Question Air

Fun questions looked like fun!

8 Things I am looking forward to:

1. Snowboarding season. (okay yeah it's a long ways away)
2. My peppers being ripe.
3. Dawn's birthday party.
4. The eventual trip to Portland.
5. Seeing my cousins from California.
6. My car's new transmission and paint job.
7. Hot Rod'o Rama.
8. The eventual trip to Canada. (i've never been.)

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. Worked. fuuuuuck.
2. Re-read my favorite issue of Local. So good.
3. Finished editing chapter three of my book, and got part way through chapter four.
4. Organized the short stories folder on my computer.
5. Dicked around on the internet.
6. Found a couple new journals to send stuff too.
7. Discovered an amazing (and expensive) 6 week intensive course on speculative fiction, which occasionally employs Nancy Kress. (sweet).
8. Discussed getting out of work for six weeks with Ben.

8 Things I wish I could do:

1. Publish my book.
2. Buy a house that doesn't suck.
3. Play the mandolin.
4. Cut out the need for sleep without any negative side effects. (i'm working on it)
5. Stumble upon enough money to keep me comfortable for the rest of my life.
6. Get back into a choir (i'm way out of practice)
7. Write and draw a comic.
8. Say exactly what I think at all times without any negative side effects.

8 Shows I watch:

1. The Vicar of Dibley
2. The Venture Brothers
3. Word Girl
4. The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross
5. Arrested Development
6. 30 Rock
7. Pushing Daisies
8. How It's Made

8 Favorite Fruits:

1. Fujii Apples
2. Granny Smith Apples
3. Other varieties of apples
4. Pears
5. Peaches
6. Blackberries
7. Raspberries
8. Strawberries

8 Places I'd like to travel:

1. Saltzburg
2. London
3. Germany
4. Scotland
5. Whistler Ski Resort in Vancouver
6. Nebraska (i miss it)
7. Alaska
8. Mt. Vesuvius

8 Places I've lived:

1. Maple Valley, WA
2. Gig Harbor, WA
3. Kent, WA
4. Tacoma, WA
5.
6.
7.
8.

I've been rather stationary.

The Ethics of Imagined Stories.

I am facing a dilemma. I once read (and I swore it was on a lunch break at work) a short story by Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) about a bar, and a girl, and a Dashiel Hammet-esque mistery involving a glassed in chimney. And it was amazing! It was one of the best shorts I've ever read. The atmosphere he created was just so perfect. And it was so unlike his other things. But, I'm starting to think it doesn't really exist. See, the book I swore I read it in doesn't have any stories by Daniel Handler. And any of the other collections I've read that might have had it turn up completely Handlerless. But I'm so convinced he wrote it, and I'm just missing it.

See, I've fabricated false memories in the past. Really vivid ones. Sometimes I still think my mom is fucking with me by telling me they never happened, but everyone else agrees with her. So it's entirely possible that I dreamed up the whole thing, and he never wrote that story. I'm wondering then if it's fair game... I want to read it again, and if it doesn't really exist I suppose I'll just have to create it. But it still feels a little underhanded. Like I'm stealing it. Also I doubt I could write it as well as Dream Handler wrote it.

Maybe I should just write to Mr. Handler and ask if he ever actually wrote that story. I wonder how well he responds to mail.



Edit: Oh thank goodness I've found it! It really does exist! I definately wasn't up to the task of repeating it, and Hooray another little notch in the "Megan Isn't Crazy" count.

Things which need to happen and right quick

1. Story Club needs to be reinstated. With baked goods.

2. More Dungeons and Dragons. Apparently Garth Nix published a campaign or two for DnD when he was 17. You know you want to.

3. My bell and jalapeno peppers need to be replanted into pots, and watered, so the poor things don't die shortly after blooming.

4. Vacation.

6. Crow Toes needs to get back to me (in the positive) before I go completely off my nut.

7. Nifty outdated slang needs to become common place in everyday speech.


You may have noticed something missing. It is not missing. I have simply trancended the need for it. As I no longer recognize that which is missing as missing, it has no place in my life. Perhaps if you were to reach such an enlightened state as myself, you would no longer find a need for trivial things like sequential numbers.

Okay so I'm typing in the dark and I totally need to be taken away from the religion section.

As if I needed any more reason to hate...

http://www.youtube.com/user/wowtcg

This fucker right here. "Half Price Books will sell a retro book with a cover price of .50 cents they are asking 149.99 for the book currently. If they are really selling items for half price then they should sell it for .25 cents not 149.99"

DUUUUURFF. "I'm a cheap bastard with absolutely no comprehension of business, but I shore do have a camera durp durp durp."

This is why I hate the internet. For all it's done for me, for all the knowledge gained and the good people I've met (three whole ones, yeah!), it has brought this into the world, and I can never truely stop hating that I've seen this level of stupidity on youtube. Thank you internet, for creating a worse monster than anything our forefathers could ever imagine.

P.S., I also hate the television shows that sprung up to show The Funniest Internet Videos! Get that off my fucking tv!

Finished Momo

Yep. Just as good as it started out. A little rushed at the end, but then, time was about to be erased and momo only had an hour to save the universe, so that's understandable. Also Momo met Death, and so did Michael Ende, and all the children were put away in holding pens and taught to play "file the important information in its proper place." Anyway I think everyone needs to read it.

Apparently there was a movie in the eighties. Made by Germans, which makes sense. However, everytime I've tracked down a movie made in the eighties from a wonderful children's book, I've been severely dissapointed, and almost offended. Granted, I haven't done this many times... like, okay twice, but do I want to risk it?

Survey says dammit, yes. Stadium Video, here I come. But if I find another From The Mixed Up Files botch job I'm going to break something. They didn't even get the damn title right!

Momo

So I just started this book Momo by Michael Ende, the author of The Never Ending Story. I've never read the never ending story, and really just picked this up because of all the scary gray men with clocks on the cover. And, so far, it is wonderful and sweet and everything I wish to accomplish in my own writing. I am a little jealous that I am not Michael Ende.

Basically, a vagrant child called Momo moves into the ruins of an ampitheater in a very poor village. She becomes a minor inspiration to the people there and they live simple but good lives. Then these creepy guys in gray come in from the Timesaving Bank, and steal time from people who think they're saving it, and everyone who falls prey to the bank's schemes finds their lives lacking in any joy. Of course, Momo is not effected (just barely), cue the battle to come...

Yeah, I'm really into it. I totally reccomend it. And I want to see the minor story about the crazy emperor who built a whole new world out of the old one, only to discover he merely transplanted everyone about a foot and a half to the right as a comic done in woodcuts.

New Blaaag

I've created a new blog specifically for writing type shit. It will chronicle my editing process as I try to fix the many many MANY issues made apparent in my manuscript after the SCBWI, and hopefully connect me to a few agents. Ja.

Unfortunately I did the stupid thing and put it up on a different email account and now Blogger recognizes it as a different person. So, this one, right here at http://writerslie.blogspot.com/ is also me.


As a minor follow up to the second day of SCBWI, I'd like to say that Jon Scieszka sounds alot like Bill Murry, and is possibly funnier. He got a crowd of children to worship him in a catholic church by showing off his National Ambassador of Children's Literature medal, and read a story called "Crossing Swords" to the president at a black tie dinner. Yes, the story was about pissing.