A post in which I actually express an opinion on something other than chocolate and feel good about myself because I exercise my right to free speech

This morning an article in the newspaper caught my eye:

Women ask CBS to scrap Super Bowl ad

Immediately, I'm thinking it's one that objectifies women in some way, maybe leans toward the pornographic...

But, no.

The New York-based Women's Media Center is coordinating with backing from the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority, and other groups to decry an ad which features the true story of a pregnant mother who gets very sick during a trip to the Philippines. She ignores doctor recommendations for an abortion and later gives birth to her 5th child-- Tim Tebow--future Heisman Trophy winner.

So, my question: What have we come to? How is it that an ad that very clearly celebrates a woman, honors a woman, can be found protest-worthy by other women? Mrs. Tebow made a courageous choice. Shouldn't that be celebrated?

Or would we rather have more beer ads filled with half-dressed women.

I just sent that to the editor of the newspaper, thank you very much.


(and posted about it here at the ANWA Founder & Friends blog)

When all else fails...

I want to get this novel done.

I really do.

Then I read the newspaper. Answer an email (or ten). Check out a blog or two (or ten). Sort laundry. Eat a piece of toast. Contemplate my Christmas letter that is still in the unsent stage. Get out the ironing board on the off chance actual ironing may take place. Do "research" by reading snippets of other people's books to see how they handled their MC's thoughts--italics or not? (MC=Main Character)...eat another piece of toast...

So... I've resorted to chocolate. Writing, revising, editing, plotting, even just thinking about my novel = chocolate.

More time is needed to eat chocolate...er, um...test this theory, of course, but if it works my next book will be nonfiction: Chocolate Your Way to Success and World Peace.

Why not? I'm sure the problems in the Middle East could be solved if either side just opened up a bag of Hersheys Milk Chocolate With Toffee and Almond Nuggets. Then you'd see something get done.

And chocolate can totally be a verb.

books, books, books

Blogs and book giveaways seem to go hand in hand. There's a month-long giveaway going on over at Cami Checkett's blog--a chance to win a different book each and every day of January.

Crazy I know.

And you thought Januarys were blah.

Are you all-a-Twitter?

Do authors and author-wannabes need to be tweeting? If you're trying to get a handle on the whole Twitter phenomenom check out this blog post...

http://lisa-schroeder.blogspot.com/2010/01/twitter-from-one-authors-point-of-view.html

Last night about 10:00 it was raining so dang hard and then it just stopped. I said to my sleeping husband, "Weird. Did you notice how the rain just stopped, just like that?" (We have our best conversations when he's asleep. He agrees with everything I say, tells me I'm the best wife ever, and not a word about the checkbook.) Anyway, then I opened up the book I'm currently reading to my place at chapter 6, and it begins..."That night the rain stopped suddenly..." Whoa. A whole Stranger Than Fiction moment.

My life. In narration.

I guess you have to know the movie.

WIN SOMETHING YOU REALLY WANT AND MAYBE EVEN NEED...WAIT, NO "MAYBE" ABOUT IT...YOU NEED THIS

Did you get everything on your Christmas [book] list? I asked my husband for an Amazon gift card, but he bought me a book instead. Granted, it was one I asked for--The Hidden Christ by James Ferrell, so thank you very much, dear. Really. I just started reading it and I know I'm going to love it. (BTW…I highly recommend Ferrell’s other two books, The Peacegiver and The Holy Secret—they’re different than the typical novel, but their messages are amazing. His newest book is nonfiction).

This is actually not a post about author James Ferrell or what I got for Christmas, but a post about you and what you got for Christmas and you winning something that will store and display all those book somethings you got for Christmas. Yes, today is the day I'm announcing an awesome give-away…the chance to win something that book-lovers and book-collectors can never get too many of…bookcases.

I am giving away a bookcase valued at $60, courtesy of csnbookcases.com. Please check out their lovely website with all the varied and wonderful possibilities for bookcases. I especially love the ones designed for children found here. Someday, I would love to design a playroom for grandkids with cool shelves for kids books. So fun!

This very well may be my first ever blog giveaway, so I'm making it a good one. The lucky winner will get to choose ONE of these three bookcases... (and no, I'm not coming over to assemble it if assembly is required.)

View details here

View details here

View details here

Books, framed photos, and is that a box of tissue, not included.

To enter, please humor me and become a follower on my blog. (If I hit 100 followers (aiming high) I will give lucky number 100 a gift certificate for vinyl lettering worth $15.

Let's see, how else can you make my day...hmmm...comments, lots and lots of comments... (as I cackle and rub my hands together... I've got you in my power now. You want that bookcase don't you? DON'T YOU?) So leave a comment and convince me that you'll buy my novel whenever in the heck I finish writing/revising/editing/ submitting/publishing it. And yes, I realize you don't even know the title of it yet (except for the favored few) but just promise me, PROMISE ME.

Sorry for the lapse there. How about just a comment telling me a book you got for Christmas and if you really didn't get one for Christmas then I am so sorry and I will personally file a complaint with the North Pole in your behalf. But level with me, were you just not good enough this year?

Okay, here's the bottom line:

1) one entry for becoming a follower/two if you already are (early bird gets the worm and all) as of riiiiight....NOW.
2) one entry for a comment
3) two entries for sharing the contest complete with link on your blog or any of those other online places you like to haunt. Just let me know where.

Did I forget anything? How about more prizes? I sell vinyl lettering, so I will also pick some winners to receive $15 gift certificates for custom lettering. This will be after I draw the big bookcase winner because it is so lame to be picked for a lesser prize and then be out of the running for the greater, more awesome prize. It's so, so...yeah, lame. And I am not about lameness here at the Of Writerly Things blogspot.

I'll post about the contest over at my vinyl lettering blog. Feel free to stop by there as well.

CONTEST WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED ON MY ANNIVERSARY: FEBRUARY 12, 2010!!!!!

I'm taking a holiday from blogging...

Okay...apparently, that's what I should have written sometime around say...Thanksgiving. My blogging has become more than sparse over the past SEVERAL weeks. A measly promise of prizes and a repeat of a blog posted elsewhere is all I have offered. I think my brain was on holiday as well, but with the return of order and civility around here and the expectation of a new year and decade (NO PRESSURE THERE!), I'm baaaaaack!

I'm also very hopeful that I might actually finish my novel. Seriously. Not that I have worked on it since Thanksgiving, mind you (get that crazy thought out of your pointy little head), but sometime in the netherworld of last November I did begin a summary of the rough drafty drivel I'm calling a novel. I know. A summary. That's so 10th Grade English Class-y of me. I actually printed off a copy of my entire manuscript. Doesn't that sound so writerly, so authorly? I have a manuscript! Ahhhh! On the first page I wrote in big letters: NOT FINAL DRAFT! Lest anyone happen upon it and read it and think that I am so insanely delusional that I think these words as written are publish-worthy.

Anyway, my goal is to finish the summary which promises to reveal all the gaping gaps I need to fill. I will reread the manuscript (Oh, I love that word) which will further reveal such things as all the "be" verbs I need to exchange for action verbs, the dangling participles I'll need to undangle, and the words like "undangle" that probably aren't really even words that will need to be cut. Have you ever heard anyone say, "Can you please undangle that string you're hanging over the cat's face"? Hmmm...

Well, I'll get to work on that whole summary and finishing thing and you quietly amuse yourselves till that grand day of being done arrives. You'll be the first to know.

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