Thursday Thirteen: When the book is done

Thursday 13: When the book is done...

Sometimes the hardest part of producing a book is what happens AFTER it's published.

1. You have to market the book, which for most of us solitary writers who live mostly in our heads, is a daunting road to navigate, with frightening intersections like...
2. ...live chats (EEK! No editing your posts!!) and guest blogging (what if I don't come up with something to impress my host, or worse, what if nobody comments??!!!)
3. Release day comes and you suddenly feel exposed. Naked! You wish, for one panicky moment, that you could take it back.
4. And release day is a bit of a non-event. You find yourself waiting.... but you're not sure what you're waiting for. It's not like you can watch a counter spinning around, telling you how many books are being sold.
5. You're now expected to write another one...
6. ...but you can't get the characters from the last book out of your head...
7. ...and you're not sure you even want to (because you love your babies)...
8. ...but you didn't leave any loose threads to justify a sequel...
9. ...and you're too scared to try in case it doesn't live up to the first one.
10. You wait on pins and needles to find out what your family and friends thought of it...
11. ...but some don't even bother (ouch!)...
12. ...or have any idea how much their opinions mean to you...
13. You have a hope-love-hate relationship with review sites. You hope to get a good rating, you love the praise, you hate the waiting.

And those, dear readers, are the sad-truths and self-doubts that plague this neurotic writer (I'm sure I'm not alone!) to counterbalance the whoop-ass elation of getting published.

By the way... Law of Averages is now available from Ellora's Cave ;)

Thursday Thirteen #28 - A visit from my sister

My sister (let's call her *Karen) and brother-in-law (we'll call him *Stephen) spent a week with us recently, so I thought I'd share ~

13 Things I Did With My Sister

1. Indulged in pedicures. "You wan flowa? Fie dolla"
2. Shopped at IKEA (perhaps a better word would be frenzy)
3. Shopped at COSTCO (and spent hundreds of dollars on black licorice and fiber-licious cereal for my constipated sister)
4. Visited a petting zoo and got our hands slimed by llamas, goats, sheep, deer and a very friendly donkey. And yes, we did the Shrek "DonKey!" before each slice of apple was handed over.
5. Ate lots of Chinese food (and fiber cereal)
6. Bought an LCD HDTV (squeee!)
7. Played mini-golf, at which my 3 yr old boasted "I got a holy-one!"
8. Visited Tim Hortons approximately 18 times (in effort to help along my still-constipated sister by flushing her system with copious amounts of black coffee)
9. Spent a day at Ontario Place where we ~
-rode paddle boats
-enjoyed the Chinese Lantern exhibit
-played more mini-golf
-rode the BIG SLIDE
(and by 'spent the day' I really mean, 'half the day' because we had to wait so long for my sister to get out of the bathroom)
10. Played ENDLESSLY with the kittens (and by 'played' I really mean got grossed out by their smelly kitten farts and spent hours cleaning bits of litter from the floor)
11. Hung a new light in my dining room (and by 'new' I really mean old. It was my mother's, from the 1950's, and came to me via my sister's bedroom. Apparently her husband doesn't appreciate vintage)
12. Ordered dining room furniture
13. Aired out the house. Oops! That was after they left...
:)

My wonderful big sister. Always a pleasure, always a laugh, and did I mention that she folds my laundry, sweeps my floors and spoils my children :)

*Names may have been changed to protect the innocent.

Leave your name!

Thursday Thirteen #22 - Inventions

With Canada Day fast approaching (July 1st), I thought I'd post some Canadiana. Here are

Thirteen Canadian Inventions

1. Electric Light Bulb – Henry Woodward invented an electric light bulb in 1874 and sold the patent to Thomas Edison
2. Garbage Bag (polyethylene) – invented by Harry Wasylyk in 1950
3. Heart Pacemaker – invented by Dr. John A. Hopps in 1950
4. IMAX Movie System – co-invented in 1968 by Grahame Ferguson, Roman Kroitor and Robert Kerr
5. Jetliner – the first commercial jetliner to fly in North America was designed by James Floyd in 1949. The first test flight of the AVRO Jetliner was on August 10, 1949 (if you don’t know anything about the AVRO ARROW, I urge you to Google it. The story is nothing less than fascinating)
6. Plexiglas – polymerized methyl methacrylate was invented by William Chalmers in 1931
7. Portable Film Developing System – invented by Arthur Williams McCurdy in 1890, but he foolishly sold the patent to George Eastman in 1903 (d’oh)
8. Robertson Screw – (and the Robertson screwdriver!) was invented in 1908 by Peter L. (you guessed it) Robertson.
9. Snowmobile – invented by Joseph-Armand Bombardier in 1958
10. Television Camera – invented by F.C.P. Henroteau in 1934
11. Trivial Pursuit – invented in 1979 by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott
12. Walkie-Talkie – invented by Donald L. Hings in 1942
13. Zipper – invented by Gideon Sundback in 1913

I found so many interesting inventions made by Canadians - I had no idea - and it was very hard to narrow this list to a mere 13. If your interested in seeing more, go HERE.
The one that shocked me most was the lightbulb.
Which one surprised you?

Thursday Thirteen #21 - 13 Smallest Countries in the World

The 13 Smallest Countries in the World

13. St. Vincent & the Grenadines - 150 square miles, pop. 117,000, island located in the Caribbean

12. Grenada - 133 sq miles, pop. 90,000, island located in the Caribbean

11. Malta - 122 sq miles, pop. 400,000, island located south of the Italian island of Sicily

10. Maldives - 115 sq miles, pop. 340,000, island group located in the Indian Ocean

9. Seychelles - 107 sq miles, pop. 81,000, island group located in the Indian Ocean

8. Saint Kitts & Nevis - 104 sq miles, pop. 39,000, islands located in the Caribbean

7. Marshall Islands - 70 sq miles, pop. 58,000, island group located in the Pacific

6. Leichtenstein - 62 sq miles, pop. 34,000, located in the Alps between Switzerland and Austria

(This is where Bermuda would have gone, at 25 sq miles with a pop. of 65,000, but it remains a self-governing British colony)

5. San Marino - 24 sq miles, pop. 29,000, located on Mt. Titano in north central Italy

4. Tuvalu - 9 sq miles, pop. 12,000, group of islands in Polynesia

3. Nauru - 8.5 sq miles, pop. 13,000, located in the Pacific

2. Monaco - .7 sq miles, pop. 32,000, located near Nice on the French Riviera

and the smallest country in the world is: *insert drum roll*

1. Vatican City (Holy See) - .2 sq miles, pop. 770 (though none are permanent residents), located in Rome, Italy

Leave you name, and if you've ever visited one of these wee places, please tell us what you thought:

Thursday Thirteen #14

We interrupt this regularly scheduled feature for actual story writing...

But please leave your link and I'll be sure to visit yours Thursday Thirteen!

Until next week,

Wylie

The Jackpot has been won! But not by me...

I'm as poor today as I was yesterday...

It sure was fun to dream of spending all that money. Two people ended up splitting the almost 39 million dollar jackpot.
(Note to the lottery gods: I would have been happy splitting it three, even four ways!)

Thanks for all your great comments TTers -- Lots of laughs!

Thursday Thirteen #9 - Pirate Slang

Thirteen Pirate Slang Words/Phrases Since my current WIP is a pirate story, I thought I would share 13 slang words or phrases that I've picked up doing the research: Dance the Hempen Jig - a good old hanging. Avast Ye - stop and pay attention. All Hands Hoary - a call to action, like all hands on deck. Cackle Fruit - chicken eggs. Freebooter - from the Dutch words 'free' & 'plunder', this is another term for pirate. Jack Tar - sailor's coats or tarpaulins were infused with tar to shed water and, in the case of pirates, help deflect sword blows so this is a generic name (like John Doe or Joe Blow) used in reference to a sailor. Shiver Me Timbers - a familiar classic, it's an expression of shock or disbelief. Bumboo - a drink found in the West Indies, it was made of watered down rum flavored with nutmeg and sugar. Powder Monkey - name for a gunner's assistant. Holystone - the ship decks were scrubbed with bars of sandstone. The soft areas of the stone would wear away, leaving holes. Also, the act of kneeling to scrub looked much like praying. Go On Account - a tongue-in-cheek phrase pirates used that compared the act of becoming a pirate to going into business. Swing the Lead - a lead weight on a line was used to measure water depth when a ship was near shore. This being a rather easy job, the phrase later evolved into a term for slacking off. Black Jack - a large leather drinking vessel made stiffer with tar. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


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Thursday Thirteen #7 - Analogy 101

Thirteen Hilarious Analogies for Writers and Other Word Geeks She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. His thought tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 instead of 7:30. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 pm traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19pm at a speed of 35 mph. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at the fire hydrant. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine. BTW - I can't take credit for writing these,... thank goodness! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thursday Thirteen #3 - What I Wanted To Be

Thirteen Things I Wanted To Be When I Grew Up Detective - Nancy Drew was my hero Movie Star - just like Ginger from Gilligan's Island Fonzie's Girlfriend - technically not a career, but Ayyyyy! Wonder Woman - I thought there really was an island of super women Archeologist - my mother said absolutely not, because my nails would get dirty. Doctor - surgeon, to be exact Marine Biologist - come on, who wouldn't wanna be?! Airline Pilot - I still harbor fantasies of flying a plane, but sadly, I'm claustrophobic and cockpits are really small Kindergarten Teacher - I love kids, but not 24 of them for 6 hours a day Writer - yes, even when I was 11 I 'aspired' Resort Owner - specifically on Fantasy Island Singer - then I heard a tape recording of myself. OUCH! Spy - I was in charge of the uber-hush-hush organization called the A.S.I.A. (Amelia Street Intellignce Agency). And now I have to kill you... Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thursday Thirteen #1: Best Television Shows of My Time Dallas – most popular night-time soap, spawned numerous others, and was responsible for the most famous cliffhanger ever – Who Shot JR? House – arguably one of the best characters on television. Dr. House says what we all wish we could: The Truth. Nip/Tuck – enveloping pushing drama that leaves you saying “Did they really just do that/go there?” Terrific acting, deep, well-thought out stories and great cast of characters. The Sopranos – gave life to cable series. Ground breaking, envelope pushing, and all the other clichés. Great writing, great acting, excellent multi-layered story lines. Represents a gritty reality that reality tv could never be! Seinfeld – still laughing at the reruns!! Murphy Brown – in the bleak landscape that sitcomdom was, Murphy was an intelligent breath of fresh air. Jeopardy – the one show with the ability to humble me into silence. And come on, who doesn’t love Alex? Friends – still laughing at the reruns!! ER – it hasn’t been around for 12 seasons for nuthin’ Lost – is there any other show in network television that has us more puzzled, frustrated and buzzing about purgatory, time travel, science experiment, etc. Happy Days – Ah, the days of innocence, Mr. C, The Fonz, Joanie and Chachi. But seriously, we got the term ‘jump the shark’ from this very timeless show. And didn’t we all really wish our own high-school experience would be all about lettermen sweaters and hanging out at Al’s? M*A*S*H* - For the first time, a hard look at life for wartime medics. Funny yet sad, poignant but entertaining. And I really wanted to put the neat asterisks between the letters. Suicide is painless! Star Trek – admittedly, I was never a devoted fan, though I watched the originals as a kid. But no other television series has spawned as many knock-offs, movies, re-make’s, conferences, toys, blah blah blah. That was hard. I left off a few because it’s Thursday 13, not Thursday 17. Notice, I titled it ‘Best TV Shows of MY time’. There were many classics, ground-breakers, etc, I could have added, but these are the ones that I found most entertaining and meaningful. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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