Avatar for Russian Mafia Babe

Hey, here's my new avatar. I got tired of seeing the old picture from my cousin's wedding on every web page, so here is the new Russian Mafia Babe. Let me know how you like it.

Meme newbie

Thanks to David at Living in the Now, I'm doing my first meme! This is the crazy 8's, and I hope I'm doing it right.

8 things I’m passionate about:

My daughters (Sara and Mia)
Writing
Learning
Shamanism
Working for the Greater Good
Battlestar Galactica - when is Season 3 coming on DVD??????
Traveling
Skiing - is it like riding a bike? Will I remember how when the kids are finally old enough?

8 things I want to do before I die:

Go into space (agree with David).
Visit Stonehenge (before spellcheck it was Stonehedge). (Agree with David but I knew how to spell it)
See grandchildren (I started really late with kids, so I'll have to live awhile)
Write a novel that hits number one on the New York Times best seller list
Be interviewed on Oprah for some incredible achievement
Go on an African safari
Start a foundation for kids and animals
Visit Machu Pichu

8 things I say often:

Good Grief
Sara stop it
Maybe it is for the best
I you (Sara said I Love You this way, and it stuck)
You have to think positively
Hola
Go dogs (there are 4, no I don't want more)
In the great green room there was a telephone

8 books I’ve read recently:

Love in the Time of Cholera (see Sorry Oprah)
Bel Canto
Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
Shaman, Healer, Sage by Alberto Villoldo
Goodnight Moon
Puff The Magic Dragon illustrated version, stood in line for the autograph
The Power of Positive Thinking
Yaro Starak's Blog Profits Blueprint

8 songs I could listen to over and over:

The whole Piano soundtrack
Shamanic Dream 2 by Anugama
Anything by Chris Cornell (Soundgarten or Audioslave or solo) what a voice
Time to Say Goodbye by Andrea Bocelli
La Candela by Yerba Buena
luckily anything on the Putamayo kids cd
Buddha Bar soundtracks
Chasing Cars - the Izzy song from Grey's Anatomy

8 things that attract me to my best friends:

Humor
Positive outlook
good with the kids
good with the pets
Poker
Nothing fake
Intelligent
not afraid to dance in public

8 people I think should do Crazy Eights:
Sorry, I don't know too may people out there, so forgive me if you were picked at random:

ChrisG at ChrisG
CMarks at Sex and the South
Lise at Shadows of Science
Sheila at Pillows and Chocolate
Handsome Devil at the handsome devil
Trish at Light Sweet Crude
Elizabeth at A Wild Ride

Happy blogging!

Sorry Oprah

I have tried, really, to read Love in the Time of Cholera. I would never have made it past the first page, though, except that I bought the book because Oprah so praised it and chose it as her book club selection. That and because I read a blog post about writers needing to pay it forward by actually buying books.

So I purchased the paperback copy with the Oprah seal at a bookseller and sat down in those wonderful few moments between getting the kids to sleep and conking out myself, and I struggled. But I made it past the initial suicide where the man who offed himself decided to take his dog with him. Not at all something I can appreciate, but still I read on.

Then several more animals die, in a rampage by another animal, which entirely turned me off, but at least the description wasn't overly graphic. I forged ahead and made it through the mind numbing pages of the couple driven nearly to the brink of divorce over whether there was soap in the bathroom or not.

I even tried to ignore the annoying reference to every character by his or her entire full name every time. Yes, it was a formal time, but I couldn't get close to these characters because of this stiff reference, and in fact they started to aggravate me with their long titles.

But what finally stopped me was the lengthy - and I mean several pages - description of the strength and duration of the main character's stream of pee. It goes from his young virile stream that won contests for peeing in bottles to where he is old and feeble and has to pee sitting down to appease his wife and not spray all over the seat and floor, but it takes several pages to go this route.

As a writer, I can appreciate that it shows the character failing with old age. And the description is quite detailed and painstaking, showing off great skill on the part of the author. And I am sure it is not an overused plot device.

But really, do I want to read pages of pee? No. I've changed I don't know how many diapers in the past couple of years, waited by the potty for countless hours, cleaned up after the stubborn dog who appears housetrained for awhile and then gets over on me, so I'm done with pee.

Not that I usually quit reading books. I stubbornly see them through no matter what, even James Michener length tomes when I'm really busy and have to read a page here and a page there.

But recently I've been a lot pickier. I quit The Memory Keeper's Daughter about 2/3 through and never regretted it. I realized that the main characters in that book were sinking slowly deeper and deeper into depression, and it showed no signs of letting up, so I closed the book and was happier for it.

But those writers are published and even praised by the likes of Oprah, and I'm not. So here's a shout out to Oprah, and an invitation to visit my blog and maybe send an email or comment : )

NaBloPoMo Killing My Novel

As much fun as I'm having writing a post a day and keeping up with everyone else who is posting and reading all the new RSS feeds I've discovered during November and my new email subscriptions and checking comments....well you get the picture....I'm not working at all on my novel!

I don't mean a novel I'm doing for NaNoWriMo, I'm not crazy enough to participate in that at the same time, but I mean the actual novel I'm writing in the chase of my long-held dream of being a published novelist. Does anyone out there know of a good critique group where I could post chapters so that at least I'm inspired by e-nagging and e-critiquing to keep going?

Also, I've decided to set an additional goal of querying at least two publications a week for articles. I did Working Mother magazine today. Does anyone know of likely leads for mom/adoption/WAHM/blogging type articles?

And as a bonus today, I'm going to post my first chapter here at Russian Mafia Babe. You can follow the Category Not My Child as I add chapters.

Thanks!

NaBloPoMo Anyone?

I am a few days late, but I just found out about NaBloPoMo (http://nablopomo.ning.com/). The acronym stands for National Blog Posting Month, and they are a sister site to NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month.

Both are great for writers. The first encourages us to post to our blogs every day, and the second is a challenge to write an entire novel in one month.

Maybe if I go over into December it will even out.

So if you are stuck for something to write about this month, check out these ideas:

- Chris Garrett's post on Performancing.com Ten Killer Post Ideas http://performancing.com/node/169

-Places to get great ideas for blog posts http://www.rss-specifications.com/blog-post-ideas.htm

-101 Great Posting Ideas that will Make Your Blog Sizzel at http://www.ihelpyoublog.com/20070316-101-great-posting-ideas-that-will-make-your-blog-sizzle

-111 instant Blog Post Ideas: http://www.blogchalktalk.com/2006/12/111_instant_blog_post_ideas.html

-And for help in making your blog posts better, check out this article on ProBlogger:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/08/24/marinating-ideas-into-blog-posts-my-posting-workflow/

Hope you have time to write after all of the research!

Lisa