An Attempt at Humor

So I have decided to be more active on the blogging front. Well at least this blog. We'll see how it goes. Since I do write YA, and the teenage years are full of embarrassing moments, I thought I might share one that happened to me recently. Now this is small compared to some of my high school moments, and my freshmen year of college was quite embarrassing. However it does hearken back to my freshman year of college. That year I had four or five quite spectacular falls in front of boys. One involved the inability to get back up. I was in a dress, with slick shoes, and both the guy I was with and I were laughing so hard, but embarrassed at the same time that I couldn't get up. He was lifting me and everything! I was a nice petite 105 back then, so it wouldn't be the same thing if someone couldn't lift me up today.

Anyway my most recent and very embarrassing moment happened yesterday. I took my children to the swimming pool with a friend and her children. We are packing up getting ready to go when my darling two year old understanding that we are leaving took off towards the gate. My towel was wrapped around me, but as he picked up speed I started dropping the things that I was carrying. I left quite a trail behind me.

As I look, he has reached the road/parking lot. It's like a combination thing. I yell, "Stop Jacob." He giggles.

Then I trip over a step and scrape both of my knees, and my hands and stub my toe. My butt, which is now towelless is sticking straight up in the air. But since Jacob is in the road I scramble up and hobble towards him. "Stop Jacob" But really I'm thinking don't cry like an idiot, don't cry like an idiot.

Limping I chase him in circles until I grab him. Then I look down at my knee. The right one hurts, and it is dripping blood. I thought scraped knees were for children. (Unfortunately this is not the case for me--as this is the third time I've scraped my right knee something royal since I grew up).

My friend was in the shower room with her kids, and thus did not witness my derriere moment. I am too embarrassed to have her see the shame of my bloody knee. Blood is trickling down my leg at this point. I dash over wrap my towel around me again--which I now need to bleach--just in time. I gather my other two kids. And limp while trying not to look as though I'm not limping back to the car.

I see two more friends today, and they comment on my scraped up leg. I'm wearing capris, so the really bad part isn't showing. I try to laugh it off. But inside I'm writhing in agony. Does everyone need to know that I'm a complete klutz? Generally it happens in waves. For example during my freshman year I fell down (for no apparent reason, tripping was only involved once) five times in a three month period.

My most spetacular fall involved rolling twice down a steep ramp and everyone stopping and staring. My friends were so shocked they just stood there. Maybe they didn't want to admit to being with me. Some friends!

My most embarrassing was the aforementioned incident where I could not stand back up with said boy--who I was interested in at the time.

My most humiliating was the tripping incident which involved ripping a large hole in the knees of my new jeans (at a time when large holes were not okay fashion wise). I seriously considered going back home, but it was the first day of class, and I knew if I went home, I'd wouldn't go back to campus. I was late, because it hurt to walk, and there was lots of dripping blood. My professor was some honor code lackey and when I entered late--he spoke about the importance of being on time. When he walked by me, and noticed the holes in my pants--and if he even looked momentarily my bloody, bloody knee. He lectured the class about not coming to class with holes in your pants. Yeah--he made a great first impression.

A Long Time Coming

Wow! It's been a long time since I posted. Not a lot of news on the novel front. I'm getting some very valuable feedback on it. That's been a real help. I've been thinking about it and I'm ready to start reworking it today. It should be good!

I'm also really excited to write my next novel. I'm two chapters in. And honestly I'm torn between the two books so much. I want to finish up my Isis book, but I really, really want to write this next one. I'm afraid that I'll mess things up if I work on more than one book at a time. It's a different novel cast of characters, different setting, different voice, and different perspective. It is in third person instead of first. But it still has a lot of action or well it will have a lot of action. Can you write more than one novel at a time? Should I even try? Part of me really wants to attempt to.

My conference was good. I learned a lot. I'm excited to go to my next conference in September. This one is very close to home, (less than half an hour a way), which will be good. I missed my kids by day four of the conference. I'd been away for six days at that point. I think everyone was kind of worn out by Thursday. I know I was. And my little four year old told me that I would come home if I missed him and cried on the phone. So I was sad.

The things that stuck out to me from the conference were motivation for the characters being on, having a good idea of where the plot is going, and staying true to the young adult perspective. There were three editors there and one agent. I went to some group discussions with them, but the thing that amazed me was how impressed I was with their knowledge of the book world. Seriously I'd love to sit down and just talk favorite novels with them. (A lot of their favorites as kids were my favorites too.)

It was nice to be around people who get it, and not just writing in general but writing for young adults. I was in a fantasy workshop and I learned a lot about world building and novel structure. It was great to be in a fantasy only group. I love fantasy, and I'm glad that I write fantasy (or my new novel is a dystopian one--which is actually close).

Well that's about it. How is your work/submitting/revising coming?

And also I was fortunate to win that copy of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins I wanted as well as Liar by Justine Larbalestier, and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater from Presenting Lenore. I really like her blog, it is full of reviews, contests and other great tidbits. It's awesome so you should check it out!

Win a Copy of Catching Fire!

So you can go to Lenore's Website to try to win a copy of the book. You know you want to.

My New Website

One of the things I wanted to get done before the conference was to get my new website up and running. I already had my domain name and a site up for my freelance writing. I changed it (or I should say my husband was kind enough to change it) to reflect my book.

Anyway check it out--www.miriamcaldwell.com.

Let me know what you think, and if there are any glaring problems.

Thanks!

Conference, Conference Here I Come!

So I'm going to my first writer's conference next week. I'm super excited, and very nervous. I'm a naturally shy person--extremely shy and I have a hard time around new people. But I've learned to push myself to be friendly, but at the same time it is exhausting.

Another scary factor is sharing my work with strangers. They have no reason to be nicey, nice about my writing. So I'm going to get honest feedback. That is a good thing and I'm ready to take it. Bring it on! (But that doesn't mean I'm still not afraid of it--but what if they hate it? What if they hate me? kind of thing.)

I'm frantically trying to get the last minute things done, go through the prep materials the workshop leader sent me, and get the house ready for my mom to come take care of the kids. Shopping, cleaning, writing ahead for my jobs, and I still have to fit my writing in.

Wow! I don't have time to write much more. But in honor of my conference going, I've gotten a new haircut. Well honestly it's my haircut when I get my haircut. It was halfway down my back, and now it's under my chin, but I feel more writerly and confident and happy. I should just keep my hair short. I like it so much better that way!

Happy Writing--I'll post after the conference in two weeks!