Tag Archives: writer

I’m Not Stalking You’s 5th Anniversary!

Posted on April 8, 2016 by funnygurl2

When I started writing on this blog, I barely knew what a blog was. I had been working for 12 years for the same company that was about to go out of business, leaving me jobless, and an infant that needed major surgery. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, although I was already well into my 30s.

Happy Birthday to INSY, Happy Birthday to INSY…

In the intervening five years, I had a job for 21 months that I liked that progressed into one that I couldn’t stand to stay with. Now I have finally settled somewhere closer to home that I hope to stay at for a very long time. My young son actually had to have two surgeries to accomplish what one should have done, but today he is happy and healthy and annoying me on a consistent basis, as any growing child testing his boundaries should be. (Doesn’t make it any easier though.) My family lost a dog. We have struggled, but I think that glow up there might be the light at the end of the tunnel.

Oh, and I wrote three books. And as I have said before, I don’t think I would have accomplished that if I hadn’t started emptying my chaotic brain out into this little blog first.

I welcome you to click on my comical categories or explore with the search bar my amassed collection of 520 posts. Don’t know where to start? Below are links to my most popular posts and some of my favorites.

And here is to the next five years. Make a five year plan, you say? I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

Most Popular Posts

Boxelder Bugs Must Die

Homefront

MicroMagic [Fine] Frozen Foods

Kiddie City

The O.C.

__________

My Favorite Posts

Dead Dad Movies, Part 1

Dead Dad Movies, Part 2

My Favorite TV Shows

Punky Brewster

Matthew Perry

And, well, since I’m feeling like anyone who is reading this post deserves a little gift, here it is. I have talked about it for a while. This is as close as you are probably ever going to get to seeing me karaoke Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice Baby.” Don’t ask me why I feel more comfortable releasing this on the Internet to a bunch of ruthless strangers than I do a roomful of drunks who would forget me tomorrow, but I do. It is a public speaking anxiety thing, which is rendered temporarily ineffective when confronted with audio or visual equipment, rather than a physical crowd being present. Hence, the Communications degree in Radio and Television Broadcasting. Oh, and remind me to disable comments on this video.

This is a long time coming. Years ago, I bought the karaoke track of “Ice Ice Baby” off of iTunes to practice with. But I still had no words, and that version cut off the third verse, which is my favorite and the one I am best at. At some point in the intervening years I Googled the lyrics and saved them on my flash drive, where they have traveled around aimlessly since. I found a karaoke track with lyrics on YouTube and made a practice video one day. That seemed like only a few months ago, Christmas maybe? Nope. That was last APRIL! I had the idea that this may be a great stunt for INSY’s anniversary…then my mom brain took over and I forgot until like Monday.

So, I had to cram. I have been rapping the words to this song for 26 years—some of them being the WRONG words. Oy. It is hard to untrain myself. I will always say: “Falling on the concrete real fast” as “Fallin’ on the concrete grill fat.” Mmm…grill fat. Anyone hungry for McDonald’s?

Follow the romantic entanglements of The Riley Sisters in my books:
Be Careful What You Wish For – AVAILABLE NOW!
When You Least Expect It – THE CONTINUING ROMANCE!
The Wind Could Blow a Bug – WHERE IT ALL BEGAN!

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Posted in A day in the life, Entertainment Worship & Review and tagged anniversary, author, blog, blogger, celebration, editor, entertainment, fifth, humor, Ice Ice Baby, karaoke, review, surprise, Vanilla Ice, worship, writer. Bookmark the permalink.

My New Favorite Movie

Posted on February 12, 2015 by funnygurl2

I found my new favorite movie on Netflix the other day. It is called “Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story.

Lifetime’s “Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story”

I will say right off the bat that this is an unauthorized biography. So all the facts are probably not 100 percent true. They may have had to make up situations to string together actual events. It comes across in some spots as cheesy and sugar-coated. And it is a Lifetime movie, so there is the requisite woman getting knocked around scene.

But the end result is like a Cinderella story for aspiring writers.

At the end of the movie, we are given the info “In three years, J.K. Rowling went from being a welfare mother to one of the richest women in Great Britain.”

That just astonishes me.

The movie is loaded with suppositions about where Jo Rowling may have gotten her inspirations for Harry Potter. Her best friend in high school is a boy with red hair that she labels “weasley”, whose car looks like someday movie magic might make it fly. Jo’s school teachers bear more than a passing resemblance to Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape.

Weasley look-alike and young Jo with awesome hair and eye makeup

I was surprised at all the money Lifetime put into the movie. There were several special effects shots to illustrate Rowling’s creative process. There was everything from a symmetrical building turning into Gringotts bank to chess pieces engaging in physical battle with one another to candles floating above her head as she pecked away on her ancient typewriter.

The movie shows the joy as Rowling receives her first book advance check. She is seen buying her toddler daughter a giant teddy bear. And maybe, just maybe, that would be the first purchase. But I bet a close second was the purchase of a computer. That would make working on her follow-up book immensely easier.

The movie portrays Rowling as always wanting to be a writer, but she was influenced (mostly by her parents) to have a practical career. Then her writing suffered, never more than just a hobby. When she put all her concentration into it, that is when she became successful. I can highly relate to that.

If you only think of your writing as a hobby, that is all it will ever be. And if you are convinced that you need a practical career and writing isn’t it, then writing will never be your career.

My first book, The Wind Could Blow a Bug is NOW AVAILABLE!

PURCHASE as a Paperback or eBook on Amazon.com TODAY.

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Posted in A day in the life, Entertainment Worship & Review, Unusual Poetry & Writing and tagged biography, favorite, Harry Potter, inspiration, J.K. Rowling, Lifetime, movie, unauthorized, Weasley, writer, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

What I Learned This Week – 1/4/15

Posted on January 4, 2015 by funnygurl2

This week I learned that it feels good to reach a goal, and then to receive your reward for reaching said goal.

Per my blog post from August 18, 2013, I made a promise to myself that when I published my first book, I could get a cool “Writer” tatoo. And in the last few weeks, I did publish my first book “The Wind Could Blow a Bug” by Jennifer Friess (available everywhere on Amazon that good books are sold). I actually reached this goal a year later than I intended. But I promise you, the next one will not take that long.

So, here is the result.

New tattoos make me feel so bad ass…

To answer my asbestos friend, “Yes, I love it”.

And even if I were to stop tomorrow and never write another word again, I am a published author.

I have sold a few copies too. Woohoo!

My first book, The Wind Could Blow a Bug is NOW AVAILABLE!

Purchase as a Paperback or eBook on Amazon.com TODAY.

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Posted in A day in the life, What I Learned This Week and tagged author, bad ass, blogger, goal, published, reward, tattoo, writer. Bookmark the permalink.

What I Learned This Week – 10/19/14

Posted on October 19, 2014 by funnygurl2

Yesterday I attended ConTroll YA Under the Bridge, a Young Adult Literacy Conference. The best thing about it?

It was held in ADRIAN! Where I live! Nothing cool ever comes to Adrian.

I was sooo happy that I didn’t have to drive to Ann Arbor or Toledo, or even Detroit to attend such an event.

Some sweet stuff I picked up at ConTroll YA

The worst thing about it?

THE NAME.

“Con” apparently stands for conference. The “Troll” and “Under The Bridge” parts apparently just have to do with that we are in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, hence, UNDER the Mackinac Bridge. But, that is like 300 miles away.

Still confused? It was a conference that brought eight Young Adult authors, both contemporary and fantasy, to the Adrian Public Library for panel discussions, a workshop, and a book signing.

This was the first year for this event. It was evident, but everything seemed to run smoothly and I learned a lot.

I was kind of bummed that what was touted as a “Writing Workshop” turned out to be more of a workshop on traditional publishing. This would have been very informative for my asbestos friend, who wishes to take that route. Unfortunately, she did not attend. I would have preferred a workshop on the actual writing process, or self publishing. I learned about traditional publishing from the Ann Arbor District Library Emerging Writers Workshops that I attended, and from the 12 years I worked at the Borders corporate office. Granted, Borders mostly taught me about the end of the writing process, where your book is published, reviewed by buyers, ordered, allocated, replenished, marked Out of Print, and returned. That past knowledge was enough to convince me that traditional publishing is not for me. And the information I received yesterday strengthened that fact.

There was one self published author there yesterday, Eric Priuska author of “The Fireball Rebellion”. He offered up that he loved all the control he had with self publishing, but that the downfalls are that you have to do absolutely EVERYTHING yourself. Ya, I kinda figured that.

Great tips from ConTroll YA:

– An outline should act as your story’s GPS, and that it is more important to know what your plot points will FEEL like, more so than what actually might happen.

– All writers are narcissistic to believe other people will want to read what you created, and also an insecure mess.

– To market your book, you must be PRESENT, as in you can’t be obnoxious, but you also cannot be a wallflower.

– You have to keep real yourself, and your author self separate.

– An agent only gets paid when they get you a publishing deal. Don’t pay one out of your pocket.

– Don’t let in people who are not going to be supportive of your writing. (Guess who?)

– Every scene should have conflict & every scene should be moving the story forward.

– For every character, you should build a history, then know what they want and what they are willing to do to get it.

Every change I thought up to make to my novel while I was at the conference, I had talked myself out of again by the time I got home.

For the first year, I think it went great. I would definitely go back again next year. The room wasn’t full, but there were enough people that with two entries, I couldn’t win a door prize. And, as I sat in the seats listening to the authors in their panel discussions, I dreamed that maybe I would be up there next year discussing my YA book I am working on, The Wind Could Blow a Bug.