reviews because that would be boring.

I don’t know if this is the right link for friend adding. Let’s see if it works.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4113839.Lea_Ryan

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

Devil, Thy Name is Sugar

2011-08-03T16:48:00.000-07:00

I'm about ten pounds over what the BMI chart people refer to as "normal" weight. The situation is frustrating to me because not too long ago, I was in that normal weight range, not too far in but far enough to count.

I've gained the weight mostly due to my laziness when it comes to exercise (and a busy schedule) and, I think, a sugar intake that's too high.

So I'm cutting back on the sugar, which does not make me happy. I like sugar. It makes things taste yummy.

Yesterday I decided to figure out how much sugar a person should have. I really had no idea.

The American Heart Association recommends about 25 grams a day for women and 31 grams a day for men. Let's look at an average day in my food life, shall we?

This is a weekday.
Breakfast bar - 11 grams
Granola bar snack - 11 grams
Cheese sandwich - 5 grams
"Light" yogurt - 11 grams
Ice Cream after dinner (1/2 serving) - 10 grams

I didn't count dinner because it varies too much. Our dinners are usually pretty healthy. Even not counting dinner, that's 48 grams of sugar.

Almost double the RDA.

Weekends are even worse because there's drinking involved.

I'm trying to change up my workday routine to cut out the sugar. I really don't want to cut calories because I don't eat that many. Plus I don't want to be tired all of the time. I have stuff to do. I'm switching the breakfast bar, the granola bar and the yogurt out with less sugary options.

I'm not switching my weekend drinking time out with anything because I don't want to. If that keeps me fatter than I should be, oh well. LOL, that didn't sound lushy at all, did it?

My goal is to fit back into the skinny pants. Hopefully this will work.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

profiling the dawg

2011-08-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

I thought I would hurry up and profile the dog before we don't have one anymore. She keeps running off, which is really frustrating. Since last week when she was gone 24 hours, she has run off and come back at least 2 more times.

At first, we had her in a collar. Since her neck is fatter than her head, she found a way to get out of it. So we bought her a harness. Now she does this thing where she wraps her line around the deck posts and squirms out of the harness. She's like fricking Houdini out there.

The profile.

Zoe, a mutt, mostly beagle, maybe some corgie. Mostly very rotund from eating food that falls on the floor, except for vegetables which she will not touch. She does a very good Roomba impression.

Also, she often does not smell fresh.

My mom adopted her from the humane society a few years ago. Mom really wanted a cocker spaniel of puppiesh age. She looked at a few shelters if I remember correctly. Then she found Zoe at one of those.

The people who worked there told her that the dog was a puppy (less than 2?) and that she was dominantly a king spaniel. We're pretty sure they lied on both counts. Her vet papers say beagle mix. She has cataracts and spends most of her time lying around like an old dog does.

Mom got another dog a year or two later so she had a pair. She later decided that she no longer wanted Zoe because of the level of attention the dog wants.

The dog loves people! And who can blame her? We're awesome when we want to be. Seriously though, if someone wanted to pet the dog until they rubbed all her fur off, she would be happy to oblige.

We like the dog, so even though we aren't really dog people, we let her live here.

She is quite funny. She sometimes does yoga. Her favorite pose is up dog.

She also enjoys running away on a regular basis and then returning when she gets hungry. She's almost like a self-walking dog, which I'm sure my neighbors do not appreciate when she runs around in their yards. Actually, she might not even do that. I don't know what she does when she runs off.

So that's the dog.
_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

worst movie ever plus awesome car

2011-08-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Possibly the Worst Movie Ever: Hobo With a Shotgun

I blame Husband for this movie choice. He blames some Facebook friend.

Honestly, we didn’t watch the whole thing, so I probably shouldn’t be writing anything on it at all. But I feel obligated to warn the masses.

The plot is – victimized hobo gets pissed off at these idiotic and comically violent 70s criminals and goes on a shotgun rampage to get revenge.

Hobo with a Shotgun is bad. It’s intentionally bad. I understand they were going for the maximum amount of cheese. Whoever wrote this crap probably thought they were pretty darn witty.

The movie is garbage. The writing is awful. The acting is equally awful. We couldn’t even tolerate it long enough to watch it the whole way through. Please do not waste money renting it or use precious moments of life you’ll never get back watching it. Hobo With a Shotgun gets an F-

On the plus side, we discovered a wicked awesome car we’d never heard of. The bad guys drive one of these. The Bricklin SV-1 looks like a cross between a Corvette and a DeLorean.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bricklin_SV-1

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

rewriting things that didn't work

2011-07-31T17:19:00.000-07:00

I spent some time rewriting the remix project yesterday and I got stuck on this one particular scene. Something was wrong with it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why it was bothering me. I stopped working for the day. I was sick of reading my own words anyway.

Then this morning I woke up and thought about the scene again. I realized that I had inadvertantly changed part of the setting. A lot of what I had written didn't belong. I actually had to gut the whole thing and start that part over, which was okay because the new scene was much better.

I’m going to blame this issue on a pause between work sessions. Most of the time, I write and proofread during little snippets of time I can grab during the evening or weekend or a lunch break. I work for as little as ten minutes at a time sometimes, which is probably bad.

Working for a long period of time is better because I catch issues like secenery inconsistency. But I have to work with what time I can get, and 90% of the time periods I get are snippets. Such is life, for now.

Let's see where we are. Page 28 of the 107 page original draft. Creeping toward acceptable novel length at 60900 words.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

nightmare fodder

2011-07-29T18:21:00.000-07:00

I took the day off. The boy and I went to the park. I saw this crazy bug on a fence, so I snapped a picture of it.

Using the all-wise and knowing internet, I have identified this charming specimen as a red-footed cannibal fly.

Cannibal.
Fly.

Why does it bear this name? From what I've read, it can take out pretty much any other insect, including dragonflies. And one site claimed that it can also take down a hummingbird if so inclined.

Yes the second picture is of the same bug. It looks different in flight.

The other pictures I saw while doing research showed the bug eating bees and wasps and such. It seems to like to go for the head-face area first. yummy.

Sleep tight, kids. Don't let the red-footed cannibal fly bite.
_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

thursday stuff

2011-07-28T17:10:00.001-07:00

The prodigal dog has returned! Well actually I had to go get her. She was not eaten by a coyote and/or pups thankfully. Which is a good thing. I kind of like that dog.

This is the picture I used on the missing dog poster.

We put them up in various spots in the neighborhood and a nice lady called and said she had the dog. Zoe was tied up in her back yard and seemed quite happy to see us. I was late for work but we have the dog back. Woo!

Yesterday was kind of a weird/stressful day overall. There was the missing dog. My daughter is at band camp and didn't return any of my texts. Her phone probably died or whatever, but we are rarely completely out of contact.

Then there was an issue with another child, which I won't go into detail about, but I will say that I was peed on a little. All the drama put me off balance. I didn't really get any editing work done by the time I finished dealing with everything. Rough day.

But today is better and we move on.

Can you believe that July is almost over already? Wasn't the 4th like two days ago? No?

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1