I've got a secret

Well I didn't want to mention it because I was afraid I would jinx it. Everyone knows how that happens. But don't get too excited it's not about publishing or agents. I'll keep dreaming.
The last few weeks I've been meeting with a writing group. I'm one of three people. One of the writers is an old acquaintance from high school. The other was/is a teacher at my old high school, although I didn't realize it until the other group member pointed it out.
Every week I worried that one or both wouldn't show up. Leaving me alone again or in awkward conversation with someone I didn't know. But it worked for a few weeks so I've been pretty lucky.

And I just want to say that my meeting with this group does not mean that I have given up on a writing group with my southeast pals. Writing is my life and the more I get of it the more I'm thriving. Plus it's always wonderful to have more opinions. Not to mention that I hold back a little with the work I bring to this group because one of the writers seems a bit more conservative (not in a political sense) so I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. It's not like I'm writing erotica but some of the content of Human Decency might be a little harsh.

Besides the only reason I dared to mention the writing group today is because I'm not certain it will be around much longer. Both members are teachers, one that will be on vacation for the next three weeks and soon after that school will be starting so I imagine time will be limited. And the member who I went to high school with is also a teacher. She's going to Maryland next week to interview for a job that I hope she gets. Not because I don't want her around but she's been looking for a job and Michigan is pretty much out of them. So I'm fairly sure that it won't be long before the group is no more. We've been trying to get a few more people. There have been potentials and still are but so far not much has come of it. With as hard as it was to get it started in the first place I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, I've gotten a few stories reviewed by my group so far. The first one is my story about companion animal abandonment. The second was a story that I just recently submitted to a somewhat prestigious magazine and to be honest I probably wouldn't have done it had I not had advice and proofreading from others. The third was a dark comedy of sorts about a somewhat unfortunate girl that my group wanted to make even more unfortunate.
I've gotten positive but constructive feedback. And I've gotten a lot of tips on grammar. I worry more about the story than the technical aspects so it's been a super bonus having two teachers read over my work. I've also greatly enjoyed reading their work. Second to writing, reading is a big chunk of my life and I love to read works in progress.

So I'm bummed that it may come to an end but glad that I had it for the short time I did. And I'm optimistic that I'll maybe have a writing group with others, no pressure though. I know everyone's busy having lives and careers.

**Oh and I just want to sincerely apologize to the person that was directed to my blog today while searching for "allergic reaction to paper and ink". In my last entry I did not mean that it was weird to have this type of allergic reaction but more that it seemed unusual to be allergic to the combination of the two. If this is a serious allergic reaction, I am so sorry for my idiocy.**

*BTW: On the subject of weird searches, in the last two days I've gotten two searches about whining. I've never had any searches about whining before but apparently the past few days have brought on people who wonder "why do people whine?" and "do I whine?"
Wouldn't it be awesome if it turned out it was two people fighting and one said the other whined. So why they were trying to calm down one went searching for why people whine and the other didn't think they were a whiner so they went searching to find out if they did. Oh the possibilities there.*

I have moved on for now so no Harry Potter but there's Kreeg, Batman, Snoopy, Family Guy and Behind the Naugahyde

Well I've got to move on with my life and my own work so for the first time in a few months I will be blogging with no mention of Harry Potter, other than to say that I won't be mentioning it.

Now that I've got that out of the way. I've been slacking off due to other things I said I wouldn't be mentioning so I've really got nothing to say about what I've been writing but I feel I should post because I hate going too long without posting. Since it's Friday I decided I would do a pointless yet possibly mildly amusing Friday Five.

Friday Five: The five weirdest searches that have brought someone to my blog.

I don't really get very cool searches like other people I know. I think this is my caused by my not mentioning enough body parts. It could also be that my blog is rather boring and only interesting to me. But the following are the craziest I've found since starting my site meter.
Before I get to the craziest but not really that crazy search topics, I will say that the searches I get most often in some form or another are people looking for 'ways to get ink off of paper', Snoopy writing/rejection comic strips and the Stewie to Bryan "how's that novel comin'" episode of Family Guy.
I don't have any of those Snoopy comics on here but I'll look into it. Also, I don't have the actual episode of Family Guy available for viewing but I do have the dialogue about the novel progress. And if anyone ever figures out how to get ink off paper, and it doesn't involve those crappy ink erasers that wear a hole in the paper, please let me know so that people's search can end here.
In short, if you're looking for the comic strips, to watch the episode or need to get ink off of paper, you're in the wrong place because I can't help you. But I'll work on it.

And now...

Friday Five (in no particular order):

crazy shoe stores in Michigan-I'm pretty sure this person was looking for stores that sold crazy shoes but I like to think that this person is trying to figure out what crazy shoe store inspired Behind the Naugahyde.

allergic reactions to ink on paper- I'm not entirely sure that this is all that weird. True, my blog doesn't actually talk about ink being on paper. It's just a name I gave my blog because I am a writer who occasionally puts ink on paper. Well, it's more often words on a monitor or something. Anyway, what I do find to be weird is that someone is having an allergic reaction to ink on paper. Not paper or ink but the combination of ink being on paper. Or maybe it's a metaphorical allergic reaction to words that were put on paper by ink.

"Lansing Community College" vampire graduate- To be honest I have no idea what this could possibly mean. Yes, I have attended LCC but I have never heard any rumors of a vampire graduating. To my knowledge vampires do not exist. Of course, there are people who claim to be vampires but are not in fact the immortal vampires that everyone thinks of. So maybe they were looking for someone like that. No clue but it is unusual.

sci-fi short story about evil squirrels- During a post about scary hotels I mentioned my dog, Kreeg, saving me from evil squirrels and then in the comments it started to develop into a story idea by D.B. Echo. If they were looking for a story about evil squirrels perhaps they can talk him into writing it. However, if they were checking to make sure that no one else had written such a story, I'm not sure about others, but I have not. And there are no plans in the works on my part but you may want to check with D.B.Echo .

someone who would get invited to Batman's wedding- I imagine that a lot of superheroes would be there. Obviously, all the Batfamily, Alfred, possibly a bunch of socialites if he got married as Bruce Wayne and not Batman. The list of potential guest is just too vast, especially knowing that Bruce Wayne would have enough money to invite a ton of people.
I am going to hope that this person's search was directed here because Google thinks that I am a person likely to be on the guest list. I'm not sure if that really says anything about me or my blog other than that I just mentioned the right random combination of words, but I'm going to pretend that my writing and insight are so awesome that Batman would want to be my friend and invite me to his wedding.


And now that I have some of the crazy out of my system I am going to go write, edit and submit some work so that hopefully my next post will be a report about all the work I got done.

One more Harry Potter post before I get back to the real world.

I have finished. Of course, I won't be discussing it. I'll wait until more people have read it. What's best is that I made it without hearing any spoilers. There was a moment when I was worried that it was going to be ruined for me.
When I was standing in line at 11:30 some jackass drove by and rolled down his window. Then he yelled that someone died. Of course, rather than be devastated, everyone in line broke out in laughter. One, because he said the name wrong and also because that person died in the last book. So whether he meant to ruin it for us or just thought he was funny, it didn't matter because I avoided the ruiners. I hope everyone else was just as lucky.
I will say that while it is not at all happy( I'm sure it's no secret people die in this book), I felt okay with what happened because it just needed to happen to show the severity of the situation. There's no point in fighting the ultimate evil if everyone can just live happily ever after regardless.

I'll reread it again. This time I will take my time and won't put most of my life on hold. And even though it seems Pottermania is over, I'm sure in the years to come the obsession will come with more movies, the planned theme park, conventions will pop-up similar to Star Wars and Star Trek, fan fiction will be everywhere, books about theories and studies will be around. And of course the toys and the collectibles will be out there. So it's not really over, not for the true fans. And, maybe, we'll find out the things that J.K. Rowling knew but never told us.

When I read the last sentence of the book I said goodbye to a part of my life. Something I enjoyed and anticipated for a good part of my life. No matter what, I'll never step back into Hogwarts with Harry, Ron and Hermione for a new adventure again.

Only one more day. Hopefully, I can avoid all the spoilers until then.

Not that anyone would probably notice since I don't post everyday anyway, but I'm following in a few other Harry Potter fan's footsteps and will be avoiding the Internet until I finish reading the book. In fact after today I have to avoid the radio, T.V. and newspapers because all of them are shouting out spoilers with no warning. Part of me wants to not go out tomorrow because I feel like someone is going to try to ruin. I'll still buy it and read it either way but I would rather not know until I get to it in the book. And of course people could be yelling out the wrong thing because not all the spoilers are true but still.
It's weird I can't remember another instance where people saw a movie or read a book and just started purposely trying to spoil it for others. I'm not entirely sure why this is an exception. I guess there are always going to be mean spirited people in the world and you just can't let them get to you.
So until I'm done with the book, I'm offline. Good luck to everyone else trying to avoid spoilers.
CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

A blogger award for me? You've got to be kidding.

No way! I can't believe I won an award for blogging. Now I feel like a bum for being a blog slacker lately.
Thanks to D.B.Echo for giving me this lovely award. And now I have the task of passing it on to someone. To be honest I'm not entirely sure what the criteria is. My interpretation is that it should go to someone that give something to the blogging community so I gladly give this award to Tiffany.

Tiffany writes an entertaining blog, If I Were Queen Of The World, that makes me laugh. I particularly enjoy her stories about the customers that wander into her bar. However, the thing that I admire most about Tiffany and her blog is that she is very honest about how she feels. She'll tell you if she thinks someone is an idiot. And she is not afraid of people not liking her for it. If Tiffany has something to say, she says it. To me that action itself is louder than the words she writes, which are thoughtful, intelligent and funny.

**Honorable mention goes to D.B.Echo and Whim, who both have great blogs but already won the award!**

I think that anyone who writes has to be willing to put themselves out there. I do try to keep my opinions to myself because I want this blog to be about writing and not a fighting spot for people to disagree with me on politics or comic books. But I think everyone that blogs (because they have something to say, not those who do it just for profit) has to have a bit of courage because they are putting some small or large piece of themselves out their for anyone to find and potentially criticize, no matter what the subject is. So every blogger brings their own little something and should all get an award.

It's quite nice to receive this award, although, I'm not entirely sure I deserve it. If anything it has got me to make a post today, which I probably wouldn't have done otherwise. So thanks for the award and the motivation to make a post!

Reading done ahead of schedule and now the waiting begins

I've finished rereading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Now I just have to sit and stew for a whole week while I wait for the Deathly Hallows. And during this time I have to avoid all "rumors" because I will be so pissed if I know what happens before reading it. Last time I had heard that in the area where the book was being printed they stopped taking bets on Dumbledore dying and then I pretty much knew what was going to happen. I held out hope.
I was thinking of writing down all the things I think are or aren't going to happen but there's just too much to think about. Although, I do think it's amazing that J.K. Rowling is able to keep quiet about what's going to happen. If it were me so much stuff would have accidentally slipped. And of course I would be bursting at the seems to tell people.
Aside from keeping all the details a secret, I couldn't imagine having that much pressure on me to write something. Not only did people want the book as soon as possible but they are expecting so much. She has to answer all the questions that people have had for years and no matter how it ends someone won't be happy about it.

Speaking of writing, now that I'm done rereading all the Harry Potter books, it's probably about time I started actually getting some work done. I haven't actually written any new fiction in a few weeks and I haven't worked on submissions in quite a while. So, hopefully, my next post will be about how I actually got something done.

It's a great movie. I was not disappointed.

I went to see the Order of the Phoenix on Monday and it was awesome! They cut out a lot of the book out but the action, especially the last 20 minutes in 3D at IMAX, was bad ass! It was the shortest movie, I think, for the longest book but they did a good job of fitting the major parts of the story into the movie. And while I did want more it was kind of nice that it wasn't three hours long like every other summer blockbuster usually is. Although, it would be nice if they eventually came out with longer director's cut DVDs like they did for the Lord of the Rings.
Now we wait for the book!
I didn't finish the Order of the Phoenix before going to see it but I finished yesterday. I guess I'll just have to see it again now that I'm done. And I started on Half-Blood Prince today. It's a bit ahead of schedule but my reading time at work has dwindled down due to the huge sale and absence of employees. So it's good I have extra time.

Speaking of work there is some scandalous stuff going on that would make great book material. I hope to have news to report on the progress of Behind the Naugahyde soon. No promises.

So with an even crazier schedule at work and Harry Potter mania going on I don't have much to report about writing. But both things should be over with soon and then I'll get back on track.

I never thought this week would end so needless to say I'm ecstatic!

This week has made me so tired. I haven't gotten anything done. I made it through the wedding and that's all I'm going to say about it. There's just too much to tell.
I'm still working on my Harry Potter books and I'm still behind. I had planned on reading all day at work yesterday but I had to rearrange the whole store for a surprise huge clearance sale, which has me worried.
I did go see Transformers earlier this week. I liked it. I spent all day yesterday listening to my boss complain about how he hated it because the robots were silly and ridiculous. They're talking robots! And Transformers were made to entertain children. Stop taking everything so seriously. I thought it was a fun movie.
Well that's the recap on my week. When I'm more awake and I have more to talk about I'll write a nice, long post. Until then I'm off to fall asleep while I finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The mania begins!

To be honest I'm going to be a complete blog slacker this week. I'm the maid-of-honor in a wedding on Wednesday which requires a lot of pre and post wedding obligations.

Also, I'm trying catch up on my Harry Potter schedule. Yes, I had it perfectly planned out and I'm on track. However, my plan included reading Order of the Phoenix the week before I saw it in the theater. Originally, the opening date was July 13 but then they changed it to July 11. Of course, I was totally depressed that because of my financial situation, which was so grim my electricity got shut off, I didn't get tickets to the first showing at midnight on the 11th (for the first time ever!). Don't feel too bad for me because then I got tickets to an exclusive sneak preview on the 9th! I'm so excited!
Of course, that means that I have to finish the book a day after I planned on starting it. Not that I'm upset because it can be done and it's not like I'm going to not go to the sneak preview just because I'm not done rereading the book.
They gave me a list of everything I can't take to the theater so that the movie won't leak. No phones, ipods, blackberry's, purses, fanny packs, coats, loose clothing. Everyone is subject to be searched and will have to pass through a metal detector. Isn't that crazy?!