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Something kind of cool is going on this month. I’ve been picked as a Malibu Mom. Basically, Chevrolet is giving me a Malibu to drive around for a month and I have to go on secret missions. We were asked to make a video biography of ourselves. Maybe you remember me freaking out about it …

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Okay, blog-kateers, you may not know this, but I don’t really like talking about myself. Well, that isn’t entirely true, I actually kind of love talking about myself when it’s like how *I* need to not eat that candy bar, or how *I* should probably start going to bed earlier–you know what I mean. I …

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Natalie Whipple is one of those super cool people in the writing world that I love to read about. She has a super cool blog, and amazing drawing skills to boot. She’s like nine different kinds of fabulous, and the other day she posted a video where people ran on water. (I couldn’t find the …

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We interrupt this blog where I discuss wonderful important things like writing, the color of my hair, and you know–things that really matter, to bring you an important service announcement: Last Night’s Vampire Diaries so was so freakin’ hot that it brings hot vampaliciousness to a whole new level of WOW. Wait, are you pretending …

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That’s right, I just used a twitter hashtag in the title of my post. Let’s just move past that, shall we? I am going to spend the rest of the week getting my book into shape so I can send it off to beta readers. But, I need two things from you… (What, you thought …

Read More about Blog Break #AmWriting

Last week I did an interview over at Elana Johnson’s blog, and one of her questions was how often have I wanted to give up. I was pretty honest and admitted that there have been more than one or two times along y little writerly journey that I’ve really just wanted to say screw it …

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Today, I’m going to do something special*… I’m going to let you in on how I put together a blog post. This isn’t the way I always do it, but this is what usually works for me. This is what gets comments and retweets on twitter. And, if we’re being completely honest, isn’t that what …

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Okay, I have a four year old. You guys know this, right? She’s a girly girl and that means she’s a huge fan of all things Barbie. She also has a little stuffed puppy she carries everywhere. It’s cute, and totally endearing. His name is Puppy Luppy, and we call him Lups for short. So, …

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I love when bloggers leave an open ended blogging day so I can ask them anything I want, so I thought it might be fun to give it a try. Leave your questions in the comments below. I’ll answer them as best I can in some form or another. I can’t wait to hear what …

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This weekend my husband and I took our daughter to the Casa Manana children’s theater. We have season tickets that my mother-in-law gets us every year. All in all they are awesome. I was wowed by their production of Treasure Island, I cried when Charlotte climbed up to her web for that last time, when …

Read More about Know Your Audience…

I freakin’ love to shop. It’s ridiculous. I’m not really a fashion show/montage kind of girl or anything, but I could spend like seventy-nine bazillion hours looking at pretty things, putting them in my cart, and even occasionally buying them. When I’m a New York Times best selling author with multiple book/movie deals and unlimited …

Read More about My Version of Window Shopping

Okay, first off–Holy Crap February was short. How am I sitting here writing my monthly wrap up post? So, let’s start with the writing. I’m still hard at work on my gamer girl book, but it’s not finished. So, writing is well, but nothing exciting to announce or anything. Daughter is loving the new preschool. …

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So, yesterday I asked you guys to embarrass yourself in the comments, and you did not disappoint. One confession in particular really stuck out for me: I realized that if I dinged someone’s car in the parking lot , I would not leave a note. If someone dinged my car and left a note, I …

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So much so that I made an informative graphic: Now that I’ve just come out there and admitted it, I feel much better. I hate socks, and I hate shoes more. If I could just wear flip flops year round I would, but it’s been like snowing in Texas so that’s not really an option …

Read More about My Feet Stink…

Looks like I’m Over the Top! And, now since it’s Wednesday and that really is the best reason to write about yourself I will play with my blogalicious reward from Rhonda over at Snarktastic Ramblings. As always, there are rules but these are easy and probably somewhat fun!! Rules: Answer the following questions with single …

Read More about Over the Tippy Top

Okay, so here’s the thing. I’m from Texas. You know, the Lone Star State. Now, it’s important that you know there are some cowboys here, we do have a lot of trucks, and there is the occasional hoedown. But Texas is more than that. Dallas is a freakin’ technological mecca, we have some really great …

Read More about Are You Wearing A Bolo Tie?

Blogging on Sundays. When this month is over and I get to be done with my little bet with myself to blog every day in January, I am so not going to blog on Sundays anymore. I would like blogging on Sundays, except no one ever reads it. Maybe I should start like a feature …

Read More about You Know What Sucks?

Blog, you know Halle… Well, she wants to answer your questions. So, if there’s something you want to ask a four year old, then here’s your chance! Ask her anything (that doesn’t offend me–I’m her mom I have final say on all q answering.) and next week she will be back to let you in …

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The ever awesome Josh Berk made me the coolest little blog intro song, so I needed to figure out how to add it to some pictures or whatever. Well, since I suck at that, I just made this instead. Remember: awesome song = the amazing Josh Berk crappy video editing = me

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Let me set the scene for you: It’s a chilly morning at a Target in a high end neighborhood. (Not the place I live, but you know–the place I drive to so my kid can get a fancy education.) The red-shirted cashier turns to the lady in front of me with a fake smile on …

Read More about Holla!

Okay, some of you have the sad great fortune of knowing me in person. If you do, then you know I don’t really do stress. I pretty much never worry about stuff, and most of the time I’m all whatevs… That sounds all good and well, right? No stress? What’s that like you ask. Total …

Read More about I Will Not Get Overwhelmed!

Right now I am pretty much the busiest I have ever been. I am working back and forth a little with my agent of awesomeness on my book, my kid is doing the usual thing–dance classes, preschool, playgroups, etc., and oh yeah WE’RE MOVING. We’ve been packing and cleaning out closets, storage bins, etc. It’s …

Read More about Revising Reminds Me of Moving

Revisions are a part of every author’s life. You write a story, and when you’re writing it, you absolutely fall in love with the whole thing. It’s the greatest thing ever written, and then you go back and read through it–whoa. It’s pretty crappy. So, you go through again, and make it suck less. You …

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My good friend Jason A. Myers wordled his book this morning, and because I am spending a lot of time on some editing notes for mine today I thought I’d follow suit. So, without further adue, I give you Sketch! Aw, it looks so cute like that. 🙂 Any gueses as to what the name …

Read More about My Book In a Picture

This writing thing’s a tough gig. You write a story–polish it until your eyes go crosseyed, and then query it to fabulous agents that you know can champion your book with the best of them. It’s all very exciting and fun-filled. But, then you wait…. …and you wait…. … and just when you thought you …

Read More about Self Doubt and Suckage

I read a great YA book yesterday, Donut Days by Lara Zielin. It was one of those stories that I sat down to read, and didn’t get up until it was finished. I love those sorts of books! I’m not usually one to jump on a book with a religious undertone, but there was something …

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Okay, I’ve had my book in both past and present tense, and I am STILL not sure which one is the way to go… so I have the first few lines written BOTH ways for your viewing pleasure. <br /> <a href=”http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1676901/” mce_href=”http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1676901/”>Should Sketch McGee be written in past or present tense?</a><span style=”font-size:9px;” mce_style=”font-size:9px;”>(<a href=”http://www.polldaddy.com” …

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It’s Halle’s birthday today. She turns 4. So, I thought we would take a look at the many hairstyles of Halle over the years… It all started with the bling hat. I should have known I was in for it then… And then the spike look started–who’s hair does that on it’s own? Halle’s… that’s …

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There is a website out there that I am in love with. The blog is helpful, but the website’s main function of tracking queries is one of the hands down best tools for writers on the web. I started out just trying to track my queries with a spreadsheet, got quickly confused, and then found …

Read More about Query Tracker Turns Two!

I’ve been getting really into facebook lately, and I recently friended someone from high school that was on the drumline with me. That’s right, I was a bona-fide band geek. I lived for marching season, and it was straight up the most fun ever. I lived for marching season, and honestly… I was pretty cute …

Read More about My Saved By the Bell Moment.

24105 / 65000 words. 37% done! I officially made it past the 20k mark in my book! I feel like that is such a milestone. It’s when the book kind of starts gluing itself together and revealing all it’s juicy secrets to you. You start to fall in love with all the right characters, and …

Read More about WiP Wednesday #4

15046 / 65000 words. 23% done! Oh Snap!  Look at me! I hit the 15k word mark, and let’s face it, that just makes me a total pimp, right? I have been hard at work with good ‘ol Sketch McGee, and I love the twist the story has taken. Her super power has become more …

Read More about WiP Wednesday #3

I am not very good at resisting temptation. In fact, I suck at it. I don’t want to say I was addicted to the World of Warcraft, because that sounds really sad… but if I told you the number of hours I played each day–well, you’d probably call some sort of video gamers anonymous hotline …

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Okay, so in my mind… Sketch is so much cooler when she’s all cartoon character’d out. So I found this on the internet, played around to make it super sketch… and now I have her! I love her!  It’s so perfect! I just think this is total Sketch McGee. I have been writing like a …

Read More about Meet Sketch!

There are two really great pre-schools that want me to come and teach their pre-k program full time, and I am wondering if it wouldn’t be a good idea. I mean…. Hal would get interaction with kids, I would get out of the house, and we would have a little extra spending money… I just …

Read More about So, on the job front…

Well, the husband is on vacation. My job is now not to bombard him with stuff he needs to do! hehe think I can do it? I am going to try really hard. I don’t know if I am going to be able to do it though haha! I can think of a zillion things …

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woohoo! I got all of Halle’s birthday supplies! I am so excited! She is going to have the best rubber duck birthday party EVER! Oh I hope she has fun! She loves ducks so much I think she will be excited to see all the great ducks! I hope she isn’t disappointed… haha can you …

Read More about The birthday stuff came!!!