So kimberleylittle tagged me for a meme and since I'm in the memory mood right now, here goes:
1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.
What were you doing ten years ago?
I had just moved back to California and was wondering if my now husband was going to propose to me or not. I was waiting for CAN I PRAY WITH MY EYES OPEN? to come out and wondering if I made the right decision to transfer instead of looking for a new company in the Silicon Valley.
What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
1. Finish the ESL book that is due this week.
2. Call the closet place to come out and give us estimates.
3. Call the wood floor guy to come out and give us estimates.
4. Answer the interview questions that have been waiting for me for too long.
5. Mail out books to about 5 people that have been waiting for me for too long.
What are some snacks you enjoy?
chocolate
vanilla ice cream with my husband's hot fudge sauce
almonds and walnuts
chai with extra pepper
What would you do if you were a billionaire?
Quit my dayjob!!!
Set up a trust to take care of each of my kids and my mom.
Move to Santa Cruz.
Adopt as many dogs and horses as I could and donate to take care of more.
Set up some literacy programs.
And the list could go on and on...
What are three of your bad habits?
Procrastination. Procrastination. Procrastination. (This really trumps everything else.)
Beating myself up for things that aren't my fault.
Not trying because I don't think I'll be any good at something
What are five places where you have lived?
Concord, CA
Oakley, CA
Norfolk, VA
New Orleans, LA
San Jose, CA
What are five jobs you have had?
Woolworths Drug Store ( I had to take a math test)
worked on a horse ranch, cleaning, feeding and giving riding lessons
bookkeeper for a taxi cab company
worked in the warehouse for oil field services
Project coordinator in R & D for a tech company
What six people do you want to tag?
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annemariepace has created a fun new meme! After chatting with her about it today, I'm giving it an official start. You can read her answers here.Anne Marie Pace's Memory Meme
Examples: Writing Life, Books, Pets, Jobs, Relationships, Food
So here goes mine:
Give me some random number between 1 and 49 and a category and I'll tell you something I was doing or something I experienced at that age in regards to that category. My categories are Writing Life, Pets, Relationships, Food and Jobs. (feel free to ask more than one - this is helping me prime the writing pump.)
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citycatinwindow offered up a meme of 5 things about her grandfather. My mom and I lived with my grandparents for more years than we lived alone so this one struck a chord with me.1. My grandfather was an alcoholic who quit drinking many years before I was born, before my mom was born even. As a result he had several oral fixations like sucking on hard candies and chomping on the end of toothpicks.
2. He worked for county roads doing survery work. This mean he got to come home for lunch a lot. He always started off the day with his lunch packed in his black lunch box. I loved it when he would come home and still eat what my grandmother had packed. It was almost always the same. The red thermos filled with coffee that had turned golden when he added milk. A couple of sandwiched wrapped in waxed paper. A pair of cookies, usually sugar cookies. Sometimes chocolate chip. Always store bought. His favorie sandwich? Spam.
3. He was a hunter and a fisherman and we always had a freezer full of catfish and ducks and pheasant. I was no good at cleaning fish but sometimes he'd let me pluck the ducks.
4. I love to watch him shave. Sometimes he would let me help. I would stand on the toilet seat so I could reach and dab the brush into the shaving cream and help smear it all over his face. When he was done he would pat on the Old Spice aftershave and lift me down.
5. He died when I was 10 years old. I remember his giant body sagging against the nubby red couch and growing smaller and smaller as the cancer ate away at him. I didn't go to his funeral. I don't know why my mom and my grandmother didn't make me. I wish they had. An arguement about prayer and my grandfather is what inspired my first picture book, Can I Pray With My Eyes Open?
Sorry to lump a bunch of things together in one post but I am playing catch-up. Yes, I know that's the same old game I always play but hey, when it's a core competency, you work it.
Many thanks to kellyrfineman for this post reviewing Oliver's Must-do List.
Also Lerner's website shows several reviews up for Robert Smalls Sails to Freedom.
"Newly competent readers are likely to thrill to this well told story of the Civil War hero, Robert Smalls.... a valuable addition to a reading tutor's collection as well as an excellent selection for a classroom..." --Children's Literature Network
"Brown makes this an exciting, well-told story that may spark readers to search for more information." --The Horn Book Guide
"Offers full-page color illustrations and provides believable text that captures the story of the slave boy who grew up to be a free man." --MultiCultural Review
And last but not least, a while back Mother Reader tagged me for the 5 interesting things about me meme. Interesting is such a relative term (in my case it is probably just plain weird) but I hope these will do the trick.
#1 I roller skated competitively back when roller skates had four wheels. By that I mean the fancy dances similar to what you see people doing on ice skates in the Olympics only for some reason we never could get roller skating to be an Olympic event. We used to have an "anything you can do I can do better" challenge that went back and forth with the local ice rink. People would think it was easier on roller skates but in a lot of ways it was more difficult because the skates were heavier and when dancing, it was common to lock wheels with a partner (or useful) and crash. Usually in a very unflattering manner. I went to the rink just about every day after school and was pretty dedicated until I discovered boys. Then it was hormones fighting with skating lessons and the hormones usually won.
#2 My first boyfriend was the one who told me it was time for me to start shaving my legs. We were at the rink and a bunch of girls were all crowded around him and he was looking at everyone's legs and he made a face. Later (after the makeout session behind the Foster Freeze) he told me it was time to shave my legs and to be sure to above the knees because the skating outfits were really short.
#3 My favorite comfort food is creamy Jif peanut on fresh white bread with thick slices of sweet pickles. I invented it when I was about 10 and have been eating it ever since, especially when I am feeling down.
#4 I once crashed my motorcycle on the lawn in front of the police department. Okay, crash might be a bit extreme. I was at a stop sign and when I hit the gas, the bike did a rooster tail sort of hop out of my hands and landed on the lawn. I had had the bike less than a day. I don't remember driving it much on the street after that.
#5 I have a weird thing about shoes with laces. First, when I buy new shoes I have to take all the laces out and relace them so they start with the even part under the holes so the laces come UP and not go DOWN. I have no idea why but I can't stand to wear shoes until I have fixed them. And if I retie one shoe I have to retie the other one at the same time so they both have the same amount of tightness.
Yep, I was right. More weird than interesting. Sigh.
I was tagged with the letter N, write ten things the start with your letter and why they are important to you!
1. Networks - well there's two kinds of networks and I love them both. The networks that connect all our computers are wonderful (and keep my husband gainfully employed) and the networks of friends that loop back and over and under and keep my smiling and supported are fab!
2. Novels - uh, duh.
3. Nicknacks - oh dear. I have hundreds of them. Truly. Little tiny to medium size to a few large and the plastic and the porcelain and a few wooden ones and they are all characters that are either writing or reading.
4. Night - I'm a nighttime kind of gal (which is why being at work at 6am is so painful for me.) My creative juices start rolling fast around 3pm and on into and through the night. (Which is why there are many nights that I simply don't sleep._
5. Nature - When I am stressed or upset or depressed, we drive through the redwoods to Santa Cruz. As soon as I hit the redwoods, I can feel the tension leave my body. Ideas circulate better th
6. Nastursiums - They make me smile. Throw them in the dirt, a little water to get started and then you can pretty much ignore them. They repay you with bright blossoms all summer and deep into the fall. It was the first thing I remember growing at school, in an egg carton, and my grandmother let me plant them in the front yard where everyone could see them. I can drive by the house I grew up in and still see nastursiums there. Right night my backyard is a riot of orange with nastursiums and poppies.
7. Negotiations - The best ones of these bring contracts and money. What's not to love?
8. Nerves - Nerves let us feel our emotions. You might have noticed I'm a wee bit of an emotional type of person. I need my nerves.
9. Nerf balls and assorted Nerfy stuff - Because nothing else gets an engineer's attention faster than throwing a Nerf-something at him. And because a bunch of stuffed shirts can't stay all stuffy in a meeting when I give them Nerf toys to play with. And because I am moving cubicles next week and my boss and I will be able to have Nerf-battles from my cube to his office.
10. Nickels - I think they are an underappreciated coin. And they add up and you can buy cool stuff.
Oh dear....do I give someone an "O" because it is next? Gonna have to do it. I tag kellyrfineman
(Sorry Kelly!)
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Ground Rules: The first player of this "game" starts with the topic "5 weird habits of yours" and people who get tagged need to write a LJ entry about their 5 quirky habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged and list their names.
Boy, this really makes you stop and think, how much do I really want these people to know about me?
1. If I stop to tie one shoe I have to retie the other one so they are both the same amount of "tight."
2. When I put food on my plate I eat all of one kind, then all of the next, and so on. I might take a taste of each one to start but then I pick which one I want to end with and eat them one at a time.
3. I write all my fiction first in longhand and I have to use the same kind of pen throughout.
4. Sometimes I make a mud puddle just so I can smell the mud. (Hey, I live in California where we don't get much rain.)
5. My ideal closet would be a bedroom with nothing but walls and hooks on the walls where I could hang things out in plain sight rather than behind doors in a cramped closet. Until then, the chair and the knobs on the dresser drawers will have to do.
I know I'm late to the game but just in case, writerross, avariecaita, writerjob, d_michiko_f,slatts
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I legally changed my name to Susan Taylor Brown.
I adopted my dog Chelsie from the pound.
I was living alone for the first time in my life.
I signed with my 3rd agent who eventually sold my picture book Can I Pray With My Eyes Open? to Hyperion.
- 5 years ago- I had been back home in California for a year and a half.
I was still working for Schlumberger, just a different division and different location.
I was a newlywed of about 9 months.
My daughter graduated from high school.
I graduated from college.
I was with agent #4 who eventually sold my picture book Oliver’s Must-Do List to Boyds Mills Press.
- 1 year ago-
I signed with agent #5 at Writers House and hope it is the agent change I ever make.
I sold (without an agent) my book Robert Smalls Sails to Freedom to Lerner.
We finally moved out of our cramped 4-plex and into a house.
My cat Benjamin died.
My grandson was born (he’ll be a year old next month.)
-yesterday- I worked the day job, still with the same company which has gone through 2 name changes due to spin-offs and takeovers.
Worked with numbers all day – yuck! (day job)
Received something really cute in the mail for publicity for Oliver but I’m not sharing it yet.
Had Hannigan’s barbecue ribs for dinner. Yum.
Went live with my new Live Journal.
-tomorrow- Will have to call my mom for our weekly check-in call
-5 snacks I enjoy- chai, chocolate, cheese, almonds, baby carrots
-5 bands/artists that I know the lyrics to most of their songs- Beatles, Rod McKuen, Five for Fighting, Meat Loaf, Garth Brooks (okay…that shows how weird my music tastes are.)
-5 things I'd do with $100,000,000- Buy us a house of our own so we didn’t have to deal with landlords anymore. Set up a trust fund for each of my kids. Quit my dayjob. (okay…all very selfish ideas)
-5 locations I would like to run away to- Hawaii, England, Ireland, Italy, France (but only if I knew I would have a comfy bed, and I could take my own pillow because I don’t travel well.)
-5 bad habits I have- procrastinating, buying things I don’t need, taking on more than I can handle, eating junk food, having lunch out of the vending machine at work when I don’t want to walk across the street to the cafeteria
-5 things I like doing- reading, going to Santa Cruz with Erik, browsing bookstores (on and offline),
designing webstuff, blogging
-5 things I will never wear- turtlenecks, mini skirts, bikini, apron, tights
-5 t.v. shows I like(d)- One Tree Hill, Gilmore Girls, Everwood, Joan of Arcadia, ER
-5 movies I like- Kolya, The Story of Us, When a Man Loves a Woman, Pretty Woman, Notting Hill
-5 people I'd like to meet- all my virtual friends and I won’t name some because I might forget others
-5 biggest joys at the moment- my husband, my son, my dog, my writing, my friends
-5 favorite toys- PDA (great for playing Scrabble on the go), books, digital camera, computer, kids toys that make animal noises
-5 people tagged – (if you want to play) Kim,Janni, Pamela
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Things to Do
Quotes
"We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason why they write so little." Anne Lamott
"Love the writing, love the writing, love the writing...the rest will follow."Jane Yolen
"The whole thing is, you’ve got to make them care about somebody." Frank Capra
"As writers, we must be willing to feel our sadness, our anger, our terror, so we can reach in and find our sweet vulnerability that is just sitting there waiting for us to come back home." Nancy Slonim Aronie
"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours!" Richard Bach
"Yet somehow, we write; and most of the time, we like what we write. The dark place seems less dark when we get there. It was only the journey that was fearful." Susan Shaughnessy
"You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any other artist you must learn your craft -- then you can add all the genius you like." Phyllis A. Whitney
"Writers write about what obsesses them. You draw those cards. I lost my mother when I was 14. My daughter died at the age of 6. I lost my faith as a Catholic. When I'm writing, the darkness is always there. I go where the pain is." Anne Rice
"I write in terror. I have to talk myself into bravery with every sentence, sometimes every syllable." Cynthia Ozick
"There have been societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories." Ursula K. LeGuin
"Your first job is to get your own story straight." Natalie Goldberg
"Only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking." Naomi Wolf
"Few children learn to read books by themselves. Someone has to lure them into the wonderful world of the written word; someone has to show them the way." Orville Prescott
"A writer either speaks to adults and bores kids, or speaks to kids and upsets adults." Ursula K. LeGuin
"I'd always thought you had to be a special person to write. And then I realized you just have to start." Abigail Thomas
"You will recognize your own path when you come upon it, because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need." Jerry Gillies
"But they’re not telling the truth if they don’t teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer." Doris Lessing
"A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote."Yevgeny Yentushenko
"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the
greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't
believe in magic will never find it." Roald Dahl
"I compose sometimes with a pen and notebook, sometimes on the computer; it makes no difference. If all I had was a chisel and a rock I would write on the rock." Ursula Le Guin
"If you want to write from a place of emotional integrity, it is important to learn everything you can about all kinds of emotions, including those that exist in you, that you wish didn't." Elizabeth Berg
"And this is the way a novel gets written, in ignorance, fear, sorrow, madness, and a kind of psychotic happiness as an incubator for the wonders being born." Jack Kerouac
"Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing. They are the ones who discover what is most important and strangest and most pleasurable in themselves, and keep believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties." Bonnie Friedman
Who am I?I was born on the Cancer/Leo cusp and share a birthday with Ernest Hemingway and Robin Williams. The similarities don't stop there as I can go from depressed to ecstatic without ever passing go. I feel scared most of the time though my friends call me brave and I find it easier to believe in my friends than to believe in my own abilities to make what I want out of my life.
Who am I? A wife, a mother, a daughter, and even, gulp, a grandmother.
Who am I? A writer who never gets tired of playing with words, even when the words are hard to find. A writer of books for children and articles for grown-ups and many things in-between.
Who am I? A motivational speaker, writing instructor, workshop leader and full-time follower of dreams.
Who am I? Read and find out.
Is your school a MUST-SEE school? Read Oliver's blog and learn how Oliver can come for a FREE school visit!
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