Beta Rounds»

Want a chance to join my TBSOL Final Version beta team?


December 16, 2011 » 0 comments»




Quite a few of you have expressed interest in joining my TBSOL FV beta team. I don’t intend to publish FV on the web anywhere and I’m only allowing a handful of people to read it before it goes off to my publisher. So from now until February, I’ll be doing random beta invite rounds where I invite one or two people to join the team. Today, I’m starting invite round one.

Beta Invite Round #1

I’m inviting one (1) person. If you want to be that person, keep reading.

Here’s how it works:

  1. You have to be a subscribed member of my newsletter (if you received this same message in your inbox, then you’re good to go).
  2. If you’re NOT subscribed, you need to subscribe by Monday, December 19th – You can sign up here »
  3. You must reply to this email or your newsletter welcome email or something of the sort saying that you’re interested in being considered. If you’d like, you can say something weird, like, “I love dancing goats,” and I will take that to mean you’re interested. I will also take that to mean you’re awesome.
  4. Dance

So, to recap:

Subscribe to my newsletter » email me to say you love dancing goats (or just that you want to be considered) » dance

How I will choose the winner:

I will take all the emails I receive, put them through a Sophisticated Randomized Process that will involve:

1. shaving my head
2. dancing around naked with sticks
3. chanting

And from this process one name will emerge and he or she will become THE CHOSEN ONE.

I’ll announce THE CHOSEN ONE on Tuesday, December 2oth while I pack for my holiday trip.

Before you ask, no I will not post pictures of the SRP (Sophisticated Randomized Process) because it’s sophisticated. Also secret. Also I’ll be naked and bald and I don’t want to get tagged on Facebook.

If you’re not THE CHOSEN ONE this time around, worry not. For I’ll do another round or two in January and you’ll have a chance to earn a different title.

Love, goats, and coffee,
Ingrid

Be the first to comment

Ramblings»

Dancing Goats And Greeting Cards


December 11, 2011 » 5 comments»




If you’ve dropped by my blog in the past couple of days you may have caught it in various states of undress. I’ve been doing a little winter cleaning. Up above the post titles you’ll now find links to whatever category that post is filed under so that you can easily navigate through similar content. Spiffy, si? Si. I’ve done other things, but those will likely not affect your life.

Today I’m excited because I finally got around to pre-ordering Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’ve been waiting on this game for years. And then I forgot about it. And then I remembered again. But it was still not ready, so I forgot again. And then I remembered, but I was too late to sign up for the beta thing and I was like “Nooooo!!” And then I cried. And then I stopped crying. And then I forgot about it again. But today I remembered to pre-order. Happy dance!

Speaking of happy dancing, one of my lovely readers (Hi Vee!) sent me this totally awesome picture she stumbled upon:

CoffeeDancingGoatKaldi

Is that not the greatest thing in the world? It is. I feel oddly compelled to get that tattooed on my butt.

keep reading »

5 comments »

Life Stories » Projects»

Of Pensiveness, Holiday Cards and Intimate Letters


December 6, 2011 » 11 comments»




Last night K rediscovered that it’s a dangerous thing to ask me what I’m thinking. She saw me staring off into space, and said, “You look pensive. What’s on your mind?” And then I dragged her into a four hour conversation.

Some of the topics included:

  • Plagiarism
  • Chewbacca
  • Real Housewives
  • The hidden complexities of reality television
  • Hipster music
  • Anne Rice
  • Cellos
  • Sociopaths

… plus much, much more. Seriously, four hours.

Would you like a holiday card?

It’s December! How did we get back here so fast? My goodness. K and I went a teensy bit overboard buying holiday cards back in January (they were on sale!) and the plan is — as it is every year — to send cards out to all our friends and family and online acquaintances whose mailing addresses we haven’t yet lost.

So! If you would like a card from us this year, please to email me your address (even if you think I have it already, because I am really bad at keeping an orderly contact list). We would LOVE to send you one. Doesn’t matter where.

Daily Dose of Randomness (DDOR)

I’m finally back in the mailing list business after many moons of being too lazy to create one. I realized maybe some of you prefer communication on a more personal level and sometimes I don’t feel like writing things publicly. So! I now have a Daily Dose of Randomness newsletter thingie, to which you can sign up.

What this thingie IS:

  • A letter from me to you on a semi-daily basis with content not published anywhere else
  • A message discussing something I don’t feel like blogging about, but would still like to share with those who enjoy hearing from me
  • An option to interact with me via email
  • A more intimate setting (I’ll light candles whenever I email you)

What this thingie ISN’T:

  • A group list where everyone’s replies go to everyone else (your replies go to me, and me only)
  • A goat

You can unsubscribe any time you want and you don’t have to feel bad about it. I promise. If you’re into it, click here to sign-up

11 comments »

Random»

Mimosasaaaaas


November 28, 2011 » 3 comments»




Me: I’ve never had a Mimosa. What’s in it?

K: Champage and orange juice, both of which are in the fridge.

Me: LET’S HAVE MIMOSAAAAAAAS!!!!

K: I love you.

Me: Because I’m like, LET’S HAVE MIMOSAAAAAAAAAS?

K: Because you’re cray cray.

 

Cray cray!

3 comments »

Writing»

Back to the whiteboard (TBSOL Progress Report)


November 26, 2011 » 7 comments»




whiteboard

Outlining

I’m outlining TBSOL in ten-chapter increments. Every 5th chapter takes the story in a new direction:

Chapter 1 – Julianne buys Kris’ painting.

Chapter 5 – Julianne emails Kris.

Chapter 10 – Julianne gets the script for the movie in NY / Kris breaks up with Nathan / A few other things.

Chapter 15/16 - Julianne goes to Kris’ art show / They meet in person.

Chapter 19/20 – Julianne and Kris meet up for coffee / Leigh’s up for a role in Julianne’s movie.

Chapter 25 – Kris finds out that Julianne is Julia.

And so on and so forth.

keep reading »

7 comments »

Life Stories»

Dishwasher conversations


November 24, 2011 » 2 comments»




K: Why are the coffee cups in the dishwasher where the glasses usually go?

Me: I felt that putting them in the same place was too derivative of your style of putting dishes away and I just wanted to try something different. I wanted to draw inspiration from but also transform the experience so that when you opened the dishwasher you got that sense of shock–

K: (laughing) You speak such amazing bullshit.

This is how I get myself out of trouble after putting the dishes away in the wrong place. This is also what K has to put up with.

2 comments »

Downloads » Freebies»

The Blind Side of Love v2 PDF File


November 18, 2011 » 12 comments»




TBSOL v2’s LiveJournal account sits at 899 members as of today. I’m not sure how most of you even found it because I stopped linking to it a while ago in an effort to keep it “hidden” – but I still granted access to everyone who did find it. If you bothered enough to sign up to LiveJournal just to read my story (as most of you did), then letting you read it was the least I could do.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to sign up, request permission, and/or occasionally email me to beg for access – you’re all amazing and beautiful and wonderful and I love you.

TBSOL VF/V3 – or as I like to refer to it privately: TBSOL OMG AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH – has now veered so far away from either version that it should make no difference at all if you read v1 and/or v2. So, for those of you who’ve read it at the LJ and always wanted a complete file but were too lazy to compile it yourself, or for those of you who did not read it at the LJ but always wanted to, you can now has.

 The Blind Side of Love (version 2) PDF – This is a big file so give it a minute or so to download.

I tried to convert it into an .epub and .mobi file so you could read it on your preferred eReading device but it did not convert well. Strange symbols and things popped up all over the place. If/when I figure out how to do it properly and/or someone figures out how to do it for me, then I’ll add the file and let you know about it.

Love you long time.

Note of Warning:  I am pretty sure this is the correct file, but I’m a little scared that this will end up like – You know, on TV when someone’s like “I FOUND THE TAPE” and they pop it into the VCR (remember those?) and press “play” and what looks like the Right Thing begins to play but soon enough the screen blurs out for a second and when the image returns it’s A SEX TAPE. And everyone gasps and covers their eyes and the person who put the tape in is going, “OH MY GOD! I DON’T KNOW HOW THIS HAPPENED!!” I’m a little worried that this might turn into a sex tape halfway through. Not literally, obviously. What I’m saying is that if at some point you realize that I uploaded the wrong file, please let me know.

Note of Warning #2: This in no way a final/edited draft of this version. This is just what it is. Or maybe it’s a sex tape. The jury’s still out.

Note #3: Warnings are so dramatic. Come here – let me give you a hug.

12 comments »

Writing»

TBSOL Final Version: Why Oh Why


November 15, 2011 » 12 comments»




coffenb

I’ve received a few emails regarding TBSOL “v3″ which I’m choosing to call TBSOL FV (final version) because if I think of it as TBSOL v3 I’ll start convulsing. It’s really not v3. It’s more like… if v1 met up with v2 and they got married and had a kid and that kid grew up and settled down and became an accountant or something. You know? No? Okay.

A few people have asked me why I don’t just publish v2. Well…I can’t, because it’s nowhere near ready. Really. There is a lot that’s wrong with it and most of the reasons why can be attributed to the fact that it took me forever to write it.

A Short History of v2

I started v2 at the end of 2004/start of 2005 (I don’t remember when exactly). I had a lot going on at the time, not the least of which was quitting my job, getting rid of most of my stuff and moving to France. I’d also just learned that yet another of my publishing contracts had fallen through (I’d signed my first one in 2001 and my second in 2003 and neither worked out). I felt dejected, and humiliated by the fact that I’d told people I was going to be published only to have to say — yet again — “Nope, never mind.” At the time I took it all to heart. I thought it was a personal failure. It wasn’t, at all, but that’s how it felt at the time and that feeling of not being good enough seeped into everything.

So I started TBSOL v2 with a lot of tears and frustration and a persistent feeling that I was a complete fraud and that I’d never be a “real” writer.

Then I moved to France in the summer of 2005 and I quit writing fiction. I got a job as a blogger and a freelance writer and I started making money that way and I thought screw fiction — I don’t need you. I still opened up Rayne and TBSOL and wrote words here and there but there were blog posts to write and paying projects to finish and those took priority. I didn’t realize this at the time, but I was miserable.

Life continued on in the way that it does, and things happened as they always do. I was losing jobs left and right and panicking about money. I got really sick and had to have surgery. My visa expired. My grandparents got really sick. Then my mom got really sick and I couldn’t leave France because my visa had expired and I had no way to get back if I left. I was worried and stressed out all the time. I had several emotional meltdowns for a consistent period of about 6 months, during which all I did was cry every single day. It was not a good time. But then my grandparents got better and my mom got better and K and I sorted out my permit situation.

Somewhere in there, Alix & Valerie got published kind of magically and out of the blue. It reminded me that – Oh yeah, I’m a fiction writer.

I got back “into” TBSOL (more or less) while all of this was happening and eventually finished it in April of 2010 and then I put it aside because I knew it would need a lot of work and I needed to figure out just how much.

What’s “wrong” with v2 is simply that it’s disjointed. There’s 2004/5 me patched into spots of 2006/7/8 me and then a long stretch of 2009-2010 me and maybe no one else sees that, but I do. And besides all of that, it’s unnecessarily long. TBSOL v2 is the length 4 short novels/3 average-length novels/2 long ones.

What I intend with this final version is to present a book that’s cohesive. I have a deadline of February 1, 2012 for the whole damn thing, so whatever TBSOL turns out to be in its published form, it will at least not be a Frankenstein monster. It’ll be the best that I’m capable of writing at this moment in time. Will you like it more I don’t know. Will it be better - I have no idea.

I think there will always be people who love v1 above all and others who love v2 above all and others who love them all equally and honestly I’m just grateful that people have stuck around me through all these rewrites and revisions and who continue to love the book and the characters no matter what I do with them. I feel really, really lucky. This book is really special to me for a lot of reasons. I doubt anything I write after this will impact my life as much as this book has — in all its forms.

I could not have written v2 had I not written v1 and I could not have written what I’m writing now had I not written the previous drafts. I’m not who I was in 2001, when I sat down in my grandparents’ house in Puerto Rico to type out the first words of v1. I am not who I was in 2003, when I lay on the floor of my apartment in New Jersey to type the final words. I’m definitely not who I was in 2004, when I began v2, or who I was in 2010, when I finished it. I could not write any of it the same way, and I wouldn’t want to. I love all the versions, flawed though they may be. I hope others do as well. As a writer, that’s all you can hope for.

Trivia time

The first time I ever mentioned TBSOL online was in my LiveJournal on June 13, 2001 and this is what I wrote:

Blah blah .. what to talk about. I didn’t write a damn thing today on TBSOL. Actually, I wrote a word. “Nevermind.” That was the extent of my literary efforts for the day. But I was busy playing with my new TV and VCR … it was a very exciting thing. I’m thirsty and I want to drink Pepsi. But do I really want an intake of caffeine at 3:00am? Probably not. But do I have an ounce of common sense in my body? Nope. Not a one.

And I still don’t.  Perhaps I’m not that different after all. :)

12 comments »

Ramblings » Writing»

10 reasons I’m in a good mood today


November 9, 2011 » 8 comments»




rightleft

 

If we were to run into each other and you were to say, “Hi, Ingrid! How are you?” I would say, “No, no, let’s talk about you first. Tell me about your life.” And then I would sit there and listen intently to everything you had to say. (Contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually enjoy talking about myself and would much rather listen to other people talk). Once you were finished talking you’d probably remind me that I hadn’t answered your original question, at which point I would say, “I’m great!”

I’m in a really good mood today for several reasons:

1. I ordered a pack of new dry erase markers because the ones that came with the whiteboard are, I think, depressed. They’re just very sad, emo markers. I felt as if I were forcing them to exist and that’s not pleasant for any of us. Maybe they don’t wish to be markers. Maybe they wish to be paintbrushes or pens and who am I, really, to stand in the way? So I ordered new ones and these are awesome. They’re bold, colorful; they write like they mean it. These are markers who love being markers. I wish to learn from their enthusiasm.

2. Coffee! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

3. I finished Chapter 14 last night. Yay! Special thanks to the lovely people on Facebook who gave me the idea for Kris’ Halloween costume. I think Kris makes a great Hermione Granger.

4. My printer is totally out of ink. I tried to print out some of TBSOL and the pages came out looking like skunks. This isn’t a good thing, but it means we get to buy a new ink cartridge! How exciting! Yeah!

5. CoFFeeEeeeeEEEe! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

6. So you know how I’ve been focusing very hard on dropping TBSOL’s word count? I sat down today to compare the word count on the NEW/FINAL(ish) draft to the second. As in, plot progression wise. And I realized that I’d cut over 35,000 words. Then I created a file called “FRANKENSTEIN_TBSOL” and copied and pasted the NEW stuff, removing the old stuff, so that the NEW stuff would connect to the OLD stuff I haven’t edited yet, and the total word count is now 158,000. That means so far I’ve removed/reworked/revised/rewritten over 40,000 words of content. I still have a lot of work to do, but I’m very happy.

7. Today I get to start Chapter 15, which is when J & K meet for the first time in person and I’m MUY excited about reworking that whole thing. But first I’m sitting down with a highlighter and the printed pages of Chapters 23/24 of V2 to see what needs to be kept.

8. SPAGHETTI!!!! WEEeeeEeeeeeeeEEEEeeeee!! I have some leftover spaghetti. I’m very excited about it.

9. You know what I just discovered while writing “wee” like a crazy person? I discovered that if you hold down a vowel key on the Mac it pops up a menu of alt-symbols. Like ÊË …and then you can just…select one. I DID NOT KNOW THAT. That changes MY LIFE.

10. Wàïõú … it means I love you.

 

EDITING to ADD an 11th thing:

11. So this morning I went to make coffee only to find the bag empty. “OH MY GOD WE ARE OUT OF COFFEE!” is what I yelled out — because … well, it can’t happen. It’s like oxygen running out. I slid down slowly to the floor, clutching desperately at nothing, holding my arm up in a final act of supplication — and then K was like, “There’s a whole bag of it in the hallway.”

“There isn’t! I looked!” I managed to breathe out, with what remained of my life-force (but also loudly, because we were in separate rooms).

“Then try the kitchen counter.”

Oh, I thought. For I had not looked there. I looked there. And there it was. A BAG FULL OF BAGS OF COFFEE. I revived instantly. The sun came out. Angels sang a chorus in my ear. It sounded a lot like Jessie J’s “Do It Like a Dude” — it was beautiful.

AND THEN! After I hit publish on this post, I went to get some Ginger Ale and I was like, “OH MY GOD WE ARE OUT OF GINGER ALE!” only I didn’t actually say that because that’s not as tragic as running out of coffee (I’m not ridiculous) … so it was more like I thought it, quietly, to myself. And then I walked into the hallway and noticed A BAG FULL OF BOTTLES OF GINGER ALE!

“IT’S THE BEST DAY EVER!” I yelled to K, who laughed.

And then I went to put the bottles of Ginger Ale away.

AND THEN!

I discovered that the grocery store had given us some free stuff!

1. A bottle of hand-sanitizer.

2. A pack of anti-bacterial wipes.

3. Cookies.

Anti-bacterial wipes!!!! Best. Day. Ever.

 

8 comments »

Ramblings » Writing»

Just some TBSOL rambling, don’t mind me


November 8, 2011 » 4 comments»




mock

I think I have a notebook addiction problem. I’d always suspected as much, but yesterday, as I went to shelve some newly-arrived Moleskines, I realized that I really have a notebook addiction problem. But I suppose there’s worse afflictions and they’re just so pretty. All black and sexy and…

Ahem.

So, yesterday I wrote Chapter 13 and then I noticed that according to my outline, Chapter 14 could easily be combined with Chapter 13 and so Chapter 14 is now…well Chapter 14. But it will be what Chapter 15 was meant to be. Even I have no idea what I just said. The point is that in terms of content progression, I’m way ahead of schedule and that’s glorious. At some point after midnight I thought it would be a good idea to start Chapter 14 and then I lost all track of time and when I looked up it was 4AM. So now Chapter 14 (the one that would have been Chapter 15) is halfway done.

I’ve taken to writing in Google Docs. I didn’t expect this to be a thing I ever did (because I tend to hate web based things), but yesterday when I went into the office to copy and paste part of a scene from the main file into the Work In Progress file in Google, I realized how convenient it was that I could do that and then walk back to the living room and have everything waiting for me on the laptop, without having to save and send and download. Me gusta. Also, sharing things with my beta team is as easy as giving them editing permissions and that’s revolutionary.

TBSOL is going well, is what I’m saying. At least, I think it is. I’ve not heard back from my betas yet, so I’m not sure whether any of it is good, but at least progress is being made, which means this book may be out before the next Rapture/End of the World event.

Here’s your daily reminder to add a sentence to the growing madness that is this collaborative story.

And remember: When you’re alone, there’s no shame in pretending you’re a carrot. As long as it’s not a baby carrot. Cause that would be weird.

 

4 comments »

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. ...
  10. 26