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bandaids-not-groupies · 5 years

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Get to know me uncomfortably well - tagged by @livewiredroger ❤️ sorry this took so long to post!!

1. What is your middle name?

Janie

2. How old are you?

21, gonna be 22 in a couple months

3. When is your birthday?

December 4th! A day after Ozzy’s

4. What is your zodiac sign?

Sagittarius

5. What is your favourite colour?

Light purple and black

6. What’s your lucky number?

I don’t actually know

7. Do you have any pets?

No but I did have a dog!

8. Where are you from?

Chicago!

9. How tall are you?

5’0 lmao

10. What shoe size are you?

11. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

Too many to count lol

12. What was your last dream about?

I don’t remember 😅

13. What talents do you have?

None lol. I’m boring af

14. Are you psychic in any way?

Nope lol

15. Favourite song?

I’m a believer by the monkees (I’ve always loved that song)

16. Favourite movie?

The Godfather

17. Who would be your ideal partner?

Keanu Reeves. He has my heart and soul

18. Do you want children?

Yeah but only like 2

19. Do you want a church wedding?

Yeah but nothing too big

20. Are you religious?

Kinda but not really. Like I acknowledge that there could be a God. But I don’t practice it that much. So basically I’M SINNING AND I’M WINNING

21. Have you ever been to the hospital?

Yeah. Twice. Once cause I had a bad ear infection and then another time I had pneumonia

22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law?

Nope!

23. Have you ever met any celebrities?

Yes I have! Back in my emo days I meet Christofer Drew from Never Shout Never, which was actually pure luck! NSN was in town for a concert, but I couldn’t go because it was a 18+ venue so I couldn’t get in (I was in 8th grade at the time). So my family and I decided to go out to eat at a restaurant which was coincidentally across from the venue. So we were walking down the street and I see this huge tour bus right outside the restaurant. My heart starts racing and i thought “how cool would it be if I bumped into someone from the group” well lo and behold as we are coming closer to the bus, Christofer Drew turns the corner and walks towards the bus. So I stop in my tracks and just say “Christofer Drew?” And he stops and he says hi! He asked if I was going to the show and I said no and he goes “well you gotta promise you’ll come to the next one!” Of course I made the promise and I didn’t break it! He came back that summer and I got to see him ❤️ I also met two groups called Breathe Carolina and Crown The Empire. I also met Evan Peters and Sebastian Stan at Comic Con a couple years ago. I also met Corey Crawford. The goaltender for the Chicago Blackhawks, my favorite hockey team.

24. Baths or showers?

Showers! I don’t like the idea of bathing in your own filth.

25. What color socks are you wearing?

I’m not wearing any!

26. Have you ever been famous?

Nope lmao and I probably never will be

28. What type of music do you like?

I like oldies. Mostly from the 50s-80s. Anything from Dean Martin to Motley Crue. I do like modern music too. I still listen to some of the bands I listened to in middle school lol (like the ones i mentioned before and others like All Time Low, Pierce The Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, Of Mice & Men, Asking Alexandria, and a couple more.) I also like Greta Van Fleet and 5 Seconds of Summer. I also like spanish music. Like Maluma, Bad Bunny, Becky G, etc.

29. Have you ever been skinny dipping?

Nope lol

30. How many pillows do you sleep with?

It depends. It could be one or none. Sometimes i don’t use a pillow

31. What position do you usually sleep in?

On my tummy!

32. How big is your house?

It’s a two bedroom apartment. I’m not complaining tho, its very cozy.

33. What do you typically have for breakfast?

If I wake up early enough lol it’ll usually be eggs (over medium), some coffee, and some bread

34. Have you ever fired a gun?

Nope and i don’t plan on it!

35. Have you ever tried archery?

Yes! I tried it when I was in Girl Scouts in elementary school

36. Favourite clean word?

Groovy

37. Favorite swear word?

definitely FUCK

38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep?

like a day? I got like four hours of sleep the night before. Got up at like 6am, went about my day. Then I stayed up until 7am working on a research paper for class (college is a BITCH).

40. Have you ever had a secret admirer?

Nah cause your girl is hella ugly lmao

41. Are you a good liar?

Not at all. People can tell when I’m lying cause my voice gets high lmao

42. Are you a good judge of character?

Eh I do my best

43. Can you do any other accents other than your own?

I try to do a posh British accent and I try to do a Steve Irwin Aussie accent

44. Do you have a strong accent?

People say I have a strong chicagoan accent but i don’t hear it!

45. What is your favourite accent?

I’m a sucker for aussie accents

46. What is your personality type?

just took the test..i got ISFP-T (adventurer)

47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing?

hmmmm all I can think of at the moment is my Doc Martens. They aren’t really clothing but it’s all I can think of lol

48. Can you curl your tongue?

Nope!

49. Are you an innie or an outie?

outie :(((( i hate it

50. Left or right-handed?

Right handed!

51. Are you scared of spiders?

YES YES YES

52. Favourite food?

Pasta! I could eat it all day, every day

53. Favourite foreign food?

Tamales and Pozole. That’s my shitttt

54. Are you a clean or messy person?

I try and be a clean person and stay organized but it only lasts for a bit then I go back to my messy ways lol

55. Most used phrase?

“that’s a mood” and “no mames guey” (Mexican slang)

56. Most used word?

Dude and Darling

57. How long does it take for you to get ready?

Depends. If I wear my hair natural, then an hour. But if I gotta style it, then like an hour and a half or two hours( I got a lot of fucking hair, dude).

58. Do you have much of an ego?

Hell no lmao. This bitch has a low self-esteem so 🤷🏻‍♀️

59. Do you suck or bite lollipops?

Suck 🤪

60. Do you talk to yourself?

All the time lmao

61. Do you sing to yourself?

Yeah sometimes

62. Are you a good singer?

Nope lmao but I still do it anyways

63. Biggest Fear?

A lot of shit. Spiders, Holes (trypophobia), tearing my achilles or getting them cut (ever since I saw Pet Sematary), dolls, bugs crawling under my skin, throwing up...and i can’t think of anymore on the spot

64. Are you a gossip?

you bet your ass I am. Soy una chismosa lmao

65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen?

Titanic

66. Do you like long or short hair?

On girls, long but not too long. Maybe like mid-back. And guys, long, like ear length and longer

67. Can you name all 50 states of America?

Yeah but i couldn’t point them out on a map

68. Favourite school subject?

Biology/Human Anatomy. I’m a sucker for science

69. Extrovert or Introvert?

Definitely an introvert. No doubt about that lol

70. Have you ever been scuba diving?

Nope!

71. What makes you nervous?

Meeting new people, class discussions, and presentations

72. Are you scared of the dark?

If i’ve just seen a scary movie then yes lol

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes?

Sometimes. For instance, if one of my friends from ecuador uses a word wrong in a sentence, then I would tell them the right way to say it to help them learn more english. i never correct someone to seem like i’m smarter or to be rude. It’s simply to help them.

74. Are you ticklish?

Yeah! In some places like my feet, neck, and my back,

75. Have you ever started a rumour?

No way! That’s terrible

76. Have you ever been in a position of authority?

Only when babysitting my little cousins lol

77. Have you ever drank underage?

Yeah lmao. When I went away for college

78. Have you ever done drugs?

Once, when I hungout with a guy at school we smoked some weed

79. Who was your first real crush?

One of my friends from college. I met him Freshman year and I still like him...I’ve liked him for four years but i’ve never had the guts to tell him

80. How many piercings do you have?

6! I have four on my left ear and two on my right ear. I have the standard lobe piercings, then the upper lobe on both sides. Then on my left I have one above the upper. And then I have my helix pierced on the left side. (i hope this all made sense lol)

81. Can you roll your R’s?

Nope

82. How fast can you type?

Eh I would say pretty average

83. How fast can you run?

Not at all. I hate running

84. What colour is your hair?

Dark brown!

85. What color is your eyes?

Dark brown

86. What are you allergic to?

Some ingredient in the Banana Boat sunscreen. And some type of plant. I don’t exactly know which one cause I went to the botantic garden one time on a field trip and I don’t know which plant caused my allergic reaction but when I got home I had hives all over me.

87. Do you keep a journal?

Nope, never did

88. What do your parents do?

My mom is an ortho technician and my dad is a delivery man

89. Do you like your age?

Yeah I guess. I mean I can buy my own alcohol so that’s pretty neat

90. What makes you angry?

Everything

91. Do you like your own name?

Eh it’s alright. Pretty boring

92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they?

I like the name Elena for a girl and Jonathan for a boy

93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child?

Doesn’t matter to me

94. What are you strengths?

I’m a ride or die bitch.

95. What are your weaknesses?

I don’t really share my emotions so I keep things bottled up

96. How did you get your name?

My cousin picked out my name

97. Were your ancestors royalty?

Not that I know of. But what I do know is I have family from Spain.

98. Do you have any scars?

Yeah, one on my arm from when I burned myself with my straightener. And another at the place where my nose meets my forehead, between my brows. When I was in elementary school, I was running out on the playground and I tripped and I slide across the cement and scraped my nose and my whole forehead. THERE. WAS. BLOOD. EVERYWHERE.

99. Colour of your bedspread?

Light pink

100. Colour of your room?

White!

I tag: @tommyleeownsme, @babe-mustaine, @waycooljunior, and @universal-scorpio ❤️

#sorry this is hella long #omfg #personal

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persephoneandpomegranates · 6 years

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flashbacks and old posts

I’m consolidating blogs so here’s some fun posts from when i was a senior in high school / freshman in college.

Sunday, July 22nd, 2012

whenever i go to the library

i always find the most embarrassing books at the very beginning so then i have to walk around with them while i peruse the rest of the library.

so then i end up grabbing up bunch of random, potentially interesting books to use as an awkward shield so no one can see that i have a stack of comic books and paranormal research and whatnot.

but then i have to check them out. even though we have self-serve, which i always choose, the librarian is always sitting right there just watching so no one tries anything sinister like stealing library books. and at some point i run out of normal books to check out and then i’m just like. … oh yeah tarot cards? i forgot i grabbed that book. that’s for my… dog… because he can read and he’s really into learning about new… nevermind.

#awkward , #library, #tarot cards, #embarrassing books

Monday, July 30th, 2013

procrastination is an onion

i like to create multi-layered procrastination.

instead of just putting off my summer homework or my online byu classes by watching tv, i like to create mind numbing projects like organizing my gruesome music or kindle collections, or cleaning my room.

but then i don’t want to do those either.

so then i realize that it’s almost august and camp nanowrimo is nearly upon me.

well, i can’t possibly organize my kindle and music collection with less than 48 hours to figure out plot, characters, and most importantly, how about genre.

but then.

it’s really hard to just do that.

so i have to get some creative inspiration, right?

so that’s how i ended up on neopets.

i swear, they used to have the most amazing writing boards and guilds. but now things just trudge along on the boards because there are less users. and i am all about the speed and instant gratification because hey, facebook.

but because the boards are so slow i find myself trying to feed my neopets in the meantime.

and then i’m like, oh i never got the pack rat avatar! i better start finding a bunch of useless items to put in my safety deposit box…

and now i have to work my way all the back down to my summer homework and byu classes by completing everything else first. because my neurosis says so.

my procrastination is an onion.

so many layers and it makes me cry.

#onion #procrastination #neopets #nanowrimo #camp nanowrimo #layered procrastination #somebody end this miserable cycle please

Tuesday, December 18th, 2012

captain college

this one time, a girl desperately wanted to go to college.

but then she realized that she would have to do college applications and also ask for letters of recommendation.

that’s a lot of work.

so instead she watched tv and lol’d at the internet.

and spent like half an hour wikipedia captain planet because when i ws younger i thought it was freaking bad ass and captain planet was hot. or something.

the power of heart!

but seriously, can i put this on my application? heh.

#college apps #applications #college admissions #captain planet

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

i am not even a good artist.

cute guy was like oh can i borrow your notes?

so i went to get my notes only to find them covered in doodles.

and not cool ones.

doodles of danny phantom.

…in a slightly suggestive v-neck.

well fuck me it can’t get any worse.

so i go to give the folder to said guy.

and i drop the folder.

papers. everywhere.

i am so slick. and by slick, i mean extremely socially inept.

my only hope is that my doodles are so terrible, that he can’t even tell what i drew.

but somehow, the fact that i also wrote DANNY PHANTOM next to the picture, does not make me feel optimistic.

#danny phantom #bad doodles #aww jeez #socially awkward #awkward #i like tags almost as much as i liek turtles.

Sunday, September 15th, 2013

Jesus, Marie

My life is a bunch of rocks.

No but really, I’m freaking out. I’m going to college in like three fucking days and its going to be my last day at this amazing parrot sanctuary I volunteer at tomorrow. All I want to do is sit in a corner and play with those fucking parrots and probably get bit at because I am not the best parrot handler but I’m learning. Beyond the point.

I just feel so unready. All my friends are out there doing that college thing already or they’re like me and have a few days left but they are so ready. They want to meet new people and go to parties and join clubs and hangout with their new roommates. They want to get out and live life like a college student.

And I just don’t.

I just can’t picture it. Me doing laundry, making my own food, sharing a communal bathroom. I can see myself doing all these things, but it’s like watching a movie montage. It’s not actually me.

I don’t know if I can do this. But dammit I’m not giving up. A teacher told my senior class to look around our classroom and know that while we were all going to college, at least one person would drop out before they graduated. It wasn’t harsh, it was just a fact. The point was that it’s not for everyone and sometimes people learn that too late.

I’m just terrified that person is me.

But you know what? I love school. I love learning. I love procrastinating by organizing all my notes and color coding them when I could actually be studying which would be a lot more useful. I love commiserating with my friends during all nighters or even just glancing at my Facebook and see that twenty other people in that class are on Facebook at that ungodly hour, doing the exact same thing I’m doing- which is regretting that they put off a giant project or a huge midterm.

I am so excited that I’m going to get to grow up and prove to my parents they did a good job raising me, despite my flaws: my laziness, my morning crankiness, the fact that I worry about everything.

I think that’s the problem, that last part. I always worry. My worrying has one level: defcon five. I think about how the supervolcano in Yellowstone could erupt at any moment and kill a gazillion people and also me. A heavy fear that wraps around me and my shaking hands inevitably weaves its way through thoughts like my immeninent demise. But it’s also what I do when I think about the scores on my latest math test might be. There’s no panic gradient with me. Just on or off. And it’s rarely off.

But you know what else I’ve learned about my worrying? Even when it is absolutely warranted, like when I get that math score back-and yep I saw that coming- I hardly flinch. I mean, “Ouch, I am not so good at this calculus thing” goes through my mind, but I accept it and move on ridiculously fast, considering how much worry I put into it.

So that’s what I’m doing now. Taking everything and turning into the apocalypse.

College isn’t going to be what movie montage me expected. It’s going to be me figuring out how to talk to my roommate and still sucking at talking to boys and probably using too much laundry detergent and most definitely awkwardly trying to feed myself at 3am because I’m suddenly starving.

It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be different than anything I’ve ever done before.

But that’s okay. Because I can’t just spend my life sitting in my room wishing I was 16 again and my biggest defcon five worry was never getting my license and ending up like my aunt who’s trapped walking and riding a bike or bus everywhere.

I can’t just stay where I am right now forever. That wouldn’t be living; it would just be existing.

What I’m saying is dammit. My life isn’t just going to be a bunch of boring rocks. It’s going to be a fucking kaleidoscope of experiences.

I’m going to go to a college rager, even though I won’t drink more than two sips of lightweight beer, just because if I don’t go, I’ll always wished I had. And you know what? Maybe I will get drunk and seriously regret it in the morning but at least then I’ll know it’s not for me, rather than just being too afraid to find out.

I’m going to join the pre veterinarian club even though I’ve heard it’s cutthroat and that scares me, I have every right to be there. And I’m definitely joining some nerdy fan clubs. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play D&D.

Who’s going to stop me? Myself?

Not a chance.

#jumbled mess #college #fuck yeah #worries #i can do this #even if i need to take a few xanax #i got this

Sunday, September 15th, 2013

Whew

I feel a lot better now. Like I’m fucking capable of being alive or something.

#post rant #much better

Wednesday, September 25th, 2013

First Week of College

Great first week at UW.

So my life is pretty cool and all my worries about college have been unfounded. That being said, I did shrink some of my cotton shirts in the dryer doing laundry for the first time. Also, the lotion I brought for my legs is something I’m definitely allergic too. Oops. I have two little hives on my legs and both my shins are super itchy. Guess who is buying new lotion tomorrow?

I did almost kill myself in the shower today, though. I went to shave my legs for the first time, but because the shower is just a tiny little rectangle, I had to get creative with my acrobatics. Because I went to a yoga class today, I felt like maybe I could put my leg up on the wall and do a modified wall sit type of thing. So I did that and it seemed like a pretty good idea except for the fact my leg was a little lower than I meant it to be. No problem, I can just hitch my leg up a little higher and then we’re in business.

That’s where my shower took a turn for the worst.

As I was lurching my leg up, I lost a bit of my balance and my back slid down a little. Now I’m stuck. Well, shit.

So I struggle a little more and realize there’s no way I’m getting out of this gracefully. But I can hope, so I decide to slide slowly down the wall of the shower until I reach a point where I can adjust myself and stand up.

Of course, showers are fucking slippery when wet.

For a brief moment, I thought I was going to die.

Whooosh. Clunk. Fuck.

So now I’m sitting on the floor of a nasty ass public shower, butt naked of course and feeling sad about myself because that kind of hurt. I missed my head and whatnot so luckily none of my roommates found me bleeding and unconscious and also naked in the shower an hour later, but still. My dignity is bruised.

Anywho, since I’m already sitting on the floor of the gross shower and the five second rule has gone and past, I just decided to wallow in my self pity and shave my legs on the floor.

It actually worked out quite nicely except for the fact I probably have butt herpes now.

#how i almost died in the shower #slippery bathroom #college life #don’t shave your legs like i did #also you can’t get herpes like that but you probably can get something else horrible #can you get herpes in your butt

#newphonewhodis #memoir

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savvystories · 6 years

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your humble host

Aren’t “Top 10” lists and “The Year In Review” posts LAME?

They are!

So why does everybody do them?

Because we READ them hoping that out of a whole year they found a few good baubles we’ll wanna see.

And because it’s easy and the writers are basically taking a day off doing this.

I mean, think about it. I bring up some stats, link to the posts that got the most views, and say BEHOLD!

What’s that take, five minutes?

If I do a few of those and spread ’em out, I get December off.

BUT I AM NOT A SLACKER!

So here’s the lame stuff followed by hugely insightful stuff you need. Probably.

* * * Top 10 Things From 2017 * * *

10. A new pic of me!

Yep, I unceremoniously switched my author pic from this (left) to this (right):

Why?

Well, I was never crazy about the old one, as some of you will recall, and when my daughter took the new one and I slapped it up on Facebook or here or somewhere, as part of something else, Jenifer Ruff saw it and said it was a good shot of me – that it looked authorey and professional and stuff. Or something like that. And so I asked Allison and she said she’d told me the same thing a long time ago AND that my old pic didn’t look like me.

Well, gang, here’s the lesson:

When people who have your best interests at heart tell you to do something, you should do it. Better yet if they are bestselling authors and you’re an author, and even better if they give you this advice unsolicited.

9. Contests!

You guys were after me for a while to have writing contests – okay, I asked about it first, but then you were after me after that. I think. ANYWAY, we had a writing contest! And it was a BIG HIT! The historically worst month for views of my blog became the biggest month ever, and from there the blog soared to new heights, absolutely CRUSHING all prior years.

We are on course to do over 60,000 views in calendar 2017. That’s pretty cool!

(That tiny number you can’t read for 2014 says 210 views. 2013 is even smaller. So we’ve improved a little since then.)

And it’s because of YOU.

Yes, I have to try new things, and not all of them work out. I shrug it off and move on. As writers, we have to celebrate our successes and walk away from the smoldering wrecks that are our failures.

There are lessons to be learned in failure – sometimes more than in success. Learn the lesson, but don’t drown in the bad stuff.

8. Contests Again!

I was thrilled to hear that our very first Word Weaver Writing Contest winner drew enough support from winning the contest to publish her first book ever. I was over the moon when the second winner of the contest did the same thing!

Gang, that’s what we’re here for, to support each other and push each other to greater heights. OTHER contestants from our Word Weaver Writing Contests published their works, too, and that made this a special place to be.

People are coming here to find the writerly things they are looking for, and they are finding them. I’m gonna keep making that happen.

7. Scary Anthology

Hey, why have just one winner when you can have twenty? When I read all the contest entries, I was like, wow, we have a lot of talented writers here. How can we do something with that? So we drew from a failed idea from the past – a bunch of us writing a different chapter for a book – and changed it to be all of us putting a story or scene under a common umbrella and putting out an anthology.

The Box Under The Bed became #1 in its category while we were in Orlando at the Florida Writers Conference (not bad timing, that).

But here’s the funny chain of events.

The online critique group I used to be active in allowed me to meet cool writers.

A few came to the blog.

They suggested things like a writing contest.

I do a contest and get sponsors like Kelly Abell, a FWA member and fellow author I’d met at a few events.

The contests lead to me meeting Jenifer Ruff because the sponsor reblogged the contest and Jenifer knew Kelly and wanted a critique.

I, not knowing Jenifer already had a few books out (including a bestseller), gave her a critique the same way I’d give anyone else.

She enjoyed the input and we struck up a conversation – and then she joined the anthology.

The anthology, because it had several bestselling authors like Jenifer Ruff and Allison Maruska in it, plus great marketing ideas and enthusiasm from almost every co-author, does well – and helps a lot of previously unpublished writers become published authors.

6. So we will be doing another ANTHOLOGY in 2018

and helping other unpublished authors become published authors. YOU could be one of those. Many of the people who entered my writing contests were personally ASKED BY ME to be in the anthology.

5. Ten is a lot, isn’t it? I thought this list stuff would be easier.

And faster. I should have planned this better.

4. This isn’t really a year in review, is it? Let’s see if we can turn that around here on number four…

I published FOUR new books in 2017, a new record!

The Zombunny (November)

Stinky Toe (November)

An Angel On Her Shoulder (July)

Poggibonsi (April)

We also published the Box Under The Bed, but I didn’t really write that, I just contributed two stories, and I released a box set of cookbooks, which doesn’t really count, either. Oh, and a few titles were translated into foreign languages, but they aren’t actually “new.”

Honestly, I’m not sure four is even a record for me, either, but I’m too lazy to check.

Is there a lesson here? Not really, except that I finally cleared out most of my backlog and with just two more books written and not yet released, that’s pretty good! Clearing the backlog was a goal and I made a lot of progress on it.

Why was there a gap?

I tell people I stopped writing as much so I could learn to market better; times are changing, etc…

but the fact is I was kind of afraid of releasing Poggi.

I’d been told it was my best stuff, and in my head if it failed I was sure to become despondent. I was scared. I did other stuff. I edited a weaker book and distracted myself for a while.

Then I finally sucked up my courage and addressed my white whale – I published Poggibonsi. And it did okay. It didn’t fall on its face, which was a relief (I never thought that would happen, but I worried it wouldn’t be a home run). But the “weaker” book I fixed up and released kicked Poggi’s butt as far as connecting with fans and overall appeal, and it opened my eye to who I am and what I do.

Poggi was supposed to be – needed to be – a home run, in my mind…

but nobody can predict that kind of thing. That was too much to put on any one book. It was a solid base hit, though, and might turn into a double. (I believe marketing is holding that book back – my not knowing how to market it, and many of the marketing channels I used in the past almost not being effective at all anymore. More on that later.)

Angel was a triple, though, not necessarily in sales but also in future potential.

The whole time I was holding Poggi back, I was holding Angel and others back, too, but with the logjam cleared, I AM BACK.

I’m a writer, and a damned good one. That’s what I do.

I thought up, wrote, and released The Zombunny as a paperback – all in about a six week window. Because I’m good at what I do. There’s already a sequel written and a third is planned. Expect Zombunny 2: Night Of The Scary Creatures before January 31, 2018.

Set yourself a dang deadline, gang. Sometimes make it an impossible one. You just might surprise yourself.

3. Jenny, Allison and I were presenters at the FWA Conference. (#3 = Three of us. Get it?)

This isn’t a gratuitous pat on the back. Bear with me.

Jenny (J. A. Allen) hit it out of the PARK when she did her presentations! Why is that a big deal? Because freaking jamtart said YES when I asked her to be a co-host on Writers Off Task With Friends, a little viewed internet talk show we used to do about writing topics (allegedly), even though she’s a pretty big introvert, and she stepped up AGAIN when I asked her and Allison to apply to be presenters at FWA.

We got accepted!

THEN JENNY ANNOUNCES SHE HAS A DEATHLY FEAR OF SPEAKING IN PUBLIC

Like, in front of groups.

She doe not mention this just once, but many, many, MANY times throughout the year.

But she did it. She prepared, she rehearsed, and she OWNED THE ROOM. She did one of the best, most authoritative presentations I’ve ever seen.

J. A. Allen, owning the room

And she might have been scared to death the entire time, but it didn’t show at all.

I can’t tell you how impressed I am with Jenny. Almost every other writerly person I know would have said NO to that. She said yes.

Allison’s presentation on “How I Sold 20,000 Copies Of My Novel In 12 Months” did amazing. She could take that show on the road and fill theaters.

My presentations kicked ass. I had one slide and put on an hour-long show that had people laughing hysterically a few times. I’m not sure they learned anything, but they had a good time.

But Allison and I have had to speak in front of groups before.

For someone to face the thing they fear most, that’s one for the ages. I will NEVER forget it.

Jenny, you inspire me.

I’m so happy you are my friend.

And, well… I have another friend, too. Several. You guys. (See point 2, below.)

2. Cheers To YOU, the power behind the throne.

I don’t forget for one minute that without you there’s no me. Well, I mean, there is, but not as much. I’m still me even if you aren’t here… but because you are here, we are able to do great things.

Look at this list!

I didn’t come up with a lot of the best things this blog did in 2017, YOU did.

And I need to say thanks.

So,

THANKS!

Really, I’m just the quarterback of the team. I might get to be in the spotlight and accept an award, but it’s all of us together that make special things happen here.

I’ll try hard in 2018 to do even more amazing things. More contests, more anthologies, more good ideas from you – and we’ll watch together as we take this thing to new heights.

We’re on the cusp of something big. I can feel it. And I’m rarely wrong about these things.

me, feeling good about what’s coming for us in 2018

1. The Top Blog Posts of 2017 were helpful ones, so that’s what we’ll feature more of in 2018.

We’ll still have fun, of course. I mean, it’s me – come on.

But when we get it right, we get it WAY right. Check this out:

The #1 viewed blog post for 2017 was “Three Ways To Show A Text Conversation In A Book And One Right Way“

with over 19,000 views. It gets views every single day, which means it’s doing what we predicted: when we set up a standard here, we have the ability to cause it to become a standard in the industry. I’m overstating it, but writers everywhere read that post and learn how to show a text conversation properly. In time, what we said here might be what becomes the norm. Our little piece of writing history. Our fragment of immortality. You can say it’s a small thing, and it is, but it’s ours.

The next most viewed post is my About page, and after that is Contact Me. Not much to write about there, so we won’t count them. Therefore

The #2 most viewed post is “Three Ways StumbleUpon Can Get You Noticed“

– and honestly, it’s StumbleUpon causing the text post to be number 1, so it’s true.

The #3 most viewed post is…

the announcement of the winner of the 2nd Word Weaver Writing Contest, Heather Kindt‘s Ruby Slips And Poker Chips

Heather sent me a terrific story, and between the blog post announcing the winner and the story running the next day, we got almost 1000 views on the blog. That’s huge, gang. 200 views is typical for a day here, and most people’s blogs don’t get 1000 views in a month. We got that in less than 36 hours.

The winning storyRuby Slips and Poker Chips was part of a larger piece by the same name, and after I read it I knew Heather had a hit on her hands. I LOVED the story, and was immediately drawn in by the line about the rental house.

“The shack was a rental, and a poorly cared for one at that. Our neighbors didn’t stay there much longer than a bare foot on the pavement outside Price Chopper in July.”

My exact words to her – because I wrote them down – were as follows.

That’s a hilarious phrase. I might have to use it. And now we see the phrasing will be a nice accent to the story. Well done. This might be where I’d start this story, too.

Heather went on to release Ruby Slips and Poker Chips as a novel after writing it about five years ago. In the months since winning the contest, she and I have corresponded many times, and it has been a thrill for me to see her book get published.

If I had to sum up the year in a phrase…

…I’d be hard pressed to do it in words other than the sentiment I’ve expressed here many times before. I want to help make 100 people rich and famous in their writing, so they can help me, too.

That’s a silly way of saying we’re a team, and we are all helping each other get one rung higher on the ladder.

One more thing.

I helped another author get started, but she helped me get started first.

I wrote Facebook posts about my baby girl, and friends read them and encouraged me to write a book. Eventually, I did. After a few of those, I wanted to write novels, but I also wanted to write stories to read to my young daughter, and then when she got old enough, to write stories she could read to us. I didn’t envision her writing with me, and that’s been an absolute thrill. The Zombunny was her idea, and we’ve collaborated on a few of them now.

2017 will always be special for that, and who knows where that will lead?

Dream big, gang.

Here’s to an awesome 2018 with you and all the new friends we’ll meet there!

2017 The Year In Review Aren't "Top 10" lists and "The Year In Review" posts LAME? They are! So why does everybody do them?

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