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 :)