Tag Archives: Jay Leno

Nerds Like Us

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My friend, Jen Hayley, alerted me to this completely amazing quote from author John Green.

‎”Nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff…
Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like
jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it. Hank, when
people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is ‘you like
stuff.’ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, ‘you are too
enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness’.”

Man, how true is that? So for Friday, here are the five things that I am jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-myself excited about because, for the record, John Green, I am totally enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness. I am.

1. Harry Potter. Duh. And it IS Harry Potter 7 release week. So, what have I been doing, you wonder? Listening to MuggleCast, of course. Yes, that’s right, a weekly podcast dedicated to Harry Potter despite the fact that there are no more Harry Potter books forthcoming. Mugglenet? Undeterred. Oh yeah, and in case you missed it, I also already made the trek to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

"I don't go looking for trouble. Trouble usually finds me."

2. Sci-Fi Classics. If real love is watching the 4.5 hour Dune mini-series, I have it. Because as far as I’m concerned, the SciFi channel had it right. You never can get too much Paul Atreides (Muad’Dib, if you’d rather). You just can’t. And I’m pretty sure I deserve some sort of prize for making through all five in the Children of the Mind series. Where did Bean go, Orson? Where?? Other notables: Foundation, Stranger in a Strange Land, Wrinkle in Time.

 

"If wishes were fishes we'd all cast nets." - Gurney Halleck

3. Lord of the Rings. Little known fact: I’ve read The Hobbit 12 times. Twelve times, people. Plus, I went through that wonderful stage where I thought I was going to learn Elvish and I made a concerted effort until I read Silmarillion and it decided to both kill and enlighten my soul. Don’t even get me started on The History of Middle-Earth.

"Stupid, fat hobbit."

4. Famous Crimes. Alright, whatever, I didn’t want to bold “serial killers.” I know a lot about serial killers. However, I also know a lot about gangs, street families, and what it’s like to live in prison. I have seen every episode of Gangland and MSNBC Lockdown/Up and have read a truly startling number of articles and true crime. Also, I once got really passionate and thought I’d write to people on death row. Turns out they aren’t just looking for people to write them letters…

5. Zombies. Not surprising since this first fell within the category of natural disasters, one of the two categories of movies in which no bad films have ever been made (namely, Natural Disaster & Dance movies).  Zombies are great and once, in Dawn of the Dead, they made a Jay Leno zombie and, as you know, this combines two of my all-time favorite loves. You know what’s great about zombies? They just lumber on toward you and then by sheer numbers win. And you’re always thinking, why didn’t someone nip this problem in the bud before there were, like, a million zombies? We’ll never know. Another great thing is that people start relating zombies to consumerism and whatnot when really I think zombies are only around to eat brains.

"Great minds taste alike."

Whipped Into Shape

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I’m feeling a bit out of shape.

Each word plops onto the page only after much huffing and puffing.

And I’d be lying if I told you my paragraphs weren’t a bit flabby.

And the adverbs? I need to shed those fast!

Yep, it’s sad, but true. I’ve fallen out of writing shape and I’m embarrassed.

In mid-November I wrapped up my writing projects and decided I would devote myself to school entirely. Well, my last final is on Tuesday and I can already just imagine how painful it’s going to be to get those creative muscles back in working order. When you get into the groove of writing every day you can feel yourself getting better and better. But getting started and getting in that groove…well that’s tough.

I watched Jay Leno last night and Michael Phelps was a guest star. He said that for every day you took off swimming you lost two days of training. Well, I hope its not that steep a loss with writing, but I’m not sure I’d equate knowing how to write with riding a bike or anything.

Luckily, even though gluing my butt to the chair and making myself eek out words the first few days might be painful, I am so looking forward to it! I’ve missed writing and I can’t wait to get back into it. I’ll also be back to doing prose. I’m doing a couple chapters as per the request of my agent with the characters of SCOUT. I can’t wait until Tuesday–ok, well I might not be writing Tuesday riiiiight after the exam, but Wednesday for sure!

Despite the fact that I’m a bit rusty, I have written much more intensively since my first novel (not SCOUT). I’ve landed a great agent. Lots has happened. I do feel like I’ve grown as a writer. I think that’s going to make things much more difficult because I’ll expect more from myself, but I’m also thrilled to be flexing my new writing muscles a bit in another full-length project. I’m pumped to see what I can do, but I’ve also gotten to know a bunch of great writers in the recent months and am hoping to use some of their input to bring my work to the next level. (That is, if they love me that much when I ask ‘em!)

 

Anyway, to start slowly getting my behind in gear, I was wondering if y’all knew of any good websites with daily writing prompts or character exercises or maybe you just have some that you enjoy doing before really digging into a project. Let me know!

 

Upcoming Topics:

Falling Back in Love: I’m so NOT over you…

Starting with a sense of Direction

What’s OK in YA?

The Left-Brained Artist

Playing off the Pressure

 

 

Status: And…Back to studying.

5 People I Never Want to Meet

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We’ll take a break from the scheduled Wednesday blog post on the process of writing because…

…I’ve been tagged!

 

This month, I’m participating in the Absolute Write June Blog Chain and Rosemerry has just passed the baton. Check out her blog post on People You meet Online who you Don’t want to Meet in Real Life.

Now, I have to take a theme from her post and create mine from it, so I’m going to generalize.

Here are the Five People I Don’t Want to Meet in Real Life…Ever:

1. Jay Leno’s wife–as far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t have one.

2. Kathy Lee Gifford–I’m mad at her for ruining the last hour of the Today Show and for dumbing down Hoda Kotb.

3. Roseanne–Just way too crass for me. I wasn’t made for that type of humor. Sorry!

4. Stephen Hawking–I don’t like feeling dumb and his brand of genius might melt my mind.

5. Denise Richards–Did you see her on E!’s “It’s Complicated?” She went on a blind date with a guy and made the poor man feel sooooooo awkward. It was just plain mean.

 

And that’s my completely comprehensive, not at all petty list of the People I Don’t Want to Meet in Real Life…Ever. Who would be on your list??

Now, it’s my turn to tag, so I’m tagging Soma at Rotating the Bear. Head on over!

 

 

Status: Today, I finished reading Forever by Judy Blume. It was a fun book and a quick read. As a YA writer, I’m pretty sure it falls under required reading. After finishing that, I headed down to the library and ordered I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have To Kill You by Ally Carter and Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Myers. I didn’t actually request the second Twilight book, but the librarian said I ought to have it thrown in for good measure. The librarian actually said to me: It’s ok, I like all of these books, too. Then I realized, I should probably feel kind of funny ordering so many tweeny books. Oh well! I also picked up Tattoo by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

As I mentioned in my last post, I found an artist for my graphic novel. I’m excited about him. His name is Ben and I’ll be sending him a rough query, scene-by-scene synopsis of the first few chapters, and the first several pages of script today. So I’m a busy girl in the coffee house today.

Who is your leading man?

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I got to thinking about this question after I read an announcement that Jimmy Fallon will be replacing Conan O’Brien who will take over for Jay Leno on the Tonight Show at NBC.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that the #1 spot for my personal Sexiest Men in Hollywood List would go to Jay Leno hands down.

Jay Leno? Jay Leno. Not a typo.

Why? I don’t know. Something about his charisma or his salt-and-pepper hair. Plus, he’s funny.

So, as I’m developing the love interest for my next project, I got to wondering: who should a good leading man be?

 

Status: Multi-tasking. On hold with Lenovo because I stepped on my computer screen. Sad. I just got it a couple weeks ago! I did not get to writing the first scene yesterday.  I sat with my notebook in my lap and came up with nothing. The reason? I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how to write from first person POV. I’ve read plenty. But, having spent countless hours in third, I just couldn’t get it. So, today is for reading some books I like in first, then sitting down and getting to work.

Keep crossing your fingers for me so I can snag an agent.