Quiz: The Doodle Test

I have to say I agree with most of this result.

You Are Having an Exciting Day

You are creative and easily inspired. You see so much eye candy in the world around you. You are thoughtful and reflective. It's likely that you're taking stock of your life right now. It's likely you're feeling over scrutinized and watched these days. You could do with a little space. You are quiet and reserved. You feel most at ease when you are able to keep to yourself.

The Doodle Test

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes!

Tragedy in 2001: 15 Years Later

It's been 15 years since 9/11. Many of us will remember what we were doing when the news broke out  about the bombing.

One chapter in my memoir is titled "Tragedy in 2001," telling what I was doing in the months and days just before the attacks.  Here is a synopsis.  I was working at a restaurant under a new boss who began that summer after the previous owners sold the place.  The new boss was indeed a horrible boss, yelling at everyone, including his wife and their son. Work was now more like a prison camp, and it just got worse as the summer went on. Fortunately, I was able to get off for two different cousins's weddings, one in July and one in September. I ended up getting fired just before the second wedding; the horrible last day was the Sunday before Labor Day 2001. In the days that followed, I went looking for another job, to see movies and then to the wedding, which was just three days before the bombings.

On the day of the bombings, after trying to keep up with the news on TV, I needed to be out and was I ever glad I made that decision. I saw that the Dollar Tree was opening in my town, so I went by to pick up an application and was immediately hired.

What were you doing that day?

Poll: Reading Challenges for 2017

It's already September, meaning there are only three more months left in the year.  For those who participate in the various annual reading challenges, you can expect to see the sign ups for next year in the coming months. With that in mind, I have already decided to do a memoir reading challenge in a bingo format. I will be working in the post in the coming months.  This year I hosted my first challenge, Literary Loners, and am trying to decide if I want to offer it again, based on the small number of participants I received. I also realized I've read a lot of humorous books and have wondered why there hasn't been a challenge for that one It sounds like it would be a good one to have.  I feel that if I don't see one offered, I could start one myself.  How about one for epistolary reading--books written in formats of letters, blogs, e-mails, and  such?

I decided to make a poll to see what challenges readers would like to see offered on my blog next year. I'm already certain about doing the memoir one, since I have been reading a lot of memoirs and am working on my one of my own. I've been brainstorming categories to put in the bingo grid and am planning on using one of the templates on this site. I've already decided on these and have my post in draft mode. I only plan on hosting up to three challenges, so I will choose whichever ones get the most votes. Please choose up to two.    I have removed the poll as of 9/20. See this post for more details.  

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril XI

This will be my first time participating in this seasonal reading challenge. I'd seen it on others' blogs for years now and now I want to give it a go.  I know I'll be reading some appropriate books and will have enough to get four for the first level.  It runs through September and October. Click the link above to sign up and see more details.

(Much thanks to Hugo Award winning artist Abigail Larson for the use of her art)

To be up front, there will be no thumb-pricking here.

After all, one might get blood on one’s books!

Well, the year has gone and done it again. Winter gave way to Spring, Summer came blazing in, and here before we know it Autumn will officially take the reins. Every year when September arrives I feel a lightening in my spirit, knowing that the constricting heat and humidity of the Midwest summer will soon give way to my favorite season of the year.

Orange will become a predominant color, and pumpkin-flavoring will invade every drink and dessert that we love to imbibe.

Speaking of imbibing, eleven years ago I embarked on a quest to bring a community of readers together to enjoy the literature most associated with the darkening days and cooling temperatures of Autumn:

Mystery
Suspense
Thriller
Gothic
Horror
Dark Fantasy

I wanted to be able to use the well-worn graveyard acronym, R.I.P., so I came up with the name “R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril’. And for over a decade that is what we have done, imbibed together.

For the 10th anniversary I took a break and the hosting duties were fulfilled (quite wonderfully) by the team over at The Estella Society. I am so grateful to them for so doing, I truly needed the rest.

But I am back for year eleven and it is time to embrace the delicious thrill of things that go bump in the night, to figure out if the butler actually did do it, to cover our eyes during the scary bits and to conquer our fears together.

Welcome to R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril XI.

Many of you are probably frequent participants in this event, but for those who are new, or returning after an absence, I grew up reading scary stories illustrated by the incomparableEdward Gorey, watching horror films starring Vincent Price, and generally discovering the literary wonder of authors like Bram Stoker and Edgar Allan Poe. I did go through a brief high school, early-20’s phase where the overly gorey films like Nightmare on Elm Street were my fancy, and while I do not look down on anyone who continues to embrace that kind of entertainment, my first love when it comes to those lengthening Autumn nights are stories in the gothic vein, classic and modern mysteries, and the kind of atmospheric stories, in any format, that give you chills up your spine and make you want to pull the covers up tight.

It is in that spirit that this event began.

Reading and watching television are solitary activities, but can be expanded to a community if you get together to share what is exciting your interest and to discuss like passions. That is the entire point of R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril.

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril XI takes place from September 1st, 2016 through October 31st, 2016.

There are only two expectations if you want to participate with us:
1. Have fun reading (and watching*).
2. Share that fun with others.

Read four books, of any length, from the very broad categories earlier defined as perilous. They could all be by the same author, a series of books, a random mix of classic and contemporary or whatever you like.

Here is what I am reading:

1. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children--Ransom Riggs
2. The Infinite Sea--Rick Yancey
3. The Last Star--Rick Yancey
4. All the Lovely Bad Ones--Mary Downing Hahn
5. Old Black Witch!--Wende and Harry Devlin
6. The Gates--John Connelly
7. Vampires in the Lemon Grove--Karen Russell
8. The Ghost Bride--Yangsze Choo
9. The Third Witch--Rebecca Reisert
10. Eighth Grade Bites--Heather Brewer
11. Ninth Grade Slays--Heather Brewer
12. Tenth Grade Bleeds--Heather Brewer
13. The Night Before Halloween--Natasha Wing
14. Eleventh Grade Burns--Heather Brewer
15. Twelfth Grade Kills--Heather Brewer
16. Anya's Ghost--Vera Brogsol
17. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer--Michelle Hodkin
18. It Takes a Witch--Heather Blake
19. Thirst No. 2--Christopher Pike
20. Lenobia's Vow--P.C. Cast
21. An Uninvited Ghost--E.J. Copperman
22. Blood and Chocolate--Annette Curtis Klause
23. Five Black Cats--Patricia Hegarty
24. The Graveyard Book--Neil Gaiman

Challenge completed on October 30

WritersLife.org: How to Write a Memorable Memoir

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To resonate with others there are some key ingredients to writing a  memorable memoir, says today's topic on WritersLife.org.  Even though I've been working on mine for months now, I still had to read this article.  Here is how I have worked in these key ingredients:

1. Overcoming difficulties

As with all good fiction, there needs to be a struggle, a conflict or a journey littered with obstacles that need to be overcome.

Every reader will have faced difficulties in their lives, and reading about the strength and determination of other people facing theirs is both comforting and inspiring.

Tough experiences and recovering from them are something we have all gone through, so when reading about other people’s problems, even if they are very different from our own, we can identify, resonate, and sympathise with them.

This is very true of any memoir. Especially that last line. Being able to resonate with another person's memoir on a similar subject can also be key to making you tell your own, as was true with me. 

2.  Introducing humour

Life is full of weird and wonderful experiences. Sharing these with your reader will bring smiles to their faces. No matter how tough your life has been your memoir shouldn’t be all doom and gloom. Try to make sure you have some laughter in there too.

I'm not sure how well I did on this one :-) But I'm still working on it, so I will be going over it again. I did mention how I told my psychiatrist how I'd thought my phone was ringing when it actually wasn't doing so and how as a result of this leaned the term "ringxiety." When I showed my boss my early handwritten draft, she laughed upon seeing this quote.  So I guess I did introduce some humor.

3.  Being truthful

There is a difference between embellishing the truth and understanding how to weave a good yarn, and simply lying outright. The former is accepted in a memoir, the latter is not. Memoirs don’t have to be written word for word as they happened, they don’t have to be chronological, they don’t have to be 100% factual, but they do have to be truthful. There is no reason why you can’t be creative and imaginative in your memoir but make sure you don’t make false claims, sweeping generalisations, or fabricate your entire story.

I was well aware that a memoir does not have to remembered verbatim and that you need only include what you feel is important to your story. Also, I did not go chronologically in most cases, something someone I know mentioned after she read the pdf of my story I'd sent by e-mail. But in many instances, it was to contrast what happened in one instance vs. another. For example, one chapter is devoted to many different things over several years that I never go to do or have.  Another is about what occurred to me personally in 2001, in the weeks leading up to bombing.  

As I have said in past blog posts, I was uncertain if I wanted to attempt a memoir, but decided to do so after what I'd begun to write seemed like such.  I was primarily worried about using real names of others, so I chose to use fictional names. In some cases, I made some people into two or three different people in order to further disguise them.

4. Create a journey

Memoirs are journeys, ones which the reader is invited to join the writer on as they discover themselves and learn and grow. Your memoir needs to show this, to explain how your experiences have shaped who you are today and what lessons you learnt along the way.

This was pretty obvious to me from memoirs I have read. Going onto Prozac was the journey that my memoir has told.

5.  Make it personal

For readers to emotionally engage with your memoir you need to give yourself to them, you need to open up. Be detailed, descriptive and emotional and you are sure you have your readers hooked.

If I had not wanted others to hear my story, I never would have tried to write it in the first place. And I'm sure the same is true of those who have already written and published their memoirs.  

Next Up--Attempting a Fictional Novel?

Those who have been reading my blog are aware that I have ventured into the world of writing  a memoir.  You may also know from some posts that I wasn't sure if I was going to go that way or try to write fiction.  But eventually the notes I had written down on notebook paper sounded more like a memoir, so I decided to go that way, though I have fictionalized it a little. 

The fact is I've often seen myself attempting a fictional novel, and just the other day, I emailed my story to a long-time friend of my mom, who emailed me saying what she thought and said I write well, and that she would like to see me to attempt a fictional novel.   I told how I have thought of doing so.

On her blog tour last Friday, Stephanie Faris posted at this blog saying: 

Why Reading Outside Your Genre Can Make Your Writing Stronger

I commented saying how I do in fact read different genres, though not a lot of westerns and only some sci-fi, and said how I have wanted to attempt a novel but that having read a memoir I could relate to made me do one of my own. But now I'm trying to come up with ideas for a fiction novel.  I asked if it was unusual to want to try writing fiction after attempting a memoir and she replied that it doesn't seem unusual at all.  I guess some people choose to write all different genres. 

How would the idea of a YA novel set in the 1980s in an epistolary (diary) format sound?  And with a male protagonist, even though I am a woman author?  I've kind of found it hard to formulate fiction based around the current technology and I think kids today should see what it was like for those of us who grew up in the eras before cell phones, the Internet and such.  What does anyone think?

Bookish Bingo: Fall 2016

I'll be doing the fall bingo reading challenge at Pretty Deadly Reviews.  I will again get as many squares as I can.

It’s time for another round of Bookish Bingo! The purpose of this challenge is to push ourselves to read more, and to broaden our horizons a little bit. I don’t know about you guys, but summer was a reading bust for me, so I’m so excited for this new card and to finally kick this reading slump.

The Details:

• Every new season has a new bingo card. This one is for books read in the months of September, October and November.
• The object is to get as many BINGOs as possible (five across, up and down, or diagonal)
• One square per book
• You do not have to review these books, or even have a blog, this is simply for books read during the allotted months
• At the end of August there will be an international giveaway for all participants. The more BINGOs you get, the more entries you get in the giveaway!
• To participate, simply leave a comment!

The Card:

Here is what I am reading:

1. Animal on Cover: King of the Wind--Marguerite Henry
2. Illustrated:  Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day--Judith Viorst
3. Multi POV: The Diamond of Darkhold--Jeanne DuPrau
4. Paranormal or Horror: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children--Ransom Riggs
5. Standalone:  The Girl You Left Behind--Jojo Moyes
6. Free Space: Double Fudge Brownie Murder--Joanne Fluke
7. Green Cover: The PMS Murder--Laura Levine
8. Retelling: The Claiming of Sleeping of Beauty--A.N. Roquelaure
9. Recommended to You: Look Both Ways--Alison Cherry
10. Friendship: The Kite Runner--Khaled Hosseini
11. College: The Bell Jar--Sylvia Plath
12. Sea Creatures: Memoirs of a Goldfish--Devin Scillian
13. Graphic Novel: Dear Dumb Diary: Let's Pretend This Never Happened--Jim Benton
14. Short Stories: The Collected Stories of Wallace Stegner
15. Suspense: Polar Star--Martin Cruz Smith
16. Killers: 10th Anniversary--James Patterson
17. Black Cover: The Infinite Sea--Rick Yancey
18. American History: Calico Bush--Rachel Field
19. Creepy Cover: All the Lovely Bad Ones--Mary Downing Hahn
20. Revenge: Think of a Number--John Verdon
21. Dragons: The Ghost Bride--Yangsze Choo
22. Purple Cover: It Takes a Witch--Heather Blake
23. Backlist: Thirst No. 2--Christopher Pike
24. Fall Release:  Leave Me--Gayle Forman
25. Weapon on Cover: Soul Eater: Vol. 1--Atsushi Ohkubo

Challenge completed on November 10