Random Secrets About Me and Writing

1. When I was 12, I once was a runner-up in a national short story contest that was advertised in Seventeen magazine. The company sponsoring the contest was Sanrio, creator of Hello Kitty. I wrote a story about Hello Kitty magically traveling to fantastical lands. Sadly, I can't locate a copy of that story :(

2. I used to (and sometimes still do) write song lyrics. In fact, I started writing song lyrics when I was 11 up until age 20 or so. I would have dozens upon dozens of notesbooks filled with song lyrics. Some people have used them for their own music but no hit records yet :P

3. In college, I would rarely edit/revise or even proofread any of my papers. However, I would manically revise, edit, and proofread all the short stories and screenplays and novellas that I written for myself at the same time.

4. I find screenwriting really hard. You can't wander around in sub plots too much! I'm a big fan of sub plots, by the way.

5. Going to the library still excites me today. Buying new cds used to be exciting to me but not so much anymore :( When I was a young teen, each time I would get a new cd, I would listen to it in its entirely while studying the song lyrics.

For Those of You who HATE seafood

Here's a delicious recipe. It doesn't involve cooking or baking or nothin'. Just preparation.

Ingredients:
chili sauce (perferrably Heinz) 12 oz bottle
cream cheese- 8 oz
diced onion (optional) -use about 1/3-1/2
white crab meat (forgot the # of oz, but use the whole small can)
tiny shrimp (again, I forgot the # of oz, but use the whole small can)
Ritz Crackers (as many as you want!)

(note: some people use cocktail sauce instead but it changes wrecks the whole taste). Same with crackers, doesn't taste as good unless it's Ritz.


Materials:
Knife
Can opener
large plate


Now, I know you noticed this dish (Shrimp and Crab Spread) calls for seafood. Now, I'm with you on this one. Fish makes me gag. Lobster makes me feel squirmy inside. But this spread is soooo addictive.

How to prepare:

1. Open the cream cheese (you may want to let it sit at room temp to soften up) and spread it evenly onto the large plate, reaching almost to the edges.
NOTE: If you want to add onions, do this step first: dice onions, put them into a mixing bowl along with the whole package of cream cheese. Mix for about 1-2 minutes.)
2. Open the bottle of chili sauce and spread that evenly on top of the cream cheese.
3. Open the can of white crab meat, drain out the excess water. Use your fingers to spread it out onto the chili sauce.
4. Repeat step #3, this time with the tiny shrimp. Don't forget to get rid of the excess water!
5. You may want to gently pat down the shrimp so it won't roll off. haha :)
6. Cover with cling wrap or what-have-you and set it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes (or in my case, about 5 min is all the time I can stand).
7. Take out the crackers and the spread. You may want to use a knife to get the spread onto the cracker but I'm usually too impatient to find a clean knife (as the one using prior gets all gross) so I used another cracker as a means to get my spread on.
8. Sometimes I eat the spread open faced on the cracker, sometimes I make a little shrimp-and-crab sandwich cracker. Either way, great!
9. Also, be sure you get a little bit of everything on each cracker :)

Thinks and Things is now free digitally

Quick short, update.

My story is now formatted to view on your kindle, sony reader, etc. Thinks and Things. You can also simply read it online :)

-Crystal

Writer's Resources Evaluated

Writer's Resources Evaluated

Sidenote: I decided to give away free digital copies of my book, Thinks and Things, just a consideration to take in when viewing some of my stats.

1. smashwords.com

I just recently joined and I've already had some noticeable success with this site. I uploaded my story (easy conversion tool-it converts your book to at least seven different formats. (Although, I need to tweak the formatting of my story so it looks nice on people's electronic reading devices-please hold off on downloading mine for another day so I can tweak the formatting-no tabs, huh?).

If you're accepted into their premium catalog  http://www.smashwords.com/distribution, you can obtain a free or relatively cheap ($10) ISBN number.

The site also has a dashboard, where you can view your statistics. As of today, here's some of my stats:

51 Downloads
3 Linked in Member's Libraries

And keep in mind, I uploaded my story less than 48 hours ago. It's is offered free but I haven't seen that much traffic/interest to my book with the next writer's resource I'm going to talk about.

2. Lulu.com

Lulu is a site I'm been somewhat familiar with for years. I uploaded my book a few weeks ago and as far as I can make out, I have not moved a single unit, despite my book being a free digital download.

Since the short time that I've joined Lulu, I've gotten almost about half a dozen spam messages from other writers, trying to sell their works. I wouldn't mind so much, but these messages are so poorly written. I'd share but I don't want to embarrass anyone!

Note to new writers: If you're going to spam people to in an attempt to buy your books, at least use proper capitalization, punctuation, no confusing double negatives, etc. or else the general book buying public will think your book will follow suit. Lord knows that it probably does. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

3. StoryMania

I haven't used this in years but I have one or two stories on there. If you want to read some stories and have your stories read in return, this is a pretty good bet. Beware, if a writer already has your (real) name, you need to sign up with a different name.

This story won me $50 through a scholarship contest at my college. I also plan to include (with some minor character changes) in a new book I'm writing.

4. Writing.com

Again, another good resource for writers who don't want to self-publish quite yet but are ready to share pieces of the work to an audience.

This is a fun site to browse and discover many of their fun little features, such as gift points. Somehow I have
accumulated 485 gift points and I only have one submission on the site. Gift points can be redeemed for
stuff. You can also purchase gift points ($1 gets you 10,000 points). Members can send and receive points as
well.

In case you didn't see

You can now get a digital copy of my story, Thinks and Things, free via lulu at this link.

In case you didn't see that I updated my previous blog entry:

EDIT: Contest is now over and I will be emailing the winners shortly. I was very pleased with the number of entries so I'm giving away multiple copies of my book. Check your email today! 

Caroline, tehanu0071, and julielouise: you were also chosen as winners. Please email me @ pandoraslocker1@yahoo.com so I can also send each of you a copy as well. :)


I shall hold another contest soon for those who were late in entering :)

FREE book giveaway contest

EDIT: Contest is now over and I will be emailing the winners shortly. I was very pleased with the number of entries so I'm giving away multiple copies of my book. Check your email today! 

Caroline, tehanu0071, and julielouise: you were also chosen as winners. Please email me @ pandoraslocker1@yahoo.com so I can also send each of you a copy as well. :)


I will be giving away a free copy of my new book, Thinks and Things. Anyone from anywhere can enter.

To win: leave a comment
to get two entries: follow this blog.

Contest ends on August 28th.

Thinksandthings can hear people's thoughts and turn them into things. However, the world just isn't ready for a farm of Grandma clones or to be introduced to the Durtle (half dog, half turtle creature).

The Fixer repairs the damage some of the thinks have caused. However, when the Witch from the Hansel and Gretel fable escapes to Suburbia, a carousel lion comes to life and terrorizes small towns, and the Big Dipper starts to disappear from the sky, the Fixer has to work faster and harder before these things unfold irreversibly, all while tracking down Thinksandthings.

Specs:

Book size: 5.5 by 8.5
Binding: perfect
Pages: 105
Cover: glossy, designed by the author (me!)

Summer Reading List '10

I'm going to keep track of all the books I read this summer and beyond! Here's most of the ones I've read

Books
The Book Thief
 Nancy Drew #26 Clue of the Leaning Chimney
Betsy Was a Junior
Betsy and Joe
Nancy Drew #12 The Message in the Hollow Oak
Nancy Drew #22 The Clue in the Crumbling Wall
Nancy Drew #18 Mystery of the Moss-covered Mansion
Nancy Drew #28 The Clue of the Black Keys
Nancy Drew #2 The Hidden Staircase
Nancy Drew #1
Snuff

Magazines/other materials
New Moon May-Jun 09

Dear high school graduates: online classes suck!

Online courses may sound convenient and the way education is headed for the future, but there's still several things that need tweaking.

Online courses can be a great thing if you have children, are home bound, or live far away from campus. But if none of the above applies to you, you may want to reconsider before signing up for an online course.

The Phantom Professor...read more

Mustache Mayhem: unexpected growth in the mainstream

A curious trend has risen the past couple of years: the Mustache. I don't mean that many more men are sporting handlebars and the like, but mustaches have been appearing on everything from t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, jewelry, and vending machines. Yes, you can buy a mustache (fake, of course) for about 25 or 50 cents that comes in its own plastic capsule.

This phenomenon has even reached a considerable amount of young women...read more

Ridiculous Celeb Merchandise

Selling records today doesn't always equate into a lot of money. Singers tend to make their bucks selling merchandise at their concerts and through their official website stores. While I don't have any qualms about artists making money this way (not that they have a choice as record companies suck their sequined wallets dry) but the following items make me go, “Oh my god! I can't believe...read more.

Coloring books and fun pads for grown-ups

The market for coloring books tailored for grown-ups has been inching towards puberty in the past couple of years. First, a few novelty books were released but more along the lines of a sarcastic gift idea you'd give to a friend at a stag party. Since then, the market has expanded to include...read more

Cereal and Cracker Jack prizes

The Mystery of Cereal Box Prizes: where did they go?

What's Up With That, Cracker Jack?


Kids today have no idea that there used to be a time when their cereal boxes contained little delights such as packages of candy, figurines, a sheet of stickers, plastic...read more

Zombie Alert! The Pop Culture Memoriam

In Pop Culture Memoriam we pay tribute to pieces of pop culture that have passed on and we also issue zombie alerts (usually annoying pop culture trends that won't go away) that have risen from the dead.

Death Notice: CDs, namely tangible CD booklets...read more

Twilight movie Jewelry: what was Edward thinking?

The Cullen Crest is cool. So is the heart necklace that Edward gave her and the wolf charm that Jacob whittled out of wood for her. Twilight jewelry has spawn dozens...read more and see the picture! :)