Musings from the Slush Pile

Well, this post has been a long time coming! My new writer-gal-pal, Heather, has been completely awesome to me, *see me curtsy* and her post is so overdue! Heather helped me out big time when I was in crunching need of betas for a ms I wanted to get out to e- publishers. In the process, we got to be besties, and you know how I like to share my favorite besties, right? So, while I’m bragging up on how much I thoroughly enjoy her, I want to add that she’s a smoking hot beta on top of a blogger, writer, reader extraordinaire.  I shall now make haste and give the floor to the most fabulous of gals: Heather!!!! (Also loving the title of her post and cracking up!)

My Writing is the Shiznit

Self-esteem makes for sucky grammar.  As I type that, spell check is underlining away. That’s right folks, there are BUILT-IN tools for checking spelling and grammar. They’re certainly not infallible, but helpful and correct at least seventy-five percent of the time.  High school students seem completely unaware of these tools. How is that possible in an era of information overload?!  Why are kids confusing subject pronouns with verbs and why, for the love of God, are they handing in assignments riddled with the worst conglomeration of sentences you’ve ever read? …And then they EXPECT an “A”.  The expectation chip on their shoulders is inconceivable. The sense of entitlement they’re kicking around is infuriating.

Creative writing has taken on a whole new look in the form of JOURNAL writing with a capital “J”. Brittney, the Valley Girl, spews her profound inner feelings, complete with Johnny’s slutty prom date, OMGs, and smiley faces; a real work of art.  But it’s uber important for her development that we encourage her to share her feelings for a grade, right?!  I’m not the only teacher who found themselves saying, “Great job, Brittney! You put a period at the end of your sentence. You’re a good person and will go far in life.”  That doesn’t mean it didn’t make me want to vomit.

The heart of my ranting comes from a decade of reading and grading high school students’ creative writing.  It’s not that they aren’t capable of putting together fluid sentences with correct parts of speech.  And make no mistake- this is not necessarily the fault of the teachers involved in the learning process.  Language teachers have hovered over assignments with a dark red pen, groaning while reteaching the basics that should have been taught all along.  They have gagged while “leading kids to discover” grammar structures through “mod” techniques and in their reading, which, ironically, kids aren’t doing. Not unless they’re threatened by grounding, anyway.  So if it’s not the fault of the teachers, and the kids are capable of well-styled writing, then who’s to blame?

I chalk it up to the gray funk of the “self-esteem” movement that has beaten the life out of structure; structure which happens to lead to UNDERSTANDING and beautifully crafted PARAGRAPHS (another concept beyond their reach).  Unfortunately, this nasty little social movement invaded parenting on a wide scale as well.  Lecturing kids without consequences only goes so far, buying a new toy when someone takes theirs doesn’t teach children to stand up for themselves, and allowing unlimited “screen time” doesn’t model how to develop real relationships with people.  The self-esteem movement was designed to encourage us to learn creatively so that we may be individuals.  What it has actually accomplished is letting O.J., ahem…I mean, little Brittney, get away with murder.  Not to mention it’s wreaking havoc on language learning and writing skills across the universe.

On an optimistic note, I’m hopeful that we’ll fight back by rewriting curriculum to include syntax and grammar, we’ll inflict curfews even if they’re “so totally unfair”,  and we’ll work at teaching others to be responsible for their actions! So dear, self-esteem movement, make like Michael Jackson and BEAT IT.

Author Bio:

As a former high school French and Spanish teacher, I’m plenty educated, but find myself jumping into a writing career for which I’ve had little training, save the writing I’ve done since I was a kid.  When I’m not chasing my darling little gremlins, you’ll find me ogling kitchen gadgets, sampling wine, growing the stack of books threatening to take over my house, or on an airplane to my next destination. Like most writers, I read everything I can get my hands on.  My New Year’s resolution is to crank out the last few chapters of my WIP in historical fiction so I may begin seeking representation!  Check out my blog for writing tips, recipes, and pop culture-related rants at http://www.heatherwebb.net/blog or follow me on Twitter @msheatherwebb

Personal note from Julie at the Slush – Follow her. She rocks.

It’s time for the Blog Hop & Follow Friday again! I love this part of the week because  I’m meeting so many awesome bloggers, writers, readers *sigh*. So to all of you hopping with me I’m smiling widely like a doofus and waving frantically as always!!

Blog Hop is hosted over at Crazy-for-Books and Follow Friday is hosted at Parajunkee. These memes were created to help make the web smaller, and introduce us bloggers to one another. We can find sites and meet people and follow those we love! We increase our followers and we get some fun new sites to add to our dashboards too. Its a big win-win and I am thrilled to be taking part again this week.

So the question this week at Crazy for Books is: What book has influenced or changed your life?How did it influence/change you?

Well, I hate to say it but this time around, it was Twilight. I know, I know *hangs head*. Please hear me out. I’ve written about this before. I was up at 3am with baby number three and a nearly 5 yr old asleep along side my two year old when I came across the movie on Pay Per View. I was teary eyed and bleary eyed and nursing had me absolutely exhausted. Then, I saw these two teens all googley eyed and blushy and I was captivated. by the end of the movie, I’d already ordered the book from Amazon. Once it arrived, I read it while nursing the baby all night and I didn’t mind being awake for the 4th time in 7 hours. I LOVED it. I was dying to know what could happen to these impossible lovers. My heart ached for a love that could never be fulfilled. Anyway – it was the beginning of my renewed love of words, books and writing. Those things had been long puit aside in pursuit of diaper changes and playdates. For me, reading Twilight was the beginning of something new. I now feel like Julie Anne Lindsey, not Noah’s mom. I love writing, and reading and have made a niche for being me in my life. Thank you Stephenie Meyers.

Parajunkee’s question was: What books have you discovered lately from someone’s book blog?

Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve recently writtern a pararom, but don’t read romance. SO – I found a crazy-fun book blog extensively covering paranormal romance, plus every other kind, I think, but the lady running the show is snarky and feisty and so much fun that I’m stopping by everyday now. I also discovered she has a Wednesday theme called “Hump Day Hotties” where she features a new fella weekly for inspiration LOL. You should stop ASAP. Ha! It’s called Musings From A Chaotic Mind and it’s hosted by someone I like to follow on twitter @NikiBrandyberry

Thanks everyone for stopping by! Leave a comment and tell me if you follow! I always follow back!!!

Please welcome back new gal-pal and avid-reader-extraordinaire Danielle Hester! Danielle is the super-smart-funny @lush26 if you are a twitterer like myself I met Danielle on twitter and have enjoyed her spunky wit for some time now and then….she offered to guest post for me, Woot! Before I even stopped my dancing, she sent a SECOND review! A followup to last week’s Double Play by Jill Shalvis. I am in blogger heaven and already opening another window to find these on Amazon. Enjoy!

Batter up!!

This is the second book in the series and I loved the first book, Double Play, and I was very happy to discover this one is not only just as good, but better.

Samantha McNead is a PR rep who works for a Major League Baseball team, the Santa Barbara Heat. Not only was Sam born into baseball, but she loves her job and is good at it. Wade O’Riley is the team’s catcher. He’s got a bit of a reputation as a playboy, and there’s been a scandal involving a woman with a false claim that she’s pregnant with his child. The Heat decide Wade needs some good PR for once and Sam is just the woman for the job. She is to pose as his girlfriend for a month. What many people don’t know that one drunken night they slept together. Now with all the pretending, will the two end up involved?

I loved this story!! I fell for Wade from the first book. You could see their was a spark but both were so willing to leave it alone. Wade is a easy-going,  down-to-earth, and giving man despite his fame. Sam, however, was his opposite. She tended to be a little bit on uptight side of things. All in all she loved her job and cared about all the players. I agreed on her reasons to try to fight the relationship with Wade, but Wade would not give up and I loved him more for that. *squee* I enjoyed Sam and Wade’s interaction together. They had a lot of sexual tension, humor and the emotions they experienced. Of course again, Jill Shalvis can bring the laugh out loud humor.

There were a few surprises that were thrown into the book and I loved that. It never had a dull moment. The only thing I felt surprises never really got wrapped up. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to assume everyone lived happily ever after (but I did that anyway). I also was interested in some of the other players and wondering if they will also have a book.

I loved this book more than the first only because I love Wade. I mean who wouldn’t want a sexy former player that turns into a one woman man. Not only that but the way he was with her was sweet. I also found myself saying “awwww” through story. I love stories with happy endings and Jill Shalvis can deliver them.

Slow Heat was a fun, sexy and kept me turning the pages, I can’t recommend this enough.  I really enjoyed it to the very last page. *sigh* Jill Shalvis is always on my to read list.

Thanks Danielle! Awesome review! I know I’m ready to pick this one up and I’ve already popped over to Jill’s site to check her out.  As for Danielle, if you ask, she’ll tell you she loves to read, watch her Yankees play, and then read some more. LOL The best thing about all her reading is the site full of her other reviews on books we love and books we need to read! Leave a comment. Stop by her website Lush Book Reviews’s Blog,  and don’t forget to follow on Twitter too!

I would like to welcome author Sybil Baker back to Musings! Sybil was here in 2010 as a guest blogger and she discussed the differences between novel and short story writing. She’s here again today as a part of her larger blog tour sponsored by Wow! Women on Writing. Sybil’s an absolutely amazing writer who has seen far more of this beautiful earth than I ever dream of seeing, and she has used her experiences to conjure and tell the most intriguing stories. One of which I will be giving away today! The novel will go to a random commenter and it’s her newest work, Talismans. I had a chance to talk to Sybil about the book, what it means to her and how she weaved her muse into the story.

Welcome back Sybil! I’m eager to tell everyone about Talismans, so I’m going to jump right in!

Talismans is not the first novel you’ve weaved your experiences into. In your debut novel, The Life Plan, your characters also travel to a vastly different culture. You have been to thirty countries. That’s amazing to most of us, I think. Would you say your travels are what inspire you to write? To share the experience or is it something else?

Actually, I started writing stories in the first grade and have been writing ever since!  Even before I moved abroad, I was always interested in how a place affects characters. I wrote about alienation in suburbia and often placed my characters in the south (my family is southern). The first four stories in Talismans take place in Virginia and reflect that suburban alienation. Living abroad and traveling expanded the things that I am interested in writing about. As my website says, because of my travels I’ve become interested in the allure and alienation of American travelers and expatriates.

I love traveling and I love writing, but even if I couldn’t travel, I’d still write, and vice versa.

What inspires me to write is having a story in my head that I can’t shake. Because I lived abroad for so long, my stories often integrate experiences from my travels.

Excellent. It’s easy to see how much writing is a part of you (1st grade! Imagine). Your passion shows. You have an incredible background in writing. Not only an education to support you, but numerous published articles and even a portion of Talismans was previously published. When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

I don’t know if I ever thought I’d “be” a writer, I just knew that I always would write. As I mentioned, I started writing stories in the first grade and have never really stopped. I didn’t know that I’d one day be a “professor” of creative writing, I just knew that I’d always love reading and writing no matter what my day job was. I’ve been very blessed that my life has turned out the way it has.

This comes as off-topic, but I am desperately curious and ask almost all my visiting authors: Do you read the genre you write in? We’ve had a spirited discussion here more than once about reading what we write. Some are submerged in one genre alone, others are more random. What’s on your TBR (to be read) pile?

I love reading “literary” fiction (short stories and novels) as well as nonfiction. Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of Korean-American literature because I’m working on a novel set in Seoul. I’ll be teaching a course in contemporary southern literature in the spring, so I’ll be (re)reading books for that course. The books include Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips, Serena by Ron Rash, and The Known World by Edward P. Jones. I love Tennessee writer William Gay’s work and want to read more of his work.

That’s very diverse, but not surprising. LOL Is there someplace, a location, a culture, or a view that really resonated with you? Someplace you wish could be shared with all the world, or at least, all the writers out here in need of inspiration?

I love the South–my family’s Southern roots go back to pre-revolutionary war days. I love southern accents and southern literature.

My husband is South African and my sister-in-law is Turkish, and find both of those cultures and countries fascinating. I think that most writers who need inspiration only need to look in their own neighborhood for inspiration–just change your point of view. If you live in a suburban neighborhood, go out to the country side or downtown and observe people and places that are different than yours. If you get out of your comfort zone, you’ll be inspired.

Do you have any words of encouragement to others hoping to make it one day to publication and share our hearts and minds with the world?

First, write because you love to. Read a lot. Surround yourself with supportive people. Form a writing group. Don’t give up. I was 45 when my first novel was published, and I’ve been writing since I was 6! Be patient, persistant, and persevere!

Thank you so much Sybil for sharing your story with me. I really do appreciate it and I’m in a hurry to get back to poor Elsie, so I will say my goodbyes and do that!”

Sybil Baker’s novel,The Life Plan, was published by Casperian Books in spring 2009. Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Transnational Literature, upstreet, and The Writer’s Chronicle. After living in South Korea and traveling extensively for twelve years, she returned with her South African husband to the States in 2007. She is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and she earned her MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Art

You can learn more about Sybil and her writing on her blog Sybil Baker.com

Now, don’t forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of Talismans by Sybil Baker!

Ever feel as if your head will explode from the chaos? I do. Frequently. Which is pretty funny because until I stepped over the line to writing for publication, I was painfully organized. Something about the creativity needed to write has done major and sometimes ridiculous things to my life. My poor family is a set of collective casualties to the fallout. I honestly picture myself from time to time as an older version of me, pulling pencils out of my ratty hair while I look up synonyms for loquacious.

Currently, I have a WIP that I am actually working on. I just polished up an older work and sent to e-pubs. I have both a Christian fiction and a humorous women’s fiction complete.  I have a file full of WIPS left unfinished in pursuit of an idea that simply must be heard. I blog here everyday and I guest blog…everywhere. I love my social media and I have been known to enter my share of contests and online magazine articles.

The upside is I LOVE to write. It’s exciting and in some ways very freeing and empowering. The bad part is I can’t seem to reign it in and I really need to. I’ve seen an agent I respect recently post on the topic of NOT genre jumping. He thought it showed immaturity in the writer. It probably does, though I’ve never been labeled immature before.

I keep thinking that once I SELL something, I will have a direction. I can say “I must be doing that right,” and then pursue my stories in that line. I know I’m driving my crit group crazy. They never know what I’ll show up with.While they have submitted the same title all along, I’m always saying “Wanna see some of this? How ’bout this???” I should point out they are infinitely patient and kind.

I know I’m not alone. Heck, look at Meg Cabot. What genre hasn’t she written? So, yeah, it’s possible, but no, I’m no Meg Cabot. I’m just pointing out that I know other writers must enjoy genre jumping too.But, boy is it confusing to my little caffeine-powered sleep-deprived brain. LOL!

Who else is a notorious genre jumper?