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Who would you like to bump into today?
By: Jessica Burkhart,
on 10/16/2010
Okay, so . . .
Image by passiveaggressivenotes via Flickr
What’s your most unusual roommate story?
What’s the most unusual thing that’s ever happened to you while walking your dog?
Can you dare to believe one “impossible” thing today?
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It all started with me being excited, which is never a good sign. I’d been FB invited to a friend of a friend’s pool party. Something about moving or a birthday, maybe both, I really didn’t know for sure. Couldn’t tell from the invite banter. Would have involved too much FB stalking to find out. Why? Because I have no time. I’m not bitter. Really. I have no time for FB, or face-to-face real, live friends or haircuts. Forget shopping. Family restaurant plus family dream to send me to Standford–they are completely delusional–equals no time to myself. None. My so called life was killing me. Slowly. So, when I randomly get this chance to use my brother’s computer in the back of the restaurant, in Dad’s office, and I get this invite I get all jittery. I spin around in my brother’s desk chair all pissed off because once again even if I wanted to go I couldn’t. And because I’m at my brother’s desk, the one who’s in love with himself, I get a great full-length view of my sorry self.
The good news? I’d probably lost ten pounds since the last time I cared. The bad news? I look so pale. Forget it’s August. I look like I’m from one of those countries that’s about to get its first glimpse of the sun in six months. Pool-party-loser white. I spin back around and click thorough the invitees profile pics to see if there is any one remotely close to my polar bear shade. Feeling paler and not-wanting-to-go-at-all-no-matter-whatier with every click when I read the MAYBEs, and the YESs. Eric’s on the YES list––is he ever. Mine. So mine. But, Emily, my high school’s IT girl, is a YES too. The one I see him with all the time.
And something invades my body and mades me click YES. And then I tell my sister she has to take over for me that night. And I blow off reading all my before-school-starts homework for Honors International Baccalaureate Advanced Placement English and tell my parents I’ll be at the library. But I don’t go to the library. I go out into the world instead. The one where people get haircuts and buy shoes and decide which shades of lip glass look good on them, instead of counting money, folding napkins, doing inventory and making last minute runs to the store every time our cook under-orders which is all the time. He’s a nut-job. But that’s another story.
And so I go to the party. Hair trimmed, new bathing suit on. I even get to talk to Eric who doesn’t remember me at all. Doesn’t ring a bell somewhere that I’ve been waiting on him and his family for every one of his mother’s birthdays since I was thirteen. But it’s, OK, I tell myself when he asks me how my summer’s been, because we don’t go to the same high school and if we did and I actually did have a life where I did things like shop and personal maintenance, well I just know he’d notice me, remember be. And I’m heading home after, walking and not caring that I’ll have to kiss up to my sister for the rest of my pre-college life because I got to look into Eric’s beautiful brown eyes and speak real words to him and Emily wasn’t any where around. And for a minute, for one solitary second I felt alive. Then I take the turn onto my street. Two police cars are parked right outside my house with their lights on.
What’s the last moment that took your breath away?
What’s the last thing you did on an impulse?
What surprised you the most at the last concert you attended?
Who’s the most colorful character in your neighborhood?
Posted on 6/30/2010
There, hanging on a wall, within a shadow box was a Victorian human hair wreath. They were made in the 1800s as a way to remember ancestors before the invention of photographs. Curious? More here.
I can't believe that it's the last day of June! Summer is flying by! And I can't believe I've been asking questions for three whole months already on One Question A Day! Will I run out? I hope not:) Anyway, thanks to those who've stopped by for a little writing inspiration. I'll keep the questions coming. Wish me luck. My goal? To ask a year of questions [except on Sundays, when I write one Flash Fiction answer].
Posted on 4/30/2010
Yesterday was a fabulous day. Very serendipitous. Joe and I have been thinking about how we'll celebrate our 25th Anniversary. We've talked about going away, very far away. Named different countries we'd always wanted to visit. Dreamed about what we'd do in each place. In truth, it would probably be more restful just to chill somewhere close. Not try and get away for too long, as that seems practically impossible these days. But, still we dream.
Then yesterday, we figured it all out. I was at the Spirit Garden, just looking at my friend Wawi's artwork when a lady asked if I worked there. I said I didn't but asked if I could help her find something. She said she was looking for Jason. A friend of ours who is out of town. I told her he wouldn't be back until tomorrow and she said "Well, tell him that Patricia from Bali came by." Really? Wow. I said I would and we struck up a conversation about Indonesia and that I really was curious about what it would be like to visit Java. She said she had never been and that there is some beautiful furniture in Java. She gave me her info and said that my hubby and I should stop by and stay with her in Bali and she would travel with us to Java. How cool is that? When I told Joe about it, he said great. Let's do it. I love him. Here's hoping we can swing that trip!
Which leads me to today's question...
Posted on 4/12/2010
The storm yesterday was crazy. Very, very windy and rainy. I was lighting a fire in the fireplace/stove in our living room and heard this kind of crack-boom-crashing sound. Bigger than the time a branch fell on our roof during a previous storm and almost took out our skylight. Scared me so bad I broke the glass of the stove door because when I went to shut the door that's when I heard the huge boom of the tree falling. Thought it had fallen on our house, or in the driveway, but when I looked next door this is what I saw!
J lives there with his mom, who's out of town, so Rachel and I helped him get his stuff out. J was sitting at his computer when it happened. He was SO lucky, that top window is/was his bedroom! When we walked upstairs the roof had been punctured with tree branches, big, thick branches. Rachel and I hunted for tarps, she found a few and did an awesome job of creating a funnel to keep the rain flowing out of the inside of the house.
Which leads to today's question: What has surprised you recently?
By: Lose Two Bra Sizes,
on 2/21/2010
Posted on 1/14/2010
discovering a dead body. Happened to my hubby last Friday. She's the angel I wrote about on my Tuesday Twist. Since she's already hit the local news and papers. Wow. Just, wow.
I call my hubby and ask if he can talk. Tells me he's walking the job. I say to call me later when he has time. He says, oh no, it's fine. I'm here waiting for the Coroner. Gulp.
All that's been going through my mind are images. Images of what the central coast of California looked like 3000 to 5000 years ago when our 30 year old angel lived. What her life was like. Thirty years was long time to live back then. She must have been smart and very strong.
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By: patrice,
on 10/23/2008
I'm one of those people who generally don't like surprises. However, my husband surprised me with a pumpkin latte this morning. Awww! Maybe I better rethink my position. :)
The sketches are for a picture book cover I'm working on this week. The book is finished, just the cover is left. Can't wait to share it with you!
By: Gina Perry,
on 10/21/2008
This little guinea pig left a few unpleasant surprises behind - it just goes to show, you never know what an illustration assignment will bring - or what yucky things you'll need to research!
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Posted on 9/23/2008
And here it is, my new canvas. Not yet even near to finish However this are the steps to completion :D
Nearly.
This time I decide to have Whoopi Goldberg portrait :D But I'm searching to express myself much more, yet I think I need to study so much more.
By: Laura Purdie Salas,
on 12/20/2007
On Monday, I got an envelope from Clarion. I thought it was a poetry book, since I'm on the CYBILS nominating panel. But it was a copyedited manuscript of my poetry picture book, STAMPEDE! POEMS TO CELEBRATE THE WILD SIDE OF SCHOOL.
My lovely editor, Jennifer Wingertzahn, had gone through with blue pencil (I think that was her first color) and made a few marks about punctuation. Then a Clarion copyeditor had gone through and marked the heck out of it. She (I don't know if it was a she, but I'm sticking with she to make it easy on me!) used a brown/red pencil and asked questions all over the place. She wanted to add punctuation, italicize certain words, and hyphenate some things. Then Jennifer had gone through it again, this time with green pencil, and responded to some of the copyeditor's marks. Then she sent the manuscript on to me for me to respond to the whole thing.
It was a bit of an internal debate for me over whether to use periods in a kind of prose way in this collection, which is what the copyeditor suggested and Jennifer also thought would work well. I read the ms several times and also opened up a bunch of the CYBILS-nominated books to study what kind of punctuation and with how much consistency it was used in excellent books for this same age range (1st-2nd grade). Jennifer and I emailed back and forth a couple of times. She's very open to hearing my side of things, and I'm very open to hearing hers, so this whole process is not contentious at all. It's just everyone trying to figure out what makes the best book.
And then there were other decisions. For instance, the copyeditor wanted to hyphenate hide and seek. But in the poem I used it in, I was describing the act of hiding and seeking, and I wanted the meter of HIDE and SEEK, DUM da DUM. But hyphenating it to hide-and-seek makes you say it faster and also changes the meter to hide-and-SEEK, da-da-DUM. So I rejected that change.
It was fun dealing with the minutae of words, hyphens, and periods for a little while. Especially as I'm immersed in overall, big picture structure questions with my work in progress. Periods and hyphens I could handle. It was a relief after asking myself about a different work: But what am I really trying to do here? What will serve this topic the best?
Anyway, I finished marking it up (in plain grey pencil), made a copy to keep, and overnighted it back to Clarion. The illustrator, whose name I think I can say now but I'm not positive, so I'll hold off a little longer, is ready to paint! The sketches, I assume, have all been approved, and Jennifer was eager to get the copyediting stage finished so the illustrator could get to work.
Hurray! It's really happening. It won't be out until spring 2009, but it's so fun to have it move through each stage!
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 4/18/2007
Speaking of copyediting (see post below), it's an interesting, sometimes frustrating, always important part of the process. The big picture stuff is done - the story is finally in place - and now it's time to pass the baton from editor to copyeditor - to put the final polish on the manuscript.
It never ceases to amaze me how I can read a manuscript 284 times and still miss things that seem so obvious when pointed out.
page 86: Willow looked down at Aggie's canvas sneakers. They were wet and muddy. One of them had a frayed hole in the side and Aggie's little toe poked out.
page 189: Then she put on her canvas sneakers with the holes in the side....
Copyeditor: So, which is it? One hole or more than one hole?
My thoughts: #@*%&
My words: Gee, good catch. Let me go back and fix that.
page 7: Then she moved on to pondering how she was going to fix that clogged drain in Room 4.
page 119: When Loretta's father finished fixing the clogged sink in Room 4...
Copyeditor: So, do you want to use "drain" or "sink"? They should probably be consistent.
My thoughts: #@*%&
My words: Gee, good catch. Let me go back and fix that.
How does she DO that? She is a genius.
It's those little, little details that put the final polish on. Lucky, lucky me to have such a fine polisher.
The devil is in the details.
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 4/17/2007
Sometimes, to avoid writing, I read about writing. I was recently reading, Nobles Book of Writing Blunders by William Nobles. He talks a lot about the sound of writing - that the reader "hears" the written word.
The rhythm of my writing is very important to me. I consider it critical to my writing voice. But sometimes, I have to fight a bit to keep the rhythm where I want it to be.
I just finished up (I hope) the final copyedits for my next book (Greetings from Nowhere - Spring 2008- thus, the name of this blog). Now - FSG has the best copyeditors on the planet. Bar none. The B-E-S-T. I drive them crazy with my "Southernisms." (They're from New York. I forgive them.)
They know their stuff. They miss nothing. They punctuate punctuate punctuate. But sometimes, I just don't WANT to punctuate. It ruins the rhythm of my writing.
For example, listen to the difference between:
1. Sometimes, when her father was sleeping on the couch, Willow would tiptoe down the hall to his bedroom that used to be Dorothy's bedroom, too.
and
2. Sometimes, when her father was sleeping on the couch, Willow would tiptoe down the hall to his bedroom, that used to be Dorothy's bedroom, too.
The difference, of course, lies in that one stinking little comma after the word "bedroom." The two are totally different to me. They sound different. They have a different "aura." (#1 is the one that is my rhythm and my voice. I need that sound - with no pause for the comma.)
Lucky for me, I also have copyeditors who listen to me and respect what I do and don't push their dang commas on me if I don't want them. Another one of the 1378 reasons why I love FSG.
good luck with your article. Here are my Oso stories:
Laura,
I think you might even remember this one. My sophomore year at U of I, I had a “luck of the draw” roommate after my not so great experience with 2 “friends” second semester freshman year. So, I came home one night after a few hours at KAMS with the girls. My room was locked, but not bolted. When I opened the door Pam, my roommate and Myron (her boyfriend and that is his real name) were completely naked.
Not a pretty sight. Funny though.
WOW. Great story, Jules!! No I never heard that one. I don’t know what’s funnier. That they were both standing there, naked, or…that his name was Myron. For some reason Myron in my mind doesn’t DOOOO things like that. Ever. hahahahha.
You might have heard this one. I roomed with a girl ["luck of the draw roomie"] from the heart of Illinois. A girl who wasn’t comfortable with “the big city” of Champaign-Urbana. I was out ALOT my first semester frosh year. One day I come home and…she’s GONE. Like everything packed up all her stuff…gone. You know how sad a dorm room is with nothing on the walls. So, for the rest of the year, I had NO roommate. But I was never home. It was so bizarre. My side of the dorm room was full of pics and stuff and the other side looked like The Grinch had just stolen everything:)
Of course then there’s this story about this awesome girl I used to live one door down from. BOY was she a riot. And we’re still friends to this day:):) Xoxoxox