Sami Post: My Name Is Not Bob: Revision Tips for Writers

My Name Is Not Bob: Revision Tips for Writers

I know at least several of us are going through revisions either right now or very soon, so I thought I'd share: a nice rundown of things to think about while handling your revisions.

~:)

what we're reading

Hi everybody! I was just wondering what everyone's reading right this very minute?

I'm reading Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, The Restorer by Amanda Stevens (not out yet), Earthling Hero by our own Anita Laydon Miller, and Mansfield Park by Jane Austin. What are YOU reading?

If You Ever Meet me...

If you ever meet me in an alley...
I'm probably doing research for a book. Because alleys scare the hell out of me - even well-lit ones in the middle of the day. I would not suggest approaching a paranoid writer in an alley-way - especially me. Though a friendly "Hey, are you alive over there?" couldn't hurt. It will most likely be ignored.

If you ever meet me behind a computer...
If my eyes are on the screen and the fingers on the keys - BEWARE. I may ensnare you to be my sounding board while I talk my way out of a problem. Or bite off your head if you begin a conversation. (or your hand if it comes within good masticating distance).

If you ever meet me at a conference....
I'll be sure to be talking or listening to someone important because I LOVE meeting new people and I think everyone's important in their own right. Come and join us. We won't mind.

If you ever meet me when I'm teaching...
Beware - the children are probably frikazeeing my brain and I won't have enough mental fortitude to speak with anyone over the age of twelve. You'll have to give me some adjustment time. Or HELP. PLEASE HELP. So my darling little monsters won't overrun me :-)

and finally...

If you ever meet me when I am with my family....
Do not judge me by the company I keep or the gene pool I come from... Please. They are insanity incarnate these people and I love them will all my heart. But if you're not a Crosier, you simply will not understand.

link: Beware Of Writer

Beware Of Writer:

I've decided to take any mention of being a writer and being a troublemaker as a reference to us, and I'm going to post them all here and take the credit for their inspiration as our own. Just so you know. Also, this is an awesome article.

"I’ve seen a meme bouncing around that reveals reasons why you shouldn’t ever date a writer. It’s true, to a point. But I think it goes even deeper than that. Frankly, you should probably get the hell away from us. Anybody. Not just the people we date. But everybody. See us in line at the grocery store? Run, don’t walk. Escape. Avoid. Awooga, awooga. On a good day, we’re eccentric troublemakers. On a bad day, we’re malevolent sociopaths. And with writers, it’s usually a bad day."

Hi Everyone!

This blog has been up and running for a little bit now, and I've yet to jump on and introduce myself. Seeing as how I'm looking for an excuse to take a break from cleaning my house... I thought I'd jump on and see what's happening on the Troublemaker Blog.

I'm Prisakiss. Romance writer, mother of three, wife of one, employee of a local metro St Louis community college, full-time graduate student in Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction Master of Fine Arts program, volunteer with several organizations, avid runner (though not so avid in the cold weather), baseball/football/tennis fan, ESPN viewer, and musical theater aficionado. That pretty much covers the big stuff.

I'm proud to be a member of the Troublemakers!! We're a great group, okay maybe a hodgepodge, of writers from all across the US striving to get published (or published again) and impact the emotions of readers across the globe.

We're funny, emotion-driven, a little quirky, and REAL. So stop by sometime to see what we're chatting about. Or ask a question you'd like us to answer.

We're all writers, so obviously writing questions are a "go." But we're people from all walks of life, so shoot away and let's see what we come up with. Maybe you'll find some sage advice. Maybe you'll get a laugh. Maybe you'll shed a tear-- happy or sad. But we'll do our best to evoke some type of emotion from you-- hopefully a positive one.

Cheers!!

link: Pass-Along Poems | Poets & Writers

Pass-Along Poems | Poets & Writers

I wanted to share this little gem of beautifulness: 12 free poems by new poets, that you can print up and staple into a chapbook to hand out to people, and maybe change their lives.

I firmly believe that the possibility implicit in every single poem is that maybe it'll change someone's life. This little book lets you leave little landmines of literature all over the city, and gives space where you can include your own unpublished stuff, if you want-- or maybe leave the pages blank and let other people fill in their own poetry, the songs in their own heads.

So go here, get this .pdf, and add a little more art to the world, okay?

nonsense, troublemakers style

Ten Top Trivia Tips about The Troublemakers!

1. It's bad luck to put The Troublemakers on a bed!
2. The Troublemakers once came third in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest.
3. Pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than The Troublemakers.
4. Pacman was originally called The Troublemakerman.
5. The Troublemakers can usually be found in nests built in the webs of large spiders.
6. American Airlines saved forty thousand dollars a year by eliminating The Troublemakers from each salad served in first class.
7. Bees visit over three million flowers to make a single kilogram of The Troublemakers.
8. A thimbleful of The Troublemakers would weigh over 100 million tons!
9. Ostriches stick their heads in The Troublemakers not to hide but to look for water.
10. You share your birthday with The Troublemakers.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

now we've been formally introduced...

Hi! I'm Sami. Samantha Holloway if you want to be professional.

I was just thinking this morning of the very first book I remember reading for myself. I learned how to read pretty early-- I had basic words and numbers down before I started school because I used to read the comics while my dad read the paper in the morning (I remember how impossibly huge those pages seemed to my four-year-old self). Then I spend several years officially learning, and being totally bored of books with less than ten pages and really short words, so I read everything that had words on it-- signs, the backs of cereal boxes, the subtitles for Clan of the Cave Bear (which taught me how to read faster, and also the basics of how babies are made). Somewhere along the line, I moved up to skinny chapter books before I was supposed to. And then, when I had just turned eight, I got Charlotte's Web out of a bookstore of my own accord, and I spent two months reading it so carefully that I think I could have written a dissertation about it. It was the first book that was really mine. The first one that made me cry just because of the combination of little letter-squiggles on the pages. The first one I clearly remember impacting my life--I still feel bad squishing spiders, and I've considered giving up all pig products (and actually do, whenever I re-read it, for a time... except that bacon is so damned tasty and I don't have that much willpower).

That book is probably why I started writing. The first thing I remember sitting down specifically to write was very soon after reading that book, and the first thing anyone noticed me writing was within a few months of it. I gave it to my niece when she started reading, and now she's eleven and devouring books as quickly as I did. I'm trying to talk her into starting a blog. Because I think that's the next step: I gave her Charlotte's Web, and now I need to encourage her to write, too.