The first issue of Toasted Cheese for 2008 has arrived!
Cheesy goodness
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Category Archives: writing
2007 Dead of Winter contest now open!
The 7th Annual Dead of Winter Writing Contest is now open.
Dead of Winter is a fiction contest (any genre) for stories with supernatural elements or themes. This year’s theme is: Urban Legend.
Deadline for entries is December 21, 2007.
NaBloPoMo
Starting next Thursday, November 1, I am pledging to post at least once per day as part of the NaBloPoMo challenge. (have you signed up? Friend me! I’m “eringoblog.”)
I mentioned that I wanted to come up with a regular posting schedule, and here’s what I’ve tentatively come up with:
Monday: Weekend Wrap-up (pretty self-explanatory)
Tuesday: Tuesday Tidbits (random things I’ve found interesting about the blogosphere)
Wednesday: Wedding Wednesday (wedding planning things, or my thoughts on this whole getting married process)
Thursday: Thursday Thoughts (whatever stupid things are on my mind that I feel like writing about that week)
Friday: Friday Photo (ideally, an interesting photo I’ve taken in the past week and the story that goes with it)
Saturday: Reading, Watching, Listening (my formerly semi-regular writeup of the media I’ve been enjoying. I’ve been wanting to get back to this…)
Sunday: Free-for-all. Might be a meme or quiz, or some random thing that didn’t fit into any other category.
Random thoughts for a Wednesday
- If you could direct some good vibes/positive energy in Rand’s general direction today, we’d appreciate it. Thanks! 🙂
- For the past few weeks, Tuesday has become cheesy TV night at our place. America’s Got Talent, Beauty and the Geek, The Singing Bee. Last night, I was disappointed because the Singing Bee was on *after* the TWO HOUR finale of America’s Got Talent. I thought American Idol had the market cornered on milking an episode…anyway. I was rooting for Cas Haley, so bummer. (we’ve only caught about the last 4 episodes…) I found the “audition all stars” bit funny, especially the pogo stick guy, for some reason.
- Beauty and the Geek amuses me. Of the girls, Jennylee seems to be the least vapid and most sincere. Cecile seems like someone I would never, ever want to know in real life. Ugh. I’m not sure if I have a favorite of the guys that are left…I think they’re all cute. 🙂
- And The Singing Bee–what great fun! I ended up recording the 1-hour episode last night for later viewing. (as it turns out, I could have stayed up and watched it. I had trouble falling asleep.)
- I have to go get a physical for work later this morning. Whee! Any teachers out there, feel free to send any advice my way. I’m a bit nervous about the beginning of school!
- My issue of Buffalo Spree arrived yesterday. I contributed several bits to the “Forty Years, Forty Events” piece. They even spelled my name right this time. Bonus! 😉
- I have about a week’s worth of grading to do in the next, oh, day and a half. Lucky me.
Are you reading Daily Writing Tips?
So, I’ve been contributing to Daily Writing Tips for a couple of months now. Here are some of my posts:
Punctuation Errors: Quotation Marks for Emphasis
Point of View: Following the Rules
There’s lots of good stuff by the other contributors as well. Visit! Subscribe! Post our articles to social bookmarking sites like digg and del.icio.us!
Thank you for your attention. 😉
Friday roundup
Oh, my. So much to say…so little time.
- I had a really excellent time at my reunion. If you haven’t seen them yet, the photos are here. I had some wine, danced, and talked to lots of people I haven’t talked to in a very long time. It was great to see Anita (looking very tall and glamorous, as usual), as I only get to see her once every 4-5 years. I wish the turnout had been better, as there are lots of people I would have liked to see but didn’t. Ah well. The food was decent, and the DJ was…well…what you’d expect. There was much hair metal.
- I also attended a family reunion during the day, and then Rand and I headed back to Buffalo on Sunday. And then I desperately needed a nap…therefore, I did not get to start reading Harry Potter until Sunday evening! It was painful, but I survived. I still owe a proper review (which I will be posting at Required Reading), but for now, here’s a post I wrote on point of view at Daily Writing Tips (it references Harry Potter).
- My summer class is going fine…it’s much larger than I expected it to be. (I have 21 students registered. I think a couple of them have dropped off…) Summer classes usually aren’t this big. I’m choosing to believe that word has gotten out that I’m fabulous. 😉
- Eden is famous. She’s all over teh intarwebs, and she’s gonna be on TV. It’s all over the kerfluffle caused by this video.
- I had lunch with Jen on Wednesday, which was good! We ate at Steel Crazy Cafe, which was not as good as we’d hoped…
- I received some strange and nasty troll-ish comments on my flickr account. I deleted the comments and blocked the user(s), but apparently I should have waited for flickr to investigate first. Oops. My bad. (the backstory is something I don’t feel comfortable posting about, sorry.)
- I got an early birthday present. 🙂 More details later…
Er, that’ll do for now, I guess…happy Friday!
Ooh, pass the popcorn…
One of my favorite bloggers is SF writer John Scalzi. When John isn’t posting photos of his cat, he’s frequently snarking about something in the media.
John recently wrote about a piece in The Guardian (more here) in which the author (Ben Myers) whines about how teh Intarweb makes writers lazy, or something.
Ben commented on John’s post (his comment included the insult “hideous arse candles, which, as more than one reader pointed out, would make an excellent name for a rock band), and then John wrote a post grading his snark. (He got a C-). MediaBistro has picked up on the fun, and there are hundreds of entertaining comments to read.
Happy Day!
Happy Father’s Day to any of you fathers out there…I got to spend some time with my own father this weekend, so that was good.
When I got home, I had received word that I’m going to be one of the permanent writers over at Daily Writing Tips, so yay! My most recent post explored the question of “alright” vs. “all right”.
More content tomorrow. Hope everyone’s having a lovely weekend!
Writings elsewhere
No new content here this morning, but I’ve got two new posts up at other webspots.
Over at Required Reading, I’ve got a short review and an interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith. Cynthia writes for children and teens, and her new book Tantalize is a YA urban gothic fantasy. Check it out!
Also, my second post is up at Daily Writing Tips. Enjoy!
By the way, let me know if there are any writing mysteries you’d like to see explained! I’m looking for new post topics.
Writing gig
I’m posting on the Daily Writing Tips blog. Hopefully, this will turn into a permanent gig!
My first post is Show, Don’t Tell. Check it out! Leave a comment, if you’re so inclined…
 🙂