A Smile

I admit I'm a Weird Al fan.  So when I came across this on YouTube, I just had to share.  I hope you enjoy.

'Tis The Season

Every month I meet up with a group of wonderful people and we talk/encourage each other in writing.  So last month at our monthly meeting we brought books to give to Toys For Tots.  This is a charity very dear to my heart.

So each of us brought one or two books (this isn't all of them) and explained why we picked them out.

Couldn't pass up an opportunity for a photo of this wonderful group.

May your holiday season be filled with love and laughter.

Beginning Sentences

An author always hopes that their beginning sentence pulls the reader in.  Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail.    Hopefully we succeed more than we fail.  

The writer's group that I'm in does a 'starter sentence' every month.  It can be really interesting to see the different directions people will go with the same sentence.  Sometimes that sentence will grab me, just begging for a snippet of a story and I'll come up with something that amuses me and hopefully the other writers.  Other times the sentence will stare at me ominously and growl, daring me to even try.  I'd love to tell you that I plug away and eventually overcome, but that would be a lie.  And I try not to lie to my readers.

So today I was at a workshop with some of my fellow authors at the local public library (Yes they are still there and you should go visit one immediately!) and they had this quiz with beginning sentences.  I'll admit I couldn't answer them all.

Can you?

Now don't cheat and google them.  I'll leave the answers in the comments section in a few days.

Have fun and good luck!

Which novel begins with this line:

1. "Call me Ishmael."

2.  "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

3.  "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

4.  "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

5.  "Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested."

6.  "'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug."

7.  "This is the saddest story I have ever heard."

8.  "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

9.  "The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new."

10.  "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

Halloween Thoughts

Halloween is my favorite holiday.  Don't ask me why, I just do.

So I tried to think of something profound to share, since I've been extremely lax on my posts.  But I've come up with nothing.

Instead I will share some Edgar Allan Poe memes.  Normally I'd do something terrifying like Stephen King, but I'm kicking it old school this year.

An excellent read on Halloween night.

I know many people like this.  

And just cause it tickled my funny bone.

Happy Halloween!!!

Count Down: 0 Days

Today is the day!  The day I have anxiously been waiting for.

At 5 pm tonight I will be signing books!

I know people may think I'm weird, but it finally seems completely real.  And I'm a nervous wreck!  Those butterflies in my tummy have turned into stampeding elephants!

However, I do hope you will all come out and see me.  Hopefully by then I'll be calmer.

Count Down: 1 Day

That's right!  You read the title correctly! 

Tomorrow is the book signing!

I hope you're able to join us at East Beach Sandwich Company tomorrow.  If you can't please go  purchase one of our books from Amazon or if you know one of the contributing authors, try getting one from them.

Count Down: 2 Days

When did those butterflies become stampeding elephants?

Those who know me, know I have an odd ball sense of humor.  So I thought I would share it with you.

As my nephew, JD, would say...    "I'm getting all excitedy!"

I hope you are too.