Stess's Journal

Ack! It's December. Did you know about this? Were you going to tell me? When were you going to tell me? Where have I been? Where am I now? Where do I need to be next? Where are my socks?

I'll tell you where I've been--in the writer's cave, that's where. Down in the Hobbit Hole with my Gollum of a deadline mumbling ever near my ear. In the meantime, I'm trying to post a bit here and there on my Twitter (I'm @libbabray, as opposed to @notlibbabray or @thatidiotlibbabray.) And I'm going to try to get on a more regular blogging schedule in another week, week-and-a-half. Also, it is holiday shopping-wrapping-packing-and-mailing time. I hate this time. No, do NOT attempt to post your efforts at Christmas cheer. Do not say, "But Libba, it's a beautiful time of holly and berry and peace on earth and goodwill toward all, God bless us everyone." I say "Bah, humbug."

But this is all beside the point. Here are things I want to tell you--there are signings going on!

* Tonight, Dec. 4th, @ the Voracious Reader in Larchmont, NY @ 7 PM
* Tomorrow, Dec. 5th @ the Brown Bookstore in Providence, RI @ 4 PM
* Monday, Dec. 7th @ Red Fox Books in Glens Falls, NY @ 6 PM

It will be a roster of yours truly, David Levithan, and Natalie Standiford. There could be finger puppets and singing. I'm just saying.

Also, THOSE OF YOU WHO WON MY CONTEST FOR HAVING YOUR NAME WRITTEN INTO A SHORT STORY: I have your ETERNAL KISS books and I would like to send them to you! So, if you could leave me a message on my LJ inbox (it's all I have right now) with your name and addresses, that would be swell, and I'll get it right out to you. Amanda, due to my terrible oversight, you will officially be written into the next short story, which is due...gulp...next month.

For those who've asked about a way to contact me, that LJ inbox really sucks. I've tried responding to people before and if there are parental controls, it boots me out. (And after I brought a cake and everything.) So, I'm going to be talking to my web master, Mr. Theo, and getting an email put on my website for the new year. Hoorays!

Is that it? I think that's it. Wait, where are my socks again? I'm going to hop the train to Larchmont. Hope to see you there tonight. And stay tuned to my Twitter feed for updates.

It's time for voting! thanks to everyone who entered, great icons this week♥

[+] Vote for your three favorites.
[+] Don't vote for yourself.
[+] Hover over the image to see how S is represented.
[+] Voting will end Sunday, December 06

( S is for... )

So. Trying to ease back into work--there are people in my life who don't think that what I do is terribly interesting or worthwhile, and even I admit that it's only recently that it's become a gainful employment once again. So I don't tend to recognize that it's possible to overwork myself, my dreams aside. But then you look back and realize that I put out an e-book and two Fifteen Minutes (HEY DID YOU HEAR ABOUT NEW MOON IN FIFTEEN MINUTES? BECAUSE THAT'S STILL THERE) in the space of about six weeks, and that's a lot of mental effort. I mean, narrative fiction is one thing--but humor can actually be kind of nerve-wracking, because (as I'm so fond of saying), it's either funny or it's not, and if you're any good at it, you know when it's not, and you just have to sit there sweating blood until you come up with something that is. Which is why I love a nice rambly entry or recap that just happens on a whim, because it's not me trying, and it doesn't involve breaking out into metaphorical hives. So my point, and I did have one, is that I'm having to recognize that maybe I am just a little bit burnt out right now. But the more time you take off from something, the harder it is to get back into it--think of how much you dread going back to work after several days off--so I spent yesterday setting up footnotes on New Moon, should something else in the house blow up and I find myself ever needing to do a third e-book. Just putting in the numbers and reminders to myself ("Talk about that news article for this one, here's the link"), which I also did last November for the Twilight 15M, and let me tell you, a year later, that really came in handy. So I did that to ease myself back into footnoting, so on and so forth.

I think one of the things I'm going to try to do is be a bit kinder to myself, in terms of work. What I really need to do, I think, is stop trying to create deadlines and expectations for myself--which sounds odd, but the thing is, the ones I create are stressful, self-defeating, and counterproductive. I think you do need discipline, but I need to live more in the present with it--put in the daily hours and work steadily and do my best, but not worry as to whether that "best" is good enough, and if I'm "on track" and set all these grand unattainable plans, because that does not produce results for me. In fact, it makes me kind of crazy, and the best things I've done in my life were, in fact, the things I did on a whim and with no expectations. That may not work for you, but it seems to work for me. So I'm going to try to live more with my best efforts in the present and stop trying to stress myself out about the future.

(I have a Zen Garden app on my phone that starts up with little sayings, and one of them was, "To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders." I think it's a little like that.)

Meanwhile, in other news, we're supposed to get snow tomorrow (YAY), and the dogs are deeply depressed because it's too cold for them to go out and play (I'll let them out after lunch, once it's warmed up a bit). Also, I think my birthday present to myself will be a whole mess of eyeshadow samples from Aromaleigh, since they're only $1 each anyway, last a good long time, and you can get as many as you want. (Aromaleigh: TLE approved.)

A few quick links:

'The 40 Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It' is Sadly Real and Has a Trailer. And sharp-eyed folks on Twitter noticed that a certain sparklepire shows up at 1:37. (BEHOLD.) Way to steal from the easiest target ever and still fail at humor, guys.

New Moon retold with lolcats.

Vampirism Does Not Make Stalking Attractive. I think I might actually buy this shirt to sleep in. You know, as a precautionary measure.

Full info at Neil Gaiman's Twitter: "Scary and sad: Paralyzed & abandoned by insurance -The Full Story."

Remember the Twilight hate questionnaire a lot of you guys filled out? Well, octoberland's article is up now!

From oasis_beatles: megmatthews20 needs eye surgery related to Marfan Syndrome, can you help? hope_in_sight is running a general/fandom auction to raise the $1500. As far as vouching for the validity of it, I recognize Meg's username as a longtime reader/commenter here (I was actually kind of shocked when I saw who it was for, the name was so familiar to me). I haven't seen her comment in a long while, for reasons that should be obvious.

Also, I know there were a couple of similar reader requests in my LJ messages, but I swear to you, my inbox has eaten them. I rarely if ever delete messages there, and there's at least two I can't find now. I have to add, though, that I'm very wary of posting requests for causes that can't be easily verified, so keep that in mind.


(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

This week's questions were suggested by versailles_rose.

iTunes Five

1. What song do you play the most?
2. What song do you play the least?
3. What's the last song you added?
4. What's your favorite playlist?
5. What kind of iPod (or MP3 player) do you have?


Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so here:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/thefridayfive/1466.html

Old sets that were used have been deleted, so please feel free to suggest some more! Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going.

I cheated on the spelling test that I had to make up in 2nd grade. I missed it because I had the chicken pox and one of my classmates told me that the secret bonus word was island and was spelled "Is Land."

I got the bonus points. But I probably wouldn't have gotten it right if I hadn't been warned.

It's good to get that off my chest.

Don't forget about our Challenge.

**POUT**

I still only have two entries.
BUT there's also still lots of time until Sunday to submit!

So please P-P-P-Please enter.

http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=ASW-BOOK-TWO&Category_Code=ASW

Are you looking for the perfect Christmas gift for someone you want to confuse with about 300 mixed signals?

The second Softer World book is here. It is called Second Best isn't so Bad and you can buy it right now if you like! 244 full colour pages (even the black and white images are printed in glorious full colour, for no reason at all! We are all about excess.) and at the end of the book there's a collection of the original black and white photocopy versions of A Softer World that we made in an all night copy shop with a stack of photos and an old typewriter. This section is called "Not bad for a first try."

Also, the first Softer World book, Truth and Beauty Bombs is up for sale on the Topatoco site as well! Buy them separate, or together for a discount! What kind of crazy world is this!?

(also, we included all the alt texts. How? IT IS A MYSTERY!)

http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=507

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WRONG CHOICE, TOP CHEF JUDGES!

Here are the results from Week 226...


( Read more... )

This is your reminder to submit Challenge S!

You don't know what can do with S? maybe Simba? Snow White?
We have four entries so far but we need more!:) Please submit your icons!

( Winners! )

( Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you )

In case you missed it yesterday: New Moon in Fifteen Minutes. I spent something like ten days in the comedy mines on that thing--not sure why it was so much harder than even I thought it would be, but it was, although I feel like it turned out decently well--so trust me, I will not be letting you forget it any time soon. And yes, I do read every single comment that comes in, via my email, so if you go over and say something, no, I won't miss it.

So, as promised: I did not do a damn thing today. I didn't even turn on the computer until 6 pm. I did read email comments and Twitter on my phone, wrote in my diary, sat outside in the very pleasant chill for a while, played with the dogs--honestly, I do not know how I actually spent the hours from eight to three. I was kind of bored the whole time, but in a very nice way.

I also had a very strange dream--( In which I meet the man of my dreams, literally )


(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

I didn't mean to like...disappear.
But we've only had 2 people enter our newest challenge.


So I'm extending it another week.

New end date is December 6th.
I will run the challenge just with our few icons even if it's just the two, but I'd really really love to see move icons. If you need/would like/it would be helpful to have more sample caps let me know and I'll dig them up.

Otherwise you can find more information, some caps and enter here

http://www.asofterworld.com

My neighbourhood is full of former corner shops, now used as homes or offices. I imagine these shops were pushed out of business by the abundance of huge grocery stores just a few blocks over. I love to see how a space is slid along the continuum from public to private, the plate-glass windows obscured, sidewalks held at arm's-length with fences, gardens, hedges. See my collection (so far) on flickr, or all together here.

If you're one of these Winners for the Cap Challenge of Week 225 or the November Icon of the Month, come take your Banner :)

farfadine
flame_eternel
clay_chaz
lizpin

( Week 225 Cap Banners )

metamorphosia
flame_eternel
salphone
farfadine

( November Icon of the Month )

( voting is closed. )

CONTESTANTS: 00
Actor Submissions: 00
Capt Submissions: 00
Hunt Submissions: 00



Please remember to read the rules carefully for each challenge, because they vary depending on what they call for... If you have any questions, please leave a comment separate from your entry post and I will get back to you asap!


( challenges behind the cut )



If you have ideas for a future challenge, drop a line in our suggestion box! Also, please help us by adding to the community resources!

Thanks for the "last minute" entries! Here's the poll for WEEK 226. The results will be posted on Wednesday around 7pm... Good luck everyone! And remember:



( vote here )