The Best Valentines Come from the Little Ones
The Little One (our resident artist) doesn’t know I’m posting this, but I don’t think she’d be upset. She got some white soap at the drug store, and carved it and colored it, as a gift for Mommy.
I remember when I was a kid, buying (or making) and giving away Valentines to all my classmates. One year, we made and decorated our own Valentine’s boxes. Each student in the class would then hand out the Valentines he was giving, dropping one into the slot on the top of each of his classmates’ boxes.
I’m afraid that I over-decorated mine. I covered it in aluminum foil, drew on it with red marker, and decorated it with numerous, beautiful, pink shells. It was really quite… erm… girly. (My mother was afraid I might be made fun of, but much to her credit, she did not interfere. And I don’t remember being teased… much.)
For the first day of Valentine’s week, a simple reminder of the most important and significant Valentines, those we get from our families— whether they have physical form or whether they take the form of happy wishes.
-TimK
P.S. (And now for a word from our sponsor…) In honor of Valentine’s Day, there’s still time to get $5 off an autographed bundle of From the Ashes of Courage together with Love through the Eyes of an Idiot: click here and use the coupon code Gail n Eddie.
Friday Fun: Our Favorite Star Trek Episodes
Yes, Star Trek. Specifically, The Next Generation.
The Little One and I have been watching select episodes together. I’ve been enjoying them on DVD, and she both startled and thrilled me when she started enjoying the show right alongside me. I panicked just a little when—right in the middle of a Borg marathon—she asked to see the first Next Generation episode ever made. Fortunately, barely 10 minutes into it, she found it just as distressing as I do. Of course, my comments about “Oh my God! I’m so glad he doesn’t do that anymore!” probably didn’t help.
(She also liked drawing comparisons between the Borg on one hand, and on the other hand, Brog, of Zork: Grand Inquisitor. “Brog like rocks! Rocks good! You will be assimilated.” That was funny.)
Seriously, though, I used to think of Star Trek as a guilty pleasure, but as I’ve been going back through them, first the original series, then The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, now with the benefit of years of training as a writer, I see the value of them. I see why I originally loved many of these stories, not because of the space-opera plots or the très kewl special effects or the corny techno-babble, but because they meet my five points of life-expanding stories.
I’m way behind schedule with Ardor Point #2, even without playing Farmville. I was originally supposed to be writing the first draft this week; instead, I haven’t even started the zero-draft yet. But I figured at least I could get a good blog post out of the major distraction. So here are some of our favorite Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, the Little One and me, that we’ve watched recently.
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A New Bunch of Books to Read
I agreed to get ahold of a copy of a book written by a fellow-author, and the only place I could get one was from Amazon. That left me with a bunch of dollars left over to spend in order to get free shipping. So I used the excuse to load up on Holly Lisle books I don’t have, including some from her older books now out of print.
You wouldn’t think that I would need more books, judging from the size of my Goodreads “to-read” list, all of which I have on the premises or readily available to borrow. But the fact is that I’ve been looking for some engrossing, character-driven fiction to read, and on that score Holly has always delivered. Besides which, the Little One has wanted to read Fire in the Mist ever since I told her about it months ago. (I had read part of it online at the Baen Free Library, but that was before ebooks were convenient to read, and I’ve been longing to finish it myself.)
But that wasn’t the end of my book acquisition. I’ve also set up an account on BookMooch, have already given away 5 books from my “to get rid of” pile, and have already requested 2 more Holly Lisle books.
All told, here are the books I’m expecting (some of which I’ve already received):
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Praise for the Love-Idiot Book; Tuesday Teaser
I got a wonderful email this week from Carrie L., who just recently read Love through the Eyes of an Idiot, my short, romantic memoir about YA angst and unconditional love. Carrie’s email I just had to share. (With her permission, of course.)
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Jojo’s Sunning Himself under the Waterfall
Just a quick video post today… This was too cute.
We have a fresh-water turtle, a red-eared slider, which we’ve raised from a tiny baby. Back then, he lived in a small tank, about the size of a fishbowl. Now, he’s outgrowing his grown-up-sized tank, and we’re thinking he may need an even bigger one.
As he is cold-blooded—all turtles are—he spends a great deal of time sunning himself on his log. Unfortunately, today, his log seems to have drifted under the water filter, and the filtered water is spilling out over it. That didn’t stop him from sunning there, however ineffective that must have been.
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Friday Fun & Snippet: Starting a New Business
Remember when I used to post Friday Snippets here? I used to enjoy reading what other writers were writing. Unfortunately, the meme faded out of use. But that doesn’t mean I can’t still post a snippet here.
This is the opening scene in From the Ashes of Courage (my newly released novel, which you can download free for only 2 more days), where we meet Gail and Ann and their new venture.
Gail Bishop eased open the door and basked in the newness as it washed over her. She had visited the suite only once before, when she and Ann had set it up last week, every last piece of furniture in place. Very little in the room, in fact, they had bought new. New paint, and the air still smelled of it. New, colorful posters lined the walls. A new telephone, new stapler, new office supplies. But the desks, file cabinets, office partitions they had purchased on the used market—complete with scratches in the paint and nicks on the corners—from among the many poor businesses that had been going under. The computers they had gotten off eBay and craigslist. Even in the diagnostic meeting room, set off with a closed door for privacy, their nasometer, the children’s picture books they used there, and the other specialized diagnostic equipment, almost all of it they managed to find pre-owned.
But it all felt new to Gail. And that’s what she had told Ann, but Ann didn’t seem to understand.
All My NetFlix DVD’s Are Accounted For
Photo © 2005 Andre Alforque CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Last week, I got the strangest email, and I still can’t quite figure out what to make of it.
N, from the Natural Sciences department at Bentley University, found a sealed NetFlix DVD on a cart in one of the buildings there. She also noticed the corresponding torn-off part of the envelope, the part with the subscriber’s address, in a nearby wastepaper basket. And the address (she said) was mine. So she looked me up on Google and emailed me, asking if I wanted her to drop the DVD in a mailbox.
But I don’t go to Bentley, have not been to Bentley; and that certainly isn’t my DVD.
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Two Women Search for the Meaning of Life
I finally got to see Julie and Julia over the weekend. Unlike many stories, it doesn’t serve as a means of escape. Rather, there is substance and inspiration woven through it.
The film compares the stories of Julia Child and Julie Powell. Both faced an impasse in their lives; both set out on a search for meaning; both found it in pursuits that many failed to understand. Julia studied at Le Cordon Bleu at a time when all French chefs were men, and she brought that knowledge to American housewives. Decades later, Julie cooked her way through Julia’s first recipe book, 524 recipes in 365 days.
Both women encountered resistance. Julia faced a glass ceiling of her day, and shattered it. Then she spent almost a decade coauthoring her now-famous Mastering the Art of French Cooking, only to have it turned down by Houghton Mifflin.
Julie cooked her way through that book and blogged about it, which prompted questions from friends and family, questions like… “Why are you doing that?!” Even her loving, supportive husband—and I hope if you’re married that you have one of those— even he hit a low point and failed to understand why she needed to do it.
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“From the Ashes of Courage” First Book Reading
I’ll post tomorrow the short post about Julie and Julia that I was planning to finish today, because this was way more exciting. The first box of copies of From the Ashes of Courage came today!
With this book, I did not order a proof copy, so I spent the last week nervous that it might not have come out as good as I expected. Here you get to see the actual, printed product at the same time I do.
(Plus, I read a little from the first chapter, tongue-tied goofs and all.)
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Friday Fun: Quip Hits
A number of short statements, commentaries, and useless insights collected over the last mumble-mumble months.
On Technology
Top Facebook group: “I’m not yelling…I’m Italian…thats how we talk.”
Top Facebook group that someone ought to start: “Walking around naked makes me feel sexy.”
Some weeks ago, I posted “Coconut” to my Facebook status, and no one noticed. Do you know how much that hurts?
If you have to force viewers not to skip over your video ads, then you’re obviously showing them the wrong ads.
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