Jennifer Shirk's Blog, page 32

BB Break

This is my birthday week, so I'm going to take a little BB Break (BLOGGY BIRTHDAY BREAK).

After this past weekend I especially need a good break.

My friend turned 40 on Friday so her hubby rented a school bus (That's right. A school bus) and took a bunch of us to Atlantic City to the Borgata's Gypsy Bar. Had a great night of dancing! But home after 1 AM.

Saturday had a wedding to go to. 3 hours away... Fun time but again, home in bed well after 1 AM.

Sunday had a birthday party to go. Thought I'd be home early but was such a good time, it ran a bit late for a Sunday night.

I am so done now--meaning TIRED. And I haven't even celebrated MY birthday yet. So I'm taking off to do just that and do a little shopping.

I deserve it. :-)

Anyhew, have a great week.

And see you Monday!

Pay It Forward Blogfest!

Hey, it's Pay it Forward Day! Want to join in the fun? List THREE blogs you enjoy and think more people should follow! It's great way to meet people and also spread the "love". :-)

Want to know more details and see who signed up? Go to QQQE's blog HERE.

And away we go...

I really had a hard time choosing only three blogs, but after much thought I finally decided on these:

Visiting Reality : Why follow her? Linda Grimes is one FUNNY woman! I love to visit her blog to get a good chuckle. Plus she's super personable. And I'm so happy to say that she has a debut novel coming out this summer that I'm really looking forward to reading!

Jessica R. Patch : Why follow her? Jessica is another FUNNY lady! I love reading her blog because it's always different: sometimes she talks books, authors, and of course, her faith but it's always done with such awesome humor. I think people are missing out by not getting to know her!

Wendy Paine Miller: Thoughts that Move: Why follow her? Because Wendy writes posts that are thoughtprovoking and beautiful. Wendy is a deeper thinker, kind, friendly, and has a wonderful sense of humor too. I especially love her Friday feature where she poses a random question she would like you to answer along with your reason. Man, they're always such good questions!
So those are blogs I highly recommend that should have way more followers. If you get a chance, check them out. I'm sure you'll love these women as much as I do. Have a great Friday!!And be sure to check out the whole blogfest!

What I'm Doing Today

IN THE NEWS: Man Assaults Wife for not "liking" his Facebook Status. Read more HERE.


So...what am I doing today?

1- I'm finally ordering my new granite counters. (Yay!) This is the color.

2- I'm working on chapter two of my new work-in progress. (Yay!)

3-I'm a guest over at Jill Kemerer's blog . (Double yay!)
Stop by if you get the chance. :-) She's super fun!


What are you doing today?

Columbus Day and The Worst of the 80's

It's Columbus Day! (Meaning no school and very little computer time for me)

Oh, yeah, and Christopher Columbus discovered The New World.

But I digress...


Anyhew...I don't know about you but I LOVE 80's music. It's happy and cheesy.
Like me.
So of course when I heard Rolling Stone magazine did a Top Ten Worst Eighties songs list, I was right on that.

In case you are as interested as I was, I have the list here:

1."We Built This City" by Starship
2."The Final Countdown," by Europe
3."The Lady in Red" by Chris de Burgh
4. Wham! — "Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)"
5. Men Without Hats — "The Safety Dance"
6. Falco — "Rock Me Amadeus"
7. Bobby McFerrin — "Don't Worry Be Happy"
8. Toni Basil — "Mickey"
9. Taco — "Puttin' On the Ritz"
10. Rick Astley — "Never Gonna Give You Up"

Yeah, um, "We Built This City" was pretty bad, although the video made it much much MUCH worst. And, hey! I LIKE "Safety Dance".

Personally, I would have put Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" on that list and possibly anything by Billy Ocean. :-)

Just sayin'.

So now I'm off to do some more plotting, get a pedicure, and entertain the kiddo. If you're off today, too, enjoy!

Do you like 80's music? What is the worst 80's song you can think of?

Plotting is Hard and Other Tidbits I'm still Discovering

Happy Friday, all!

October has been my time to start a new book. The very best part of writing in my opinion--second only to "The End". LOL!

I don't know if this happens to you, but every time I start a new story I almost forget what I did to plot for my previous stories and then I get a little nervous.
How do I do this again?
Why isn't this coming together?
Did I do a character sheet before?
I mean, I've written stories, had a few published, and, well, good grief...

YOU'D THINK PLOTTING WOULD GET EASIER!!!!

*sigh* It doesn't. At least not for me. Which is why I am ever so thankful and completely indebted to one of my critique partners for pointing me the way to The Plot Whisperer.

Have you heard of her?

Martha Alderson from Blockbuster Plots for writers has a great series of Youtube Plot Videos breaking down the fine points of plotting and things to consider when plotting. I've gone through a number of them the last few days (up to Step 9 so far) and it's already spun my writing wheels.


Two things that she talked about that really stuck out in my mind are:
1) Character Flaws. Who is your character in the beginning and who is your character at the end?

2) Climax/Ending. What is your character able to do now that they weren't able to do in the beginning of the story?

Concentrating on these things have really worked for me as far as making the story click in my mind and I feel it coming together much clearer.

Maybe these videos will help you, too.
Come prepared with a pencil and paper!

Writers: Is plotting always consistent for you or are you still discovering new writing tidbits? Any good plotting techniques or links you'd like to share?

Weddings and Wasabi by Camy Tang!

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!




Today's Wild Card author is:



Camy Tang

and the book:

Weddings and Wasabi

WinePress Publishing (June 7, 2011)

***Special thanks to Camy Tang for sending me a review copy.***



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Camy Tang grew up in Hawaii and now lives in San Jose, California, with her engineer husband and rambunctious mutt, Snickers. She graduated from Stanford University and was a biologist researcher for 9 years, but now she writes full-time. She is a staff worker for her church youth group and leads one of the Sunday worship teams. On her blog, she ponders knitting, spinning wool, dogs, running, the Never Ending Diet, and other frivolous things. Visit her website at http://www.camytang.com/ to read short stories and subscribe to her quarterly newsletter.

Visit the author's website.



SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

After finally graduating with a culinary degree, Jennifer Lim is pressured by her family to work for her control-freak aunty's restaurant. But after a family blowout, Jenn is determined to no longer be a doormat and instead starts her own catering company. Her search for a wine merchant brings John into her life—a tall, dark, handsome biker, in form-fitting black leather, and Hispanic to boot. It would be wonderfully wild to snag a man like that!

Shy engineer Edward tentatively tries out his birthday present from his winery-owner uncle—a Harley Davidson complete with the trimmings. Jennifer seems attracted to the rough, aggressive image, but it isn't his real self. Is she latching onto him just to spite her horrified family? And if this spark between them is real, will showing her the true guy underneath put it out?

And what's with the goat in the backyard?

Product Details:

List Price: $13.99
Paperback: 124 pages
Publisher: WinePress Publishing (June 7, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1414120591
ISBN-13: 978-1414120591

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:




The goat in the backyard had just eaten tonight's dinner.

Jennifer Lim stood on her mother's minuscule back porch and glared at the small brown and white creature polishing off her basil. She would have run shouting at it to leave off her herb garden, except it had already decimated the oregano, mint, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, and her precious basil, which had been slated for tonight's pesto.

Besides, if it bit her, she was peeved enough to bite back.

"Mom!" She stomped back into the house. Thank goodness the pots of her special Malaysian basil were sectioned off in the large garden on the side of the house, protected by a wooden-framed wire gate. Jenn was growing it so that she could make her cousin Trish's favorite chicken dish for her wedding, which Jenn was catering for her. But everything in her backyard garden was gone. The animal was welcome to the only thing left, the ragged juniper bushes. Were juniper bushes poison? If so, the animal was welcome to them.

"Mom!" Her voice had reached banshee range. "There is a goat—"

"You don't need to yell." Mom entered the kitchen, her lipstick bright red from a fresh application and her leather handbag over her arm, obviously ready to leave the house on some errand.

"Since when do we own a goat?"

"Since your cousin Larry brought him over." She fished through her leather purse. "His name is Pookie."

Jenn choked on her demand for an explanation, momentarily distracted. "He has a name?"

"He's a living being. Of course he has a name." Her mother fluttered eyelashes overloaded with mascara.

"Don't give me that. You used to love to gross me out with stories of Great-Uncle Hao Chin eating goats back in China."

Mom sniffed and found the refrigerator fascinating. "That's your father's side."

Jenn swayed as the floor tilted. You are now entering … the Twilight Zone. Her parent had evoked that feeling quite often in the past few weeks. "Where did Larry get a goat and why do we have it now?"

"They were desperate."

Actually, Jenn could have answered her own question. That goat was in their backyard right now because everyone knew that her mom couldn't say no to a termite who knocked on the door and asked if it could spend the night.

And outside of physically dropping the goat off at someone's house—and she didn't have an animal trailer, so that was out of the question—Jenn wouldn't be able to get anyone else in the family to agree to take the animal, now that it was here. That meant leaving a goat in a niece's backyard because no one else wanted to go through the hassle of doing anything about it.

Mom said, "You wouldn't have me turn away family, would you?"

"Uncle Percy knows, too?"

"No, not Percy."

"Aunty Glenda?" No way. Even if Larry were thirty-one instead of twenty-one, Aunty would still dictate to her son the color underwear he wore that day—how much more his choice of pet?

"No." Mom blinked as rapidly as she could with mascara making her short, stiff lashes stick together, almost gluing her eyes shut.

The tiger in Jenn's ribcage growled. "Mother." Her fist smacked onto her hip.

"Oh, all right." Mom rolled her eyes as if she were still a teenager. "It belongs to Larry's dormmate's older brother, but really, he's the nicest young man." Burgundy lips pulled into what wanted to be a smile, but instead looked hideously desperate.

Jenn tried to count to ten but only got to two. "I know Larry's a nice young man. If an abundance of immaturity counts as 'nice' points."

"Jenn, really, you're so intolerant. Just because you're smart and went to Stanford for grad school …"

The name of her school—and the one dominant memory it brought up—made her neck jerk in a spasm. It had only been for two years, but that was enough. Desperately lonely after spending her undergrad years living with her cousins, Jenn had only formed a few friendships among the other grad students, none of them close. There was only one she'd never forget, although she vowed she would every morning when she got up and saw the scar in the mirror.

"Why. Do we have. A goat."

"It's only for a few days—"

"We don't know a thing about how to take care of—"

"They're easy—"

"Besides which, this is Cupertino. I'm sure there are city laws—"

"It'll be gone before anyone notices—"

"Oh, ho, you're right about that." Jenn strode toward the phone on the wall. "I'm calling the Humane Society. They'll take it." Although they wouldn't provide a trailer to transport it. How was she going to take the goat anywhere, much less to an animal shelter?

Mom plopped onto a stool and sighed. "That boy was so cute. His name was Brad."

There went her neck spasming again. But Brad was a common name. She grabbed the phone.

"Such a nice Chinese boy. Related to the Yip family—you know, the ones in Mountain View?"

The phone slipped from her hand and bungee-jumped toward the floor, saved only by the curly cord. She bent to snatch it up, but dizziness shrouded her vision and she had to take a few breaths before straightening up.

"Oh, and he went to Stanford. You two have something in common." Mom beamed.

No. He wouldn't.

Yes, he would.

"Brad Yip?"

Mom's eyes lighted up. "Do you know him?"

Sure, she knew him. Knew the next time he came for his goat she'd ram her chef's knife, Michael Meyers style, right between his eyes.

**note**: Review is to come soon. I have read all of Camy's books so I am really looking forward to reading and reviewing this one!

News and Happenings

Happy Friday, all!

Two things going on now:

1) I'm over at Lydia Kang's blog THE WORD IS MY OYSTER today! She's been doing some author spotlights on Fridays and I'm up! It's short and it's sweet. Stop by if you have the time.

2) In honor of my upcoming birthday (please don't ask how old I'll be), I'm doing a little book giveaway for my romantic comedy, THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME on Goodreads . So if you're on Goodreads, stop by and enter! Don't cost nothing. :-)
















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Goodreads Book Giveaway






















The Role of a Lifetime







by Jennifer Shirk

Giveaway ends October 16, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win







Thanks!! Have a great weekend!
Any news and happenings with you?

How Bad Do You Want It?

Good Morning!
A little motivational Monday for ya!

This video was sent to me by a friend and I found it so inspirational, I had to share. :-)

It's a football video, but the words can be applied to any kind of success. Do we want success or do we say we want success but not do anything to really work for it? It's awesome, but watch it for yourself.

How bad do YOU want it?

Time for a Fall Challenge!

First, let me say to all my friends going to the ACFW conference , have a safe trip and a WONDERFUL time...and that I'm jealous of all of you.



There. I'm jealous. Happy? :)



Secondly, let me say that I have absolutely no plans whatsoever to do NaNoWriMo this year. Nope, so don't ask or beg. I can't. Seriously. I tried once and it wasn't pretty for me or anyone else involved with me.



But that being said.... it doesn't mean that I don't have some lofty writing goals for fall!



Come October 1st, my crit partners and I have a Fall Writing Challenge going on for that month. Woo-hoo! I LOVE writing challenge goals! Mine is 2K a day. Hey, that rhymes!!



Here's how I came up with that number: I took twenty days of the month that I will be writing and figured 2K words a day will get me a good chunk done and keep me on tract with my yearly goals. (I know. I'm so smart.)



So this weekend I'll finish up editing then next week I can finish plotting and then I'll be all ready to start something new. I can't wait!!



What about you? Are planning any writing challenges? Do you plan on doing NaNo?

Any plans for the weekend?

Guest Blogging

Happy Monday!



I'm not here today but at the Avalon Authors blog , talking about my weird desire to keep it summer all year long.

(At least with my writing.)

Stop by if you can!