Megan Bostic's Blog, page 68

Thought Provoking Thursday: Resolve

At first, there was no way I was going to make another New Year's resolution.  Nu-uh.  No way. I went back to my last year's resolutions and you know what EPIC FAIL.

#healthfail
#happyfail
#dietfail

However, as you know if you've been reading me a while, it's been a rough road this year.  Breakdowns, divorce, new house, new job, it's been hard to find balance.  I've started to see a pattern though this time of year, that's right life, I'm catching on to you, so next time this year I will be ready for it. (plus having a book come out at the same time doesn't suck either)

So this is my resolve for the upcoming year.  I'm not going to promise to achieve them, but I'm going to try like hell.

I will be more physically active.  Seriously people, I've let myself go.  Haven't set foot in a gym, or exercised for MONTHS.  So I resolve to get off my ass and get moving.

And hopefully with all this action will come the dropping of a few *cough cough* extra pounds I've put on this year.


I will write more.  I did write one book this year, Cheesy, which I'm in love with, but I finished that ages ago.  I've written very little in the last six months.

I will try once again to find some peace and be happy in life.

I think the most important thing is to find out who I am.  I know the mother me, the wife me, and the writer me, but I don't really know that much more about myself.  I want to explore that and see who comes out in the wash.


I want this year to be more than good.  I want it to be epic.

So what are you resolving for the upcoming year?  What are your goals and desires for yourself?

Happy New Year.

Stay safe, don't drink and drive.

Megan

Writing Wednesday: Taking Zoey

  Small unedited bit from my current WIP.  Let me know what you think.

     I slept though it was fitful.  I had nightmares I couldn't really remember.  I only remember waking ever so often in a cold sweat although my closet was cold as my captor had not provided me with a blanket and I hadn't bothered to put my clothes back on.       I woke to him entering my prison, saying nothing.  He put a lamp on the floor and ran an extension cord out to the rec room.  He turned it on and stared at me for a moment.  He threw a bag to me and said, "Here."  Then he scanned my quarters and said, "I'm going to work, clean this mess up while I'm gone.  And don't try anything stupid.  Champ is here just waiting for the chance to attack."    Then he closed the door, locked it, and left.     I looked in the bag.  Inside were a pair of pink sweats, some slipper socks, and underwear.  I pulled the underwear out and inspected the package.  He bought the largest size he could find in the girls department.  They were pristine white some with flowers, some striped.  I tossed them aside.  No way in hell was I going to wear those and give in to his perverted fantasies.  I slipped the sweats and slippers on, then started picking up pieces of glass and porcelain and placing it in the now empty bag.     There were some good sized chunks among the debris.  I began carefully inspecting each piece one by one, searching for the perfect weapon.  I finally found it in a big hunk of glass, curved and broken into a perfect point.  I slid it under my mattress and picked up the remaining fragments.  I put my own clothes inside the bag, never wanting to set eyes on them again, and tied a knot at the top and placed it in the corner by the door.      I sat for a minute looking around the room now that it was light.  I didn't really get a look at it when I was tossed in the night before.  I had a wall to my back, a wall across.  Inverted stairs made up my sloped ceiling.  The stairs never meet the floor, it ends in a small crawl space.  There was enough room to lie down in, but not enough to sit up and there was a door around the corner at the end.  I wriggled toward it.  There was no handle, just another crawl space.  I tried to get my fingers between the door and wall and pry it open, but it wouldn't budge.     Staring at it for a while, I imagined what was beyond.  Maybe shoe boxes full of photos of him and his daughter in happier times.  Her stuffed animals and clothing packed away in neat obsessive little boxes, tied up with string.   Her dead body.

Manic Monday: Back to reality

Now that the whimsical sugar-plum-fairy-candy-cane-shopping-baking-wrapping-eating-drinking-talking-snowmen-santa-claus season is over it's time get back to it.

This includes work.  I love my job, but it's always hard getting back to it after a long weekend. 

A trip to the dump to get rid of the extra garbage and the 500 pounds of cardboard left over from Christmas (that could be a slight exaggeration).  



I have two video book trailers to make for two 2011 YA/MG debut novels.  I'm actually almost done with one of them, just adding the titles. 

 I received my copy edits in the mail just before Christmas.  Needless to say, I've not touched them yet.  Deadline is January 10th so I've GOT to get to work.

Lastly (well, probably not but all I can think of right now) getting back in shape after letting myself go for the last six months (ugh). Why is it so easy to fall OUT of shape, but so hard to get back into shape? sigh.  I'm hoping the new xbox kinect will help.  I really don't eat all that bad but my ass has pretty much been glued to my computer chair since July.

Okay, so here I go, getting back to it.

Catch you on the flip side,

~Megan

Friend or Foe Friday Is Cancelled

Instead I want to wish everyone a joyous ___________________ (insert holiday here, mine would be Christmas)

Whether you celebrate with family or friends, make it the best ever.  Eat lots of __________________(insert favorite holiday food here, mine would be gnocchi)

And I hope you get that ____________________(insert most wanted gift here, not sure what that is for me) that you've been dreaming of.

Have a safe and sane ______________________(again,  insert holiday).

Please don't drink and drive, or ________________and_______________ (pick something silly mine would be cry and make an ass of myself)

Peace and Love,

 Megan

Thought Provoking Thursday: Tis the Season

You'd think this time of year people would be a little softer, a little kinder, a little more willing to put other's needs ahead of their own.  But we live in a society in which people are in such a hurry, their needs and time being more important than those around them.
This being the guy that shoots in front of you to get the better parking space then gives you a snide look like he's got one up on you.  Um, guy, I wasn't going to park there anyway. Passing two people in the Safeway yesterday, "Come on, don't be such a jerk."  I have no idea what was going on, but the first guy probably was being a jerk, well, maybe, the second guy probably in a hurry. ugh.
The people who push and cut in front of you in the mall. ugh.
These are reasons I try to get my Christmas shopping done WAY in advance.  But that doesn't always work out (I have to do some last minute crap today, ugh)
Try and slow down this holiday season, everyone else's time is just as important as yours.  Remember to give of yourself, donate some coats and blankets to your local shelter, give the Santa ringing the bell your loose change.  Adopt a Christmas family if you have the means to (I'm going to do this next year with my girls).
Have a happy holiday.  Peace, love, and candy canes,

Megan

Writing Wednesday: The Twelve Days of Christmas

I thought with Christmas just a couple days away, I would write an original song, sung to the tune of TDoC (see title of blog if that confuses you).  I'm not going to bore you with the repetition million lines, I'll just start at twelve and work my way down to one.  Sound good?  Here it goes.




On the twelfth day of Christmas my muse gave to me twelve advanced reader copies
Eleven pair of kneesocks
Ten great reviews
Nine blog entries
Eight knit caps
Seven beta readers
Six angsty poems
Five works in progress
Four book trailers
Three e-mail friends
Two author blurbs
And a pu-blished man-u-script!

Yep.  Wrote that off the cuff in about two minutes flat.  You can't even tell, right? lol

Happy holidays and all that junk.

~Megan

2fer Tuesday: Soul Baring Solstice

My friend Hart over at the Watery Tart has decided to bare her soul in the name of the solstice.  I'm following her lead by doing the same.  She did twelve, I'm not sure how many I can come up with, these are off the cuff and in no particular order.

1. I have a thing for young actors.  Don't get me wrong, they're not under-aged (meaning I'm not a perv), just way younger than me.  Through the years I've had major crushes on Heath Ledger, Toby McGuire, Edward Norton, Elijah Wood, and more recently, Shia Labeouf, and *fans self* Zac Efron.

2. I love to sing and I'm kinda good.  I was in show choir in junior high.  I was in vocal ensemble and the musical Li'l Abner in high school.  I've been onstage in various bars in the greater Tacoma area singing with a guitar player friend, I love karaoke.  I blast music in my car and sing along, everything from the Far East Movement to Nirvana to Michael Buble.

3. I'm a musical geek.  I have love just about every musical I've ever seen.  Grease, Evita, Moulin Rouge,  Jesus Christ Superstar, etc, etc, but my ultimate favorite is Hair. (I've never seen an episode of Glee)

4. When I was in 7th grade I wanted to start a band called Emotional Disturbances.  It never happened.

5. I used to get car sick.  Just about every family trip ended up with me throwing up in the back seat.  I always take the front seat now.

6. I play fantasy football.  The first year the league decided to let a girl in (me) I won the  whole thing.  I'm in the play offs almost every year.  I'm sure they now regret their decision.

7. I've been writing since I was in kindergarten, poems, songs, short stories.  Finally wrote my first novel at age 33.

8. When I started writing novels, I thought I'd be the next JK Rowling with my super hero series.  Um, yeah, right.

9. Back in  junior high I always like the short guys.

10. I was going to go out for a women's rugby team last year until I found out they were all in college.

11. I took me ten years to finish college.  Two years straight, then part time for the next eight.  Still, I did it.

12.  I have VERY dark days.

Hey, I did it!!

How about you?  You want to bare your soul in the name of the solstice?  Give me just one.  Dare ya.

Manic Monday

My friends think I'm dead.

Okay, maybe not literally.  But I've been a wisp of a person lately on my usual haunts.  I say on because I'm talking my friends on Facebook and email mostly because they're the ones I talk to daily.  I've actually not seen many of my tangible friends lately either.

Why?

Because I'm busy,  way more busy than I'd sometimes like to be.  Between kids, and paid work, new side biz, and writing, and now with the holidays and copy edits, and 2k11, every day is a blur of non stop non stoppiness (yes it is too a word!).

Still trying to figure how to balance it all without having my head explode.  I think once the holidays pass, I'll be able to handle it better. *fingers crossed*

So what's on your plate?  Big projects? Edits? Writing?

Friend or Foe Friday (yeah I know it's Saturday): Jim King and Bill Warrington

If you've not read Bill Warrington's Last Chance, you need to.  Because Jim King's novel, which was the winner of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest in year two, and where I met him, is becoming a MOVIE!!!  How inspiring is THAT?!?!  It's one thing to get published in the first place, but when that novel becomes film?  That's big.

And this couldn't happen to a nicer guy.  While I've never met him in person *cough, cough, come to Seattle for a book signing, cough* I've spoken to him on the ABNA threads and facebook, and he's just a kind, humble guy.

The movie is being produced by Barry Josephson,  who has been behind "Enchanted," "Aliens in the Attic," "Hide and Seek" and "The Ladykillers." *shivers shoot down spine*

So, buy your novel today, read it, give it as a Christmas gift.  Then you'll be ready when the movie version comes out.

~Megan

Thought Provoking Thursday: Egged

Last night as I took my daughters to see the Deathly Hallows (which totally rocked BTW) my brand new Toyota Sienna was egged in the parking lot.  I looked around at nearby cars, none of them seemed to be egged, just mine.  First of all, your kids should not be out egging cars in the middle of the afternoon.  They should be doing homework, or participating in sports or other extracurricular activities that does not involve ovum propelling.

Secondly I'm thinking, "Kids actually still do this?"  I mean, with as far as we've come technologically speaking, if they're not doing homework or sports why aren't they on their computers, x-boxes, wii's, cell phones, etc, etc.  They still get rudimentary enough to "egg"?

Then I wondered, why me?  Of all the cars in the lot, why mine?  I parked a little over the mid-line, I admit, I considered moving it, but the lot was far from full, there were plenty other places, closer to the theater to park.

Someone suggested it's because I drive a foreign car.  Doubtful.  I don't think kids care about that kind of stuff (yes, I am making an assumption that these were teens, but I really can't see an adult going around randomly egging cars, however, I know I could be wrong). 

It could be because it's new and they're jealous.  And I wish they would read this because I'm going to say something.  I've never owned a new car in my life.  Could never afford to.  I always got them used, and always drove them until I just couldn't anymore.  My old car wasn't safe.  I have kids.  I came into a bit of money and decided to go for it and got a killer deal.  It's a Toyota people, not a BMW, a Mercedes, or a Rolls.

It really upset me.  It's the holiday season.  The season of giving, of being kind to your neighbor.  I was out with my kids.  I took one of their friends.  I see about one movie a year, because frankly, it's too expensive.  It saddens me that there are youth out there either not being taught about kindness and respect, or that they just don't give a shit.

That's all.  Thanks for reading.

Megan