Let's talk about reading, writing and blogging

As part of my blogoversary celebration last week, I invited people to send me questions. Claire at A Little Piece of Me picked up the challenge and sent me a list.

Hello, get a coffee and relax. It's interview time with Claire :)

OK, I don't have a coffee, but I do have my feet up on my desk, so I'm as relaxed as I can be. (Honestly, my feet are up. My husband has no idea how I can type this way, but I manage quite well.)
  
Having been a reader of Mills and Boon since I was about eleven, I would like to know what your first romance novel was and how old you were when you read it.

I could go with the short and easy answer, but I won't because I think the payoff is better when I tell it this way.

My third-grade teacher wanted to put me into a remedial reading class. She said I had reading issues (and that I reminded her of her ex-husband). In fourth grade, at my new school, I tested normal for reading. In fifth grade, I read my first novel-length book, Flowers in the Attic. By sixth grade, I'd been placed in an honors reading program. I discovered historical fiction that year and decided I especially liked stories of the American West, such as the Little House on the Prairie series and epic-length books such as Sacajawea.

In seventh grade, I was checking out the books on the supermarket book rack and I saw a book cover with an American Indian on the front. It looked like an interesting story, so I bought it. I didn't care that I was having trouble pronouncing the title: Defiant Ecstasy. (You try to sound out the word Ecstasy -- there are some vowels missing there.)

From that moment on, I was hooked on historical romance. I think my parents were a little bemused by some of my selections, but they didn't try to hold me back. At least I was reading.

What does the husband think of your blog and have you ever said to him 'oh I am going to blog that!'. 

He doesn't get the whole blogging thing, the compulsion to write, and especially the time I put into it. A few months ago, I subscribed him to my email feed so that he could at least know what I was up to. Every once in a while he'll yell from the other room something like "What the hell is a Wordless Wednesday?" He was thrilled this week when he discovered the Odiogo link and vowed that would be the only way he'd read my posts now. LOL

The most recent example of "I'm going to blog that" was recently when we were changing out the bathroom fixtures in our powder room. When I grabbed the camera, he said "I suppose you're going to blog about this."

My only possible response: "Of course I am."

Then I did clarify that since the toilet paper holder we were getting rid of was HATED by many of our friends (you'd have to read the full story), and the friends would appreciate the documentation. That seemed to pacify him. 

Can you see yourself blogging for another three years and beyond?

Yes. For the first few years I sometimes felt like I was blogging into a void. I did nothing to promote the blog and I only had a few readers. But, I blogged anyway. If I kept blogging through that, I don't see what would make me stop now.

How rude is this novel of yours going to be, if you had to put a movie rating on it.

The novel that I've completed, Prairie Fire, would probably earn an R rating. The novella I'm working on is erotica and by definition would earn an X rating.  (I'm staying with officially sanctioned movie ratings here.)

and finally, when do I get to read it?

If you promise not to analyze me afterward, you (Claire) can read it in the next few months. Everyone else would have to wait until it was published, and since I don't have a publisher for it yet, who knows when that will happen. :)

We have a winner

10,000 visits!

Claire at A Little Piece of Me wins the 1,000 Entrecredits for sending me a screen print with the Sitemeter showing 10,000 hits. I'm transferring the credits right now.

Thank you Claire.

Here's her screen capture (click to enlarge):



Here's a print screen of my Sitemeter report. Claire's visit is circled. The visit below her was the actual 10,000th visitor -- someone visiting from Lacrosse, Wis.



Thanks to everyone who played along with me. That was fun for a few minutes. (A special thank you to that mystery person who'd been refreshing for the past hour trying to capture the magical number.)

Coming next week to an Internet near you...

Two fun Internet based projects happening next week.

First up: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

So what did the creator of Buffy, Angel and Firefly do when the writers were on strike last winter? He brainstormed an Internet-based project called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Joss Whedon recruited Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser and How I Met Your Mother) to play a super villain, Nathan Fillion (Captain Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly and Serenity) to play a super hero, and Felicia Day (the last season of Buffy, The Guild, and that Cheetos laundromat commercial) to play a cute girl, and produced a program that will be published in three video installments on the Internet next week.



So what exactly is a Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? As it's described on the Dr. Horrible Twitter page, it's: The story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to. 

So, on July 15, check out DrHorrible.com for the first video installment, July 17 for the second, and July 19 for the last. They'll be posted for free until July 20, and after that will be available for download for pay through some other site. Eventually, it will be released on DVD with all sorts of special extras.

Second up: Doodle Week

Doodle Masters Claire and Laura have declared a sequel to this spring's fabulously successful (and fun) Doodle Week. Starting Monday and then for the next week, you'll see doodles popping up all over the blogosphere.


In the spirit of things, I've already posted a doodle version of my logo on my page.

So, you're wondering (maybe), how does one participate in Doodle Week?

First, you draw a doodle by whatever means inspires you. The doodle doesn't even have to be good. It's a doodle, and who ever saw a doodle hanging in an art gallery anywhere?

Once you've managed to produce a doodle, then what? Unless you're only planning to hang your doodle from your refrigerator or cubicle wall, you need to get it into a digitized format. No one cares how. Take a photo of it. Scan it. Create it on your computer in the first place. Whatever. That's incidental.

Then you post it somewhere. On your blog. On your MySpace page. On your Flickr page. (Surely you're involved in some sort of social networking thing that will let you post an image, right?)

Then you go to the Doodle Week website and let everyone know that you've doodled, then they can come and admire your doodle.

Oh, and there are themes for each day, but don't let a theme hold you back. Have fun with it!