Sela Carsen's Blog, page 14

Where I've been

I've been in downtown St Louis, wearing holes in my shoes. Ok, so that wasn't my primary reason for haunting the city. I was at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association national conference. I was on a panel discussion on the Romance track, presented by the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance. Crystal Jordan, who is both an author of erotic romance as well as a university librarian, invited me, Jeannie Lin and Amanda Berry to sit in with her on a...

Reading to your kids + Jabberwocky

Eva Gale passed me this link and I thought it was awesome: A Father – Daughter Bond, Page by Page.

For 3,218 nights (and some mornings, if Mr. Brozina was coming home too late to read), The Streak went on. It progressed from James Marshall's picture books about George and Martha (two close friends who happen to be hippos) to middle-school classics like "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town" to the 14 Oz books (which they read four times each), to Harry Potter, Agatha Christie, Dickens and a

Ahhh, plagiarism. Or not.

Someone asked a question today about whether using the opening line of a poem as the opening line of their story constituted plagiarism.

You know what? I'm not sure. Personally, I don't think so. I really don't. For one, it sounded like the whole of the story was a riff based loosely on a relatively famous poem and that the one line she wanted to borrow was just a lead-in. I think that if the poem or a stanza or line of it could be used as a frontspiece, that might make it easier for readers t...

Now I can panic

Only two rehearsals this week and I'm really excited about the PCA conference! But as it's Easter weekend, the kids have a half-day on Thursday – the night of the romance area dinner, then the panel discussion is on Friday – there's no school on Friday. And I have a rehearsal that night.

Looks like I'm going to be calling in some big favors on Friday, plus letting DH practice patience on Saturday while I'm gone.

And somehow I still get to feed everyone dinner on those nights and I have no idea ...

I'm an idjit

I've been panicking about how to manage my schedule with the PCA conference coming up this week.

Dude.

It's not until next week. *blush*

This week is easy. First rehearsal tonight, Science Olympiad on Saturday. No freaking out necessary. And since I no longer have to freak out, I better get some writing done. The Margie Lawson workshop coming up in April wants the first 3 chapters of something and I got nothing.

I did it!!!

I got a part!! The audition was a lot of fun. Very small. About 15 people showed up for 5 parts — only 3 for women. The script is cute. We're doing "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" and it's 4 shows around the first weekend in May. 6 week schedule, but a LOT of rehearsals, starting tomorrow.

I also followed up on the application I sent in for being the library assistant in the district. No word yet on that, so keep those fingers crossed.

And no news on Carolina Wolf. Should ...

Pre-audition nerves

I haven't auditioned for a show in years. Like, since Monkey Boy was just a Monkey Baby. But tonight they're auditioning for a little community theatre thing close by and DH encouraged me to go. So I'm going. My stomach is trembling, which is both ticklish and nauseating.

Gah! What was I thinking?!

Where have all the punks gone?

We had an interesting discussion about Cyberpunk and Steampunk at Romance Divas recently, so I decided to blog about both of them today over at Beyond the Veil.

Enjoy!

Betcha didn't even know I left

Back from the wilds of Indianapolis, where we spent the weekend for MILs birthday. Happy Birthday Sue!

I'm finally caught up with the entire Lora Leigh Breed series. I think…uneven is the word I want. Some were definitely better than others, and that's the end of my commentary. Still, they were strangely engrossing.

I read Angela Knight's Master of Fire. Yet another excellent addition to the series.

While I was gone, I made the teensiest bit of progress on A Dark and Stormy Knight. Don't worry. ...

Comfort Reads

I've recently been in a state where I would wander to my TBR pile, realize that the very idea of it scared me, and I'd scamper back to my most well-worn, dog-eared copies of books that I've read over and over through the years.

I needed my Comfort Reads. Most of us have them. They clutter along the backs and edges of our bookshelves. Not quite stylish or cutting-edge enough to be displayed with the new shiny covers, but you can't quite get rid of them, either. You might even own more than one ...