kimlajevardi

Time for another installment of The Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Duh, duh, duh… It would be so much better if I knew how to link dramatic music to those words, but I digress. 🙂 If you haven’t already checked out the pool of talent that hops blogs monthly, do it. Click on the image and get whisked away. 

On to my insecurity for the month. And once again, it’s not really an insecurity. I’m all a twitter (no, not that kind of twitter) for the writer’s conference I’m going to this weekend. I’m looking forward to the sessions, the Master Class (I’m taking one on writing a series 😮 ), the keynotes and my pitch session. I love it all. Some people have asked if the money spent is worth it, and without a doubt, my answer is YES. If you haven’t tried a writing conference, consider this a recommendation. 🙂

By the way, wish me luck in my pitch session. My manuscript is as twittery as I am. 

**********

Now on to the Weekly News…

In my first unearthed nugget, I found myself asking a couple of key questions. First, is that really what her parents paid an arm and a leg for her to go to college for? And second, isn’t feeding animals ALWAYS how you get them to do stuff? Is that really whispering?

Penn State Student Gains Rep as Squirrel Whisperer

And in this piece, turns out we were training for survival amongst hippos when we played games as kids. Who knew?

Hungry Hippos Battle for Food…

In science news this week, volcanoes. I LOVE them! My little science-dork heart goes pitter patter whenever I see footage of eruptions, and Iceland’s volcanoes have been the source of that heart rhythm this past week. For anyone else out there that loves a good display of volcanic activity, enjoy. 🙂

Footage of Iceland’s Volcanic Eruption

Have a fantastic week and weekend. I know I will. 🙂

Another week has come and gone, the Earth insisting on rotating on its axis faster and faster. Wait, does complaining about time flying make me sound old? Scratch that.

It has been forever since I logged on to post the news. I missed all of you. 🙂 

Up first is a holy crap story. I can’t imagine how this is possible. Don’t you think that many wasps would make a bit of noise? How did they get inside? More questions than answers for sure. Just see for yourself.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/woman-finds-5000-wasps-taken-4116429

This next link shows how many interesting sites there are to find when you have a lot of time to kill and access to Google Earth.

http://twistedsifter.com/2014/02/50-amazing-finds-on-google-earth/

And in science news, it turns out that Stephanie Meyer was right to make sparkly vampires. Look closely at the plant – it sparkles. 🙂

http://www.livescience.com/47375-vampire-plants-suck-victims-genes.html

I hope the links gave you a smile to last for the rest of the week. I sure entertained myself. 😉

It’s been 7 days, 168 hours, or 10,080 minutes. However you measure it, another week has come and gone. Faster and faster we go, but nothing stops as we all know. While the world spins round and round, it’s good to enjoy a story or two. I searched far and wide on the internet, and I’ve found a few tidbits that seemed worthy of sharing. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. 🙂

This first piece falls under the category of: What will they think of next? I love the creativity of some minds.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weird-news/o-canada-hitchhiking-robot-reaches-halfway-point-n174351

Ernie would be so happy. Can you tell I grew up on Sesame Street? 

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Los-Angeles-port-welcomes-massive-rubber-duck-5701221.php

Me, me, me! I have my hand raised over here. 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/4ed9ed46503c3fd0dafd879a52d596cb.htm

Enjoy the moments this week.

It’s been a weird and sad week here in the U.S. I have no plans to jump on the posting bandwagon to capitalize on the sad events of the last few days. I do want to share pieces that are uplifting though. So sit back and enjoy what I found. Sometimes we need positive and enriching images and music.

These pictures just made me happy. We live in an amazing, awe-inspiring world. Sometimes I forget just how amazing our little corner of the universe is. I hope it also does something for you.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/04/natural-wonders_n_3844980.html

Orchestra music is always good. Pairing it with Harry Potter – nirvana. 🙂

http://youtu.be/WsJEuAd0-1I

And in a nod to my science side, a song and video that I love. I show this to my students every year. 

http://youtu.be/9Cd36WJ79z4

Today Beth Fred, Medeia Sharif and Lexa Cain are hosting the International Potluck Blogfest.

Here are the rules:

~ Put the bloghop badge on your post.
~ Post the cover of a book you love (it can be your own) with a food and/or recipe from the book, or a food from the MC’s region, or any food you just like!
~ Link back to Beth, Media, and Lexa. All three of them.
~ A copy of Beth’s Finding Hope, Medeia’s Snip, Snip, Revenge, and Lexa’s Soul Cutter, plus a $10 Amazon gift card will be given away via Rafflecopter!

So here goes. 🙂

My book is: The Next Time You See Me by Holly Goddard Jones

It was my favorite read this summer. It uses multiple third-person POVs to unveil a tragic event and the underbelly of all of those involved in the life and death of the person at the event’s center. The storyline uses distance and slowly and masterfully reveals what actually happened, exposing those things we hide – even seemingly good people. With the convergence of separate storylines, we get the entirety of the last night of Ronnie Eastman, and learn just how much can be hidden beneath.

My recipe does not come from the book or the region per se, but it requires the combination of distinct elements to make it sing. And if I’m honest, I just love it. One caveat – I like homemade beans instead of the canned ones, so if you want to make it (and you really should), use some homemade black beans.

Submitted by: CHIQUITA72979

Introduction

This corn and black bean salsa is the perfect dish for potlucks when you want to have something healthy on the table.

Ingredients

Directions

Another month has flown by. Has this year zipped by everyone else as fast as it has me? I think it’s a sign of getting older, but I’m not telling how old. Anyways, on to the task at hand. Let’s leave talk of old age in the dust. It’s time for another month of miserable   nervous  insecure writer commiseration. Us insecure writers need support, so if you haven’t already clicked on the little image and checked us out, then get on it. We need witnesses to our twittering and shakes otherwise…well, I don’t know what we’d do otherwise. So click! 🙂 

This month my insecurity has circled back to time. It’s something that never lets go of me, but this month the time issue is different. This month, I’m coming out of my beautiful, productive summer break – a time where I actually “finished” my first WIP, and I’m beginning my second. But the trouble is that I’m beginning it as I gear back up for another school year. I thought I’d have more of the summer to outline and draft, but “final” edits of my first novel took longer than anticipated. So, I have to cut down from four hours of work per day to one. And I’m tackling a much bigger project. Ah… My fingernails are already stumpy at this point. I worry that before long I’ll start gnawing at flesh. Wait, is that another book idea? 

My question for all the illustrious IWSG’ers out there is: How do you balance early stages of planning and drafting with small windows of time?

Now, on to the weekly news. If you’re uninformed and choose to stay that way, stop reading. 🙂

This first kernel of interesting news leads me to believe that someone needs to read the definition of sport. I’m sorry to anyone who loves this tradition, but finger-wrestling is not a sport. It may be fun, and the beer may be good, but IT IS NOT A SPORT.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/06/finger-wrestling-championships-germany_n_5654357.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

Knock, knock. Tell me if you’ve heard this one. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/04/gator-knocks-florida-couples-door_n_5647494.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

And in science news: What happens when Robert Frost meets particle physics? A really cool experiment.

http://www.livescience.com/47221-quantum-particle-path-most-traveled.html

What day is it? It’s huuummmppp day! 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWBhP0EQ1lA

You knew at some point I’d have to do it, didn’t you?

Now on to your news fix. Our first tidbit will make some people out there very happy. Me? I just keep thinking about what it must smell like. That’s a lot of cats.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/07/30/japanese-cat-island-has-more-cats-than-humans-and-its-utterly-amazing-4815069/

Whoops! Can you imagine the embarrassment? If he has a wife, she is probably mortified. If not, I get it.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/07/26/homeowner-posts-naked-bathroom-selfie-by-accident-on-listings-website-4811167/

And in cross-my-fingers science news, a potential breakthrough in AIDS research. Maybe. Hopefully!

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/scientists-edited-hiv-out-of-a-human-genome

Take a minute to join me in hoping. And to all of those who have battled HIV/AIDS, or are living with loved ones who do, I hope it happens soon.

It’s Wednesday, and this week I got the day right. 🙂 Applause, applause. I’ll bow now. You can’t see it, but the flourish I just made with my left hand was spectacular. I may even be good enough to replace Vanna. It doesn’t matter that she doesn’t do the gestures for prizes anymore; I’ll bring them back. I’m a trend-maker, you’ll see. In the meantime, on to the news.

Our first story shows a definite case of a career-minded young man. He doesn’t mean to commit crimes, it’s just that he knows what he wants to be when he grows up – a bus driver. Come on.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/12-year-old-steals-school-bus-again_n_5592785.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

One question: Would you like fries with that?

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/22/4248889/170-foot-ketchup-bottle-for-sale.html

Fossils are cool, and we learn a lot from them. But, um, who wants a fossilized piece of crap? Seriously? 

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/impressive-load-longest-fossilized-poop-goes-auction-n161291

I’ll leave with that last news piece. There’s not much I can say to top it, so until next week…

Happy Wednesday!

What? It’s Thursday? Agh… 😮

The truth is, I kind of forgot that yesterday was Wednesday. I know, I know, bad blogger. You can’t see it, but I’m flogging myself. 😉 I’d like to come out and give a grand excuse for why I missed posting yesterday. Something like: illness, emergency, flood, or ginormous earthquake; but I can’t. Tuesday just extended its reach until it morphed into Thursday. Not my fault. It just happens every now and again when you’re lost in an editing fog.

Can I tell you, though, I re-wrote a great scene yesterday. Cheers! High fives!

Can I share it? Well, not yet. Gotta get an agent and that whole publication deal thing first. Sorry to make you wait, but think of the satisfaction when you get to read it. It’ll be that much sweeter.

Anyways, on to the news – the Wednesday/Thursday news. 🙂

This first piece causes all kinds of questions for me, but it also stokes my creative juices. I’m thinking the inability to imbibe could lead to a monotone society. Big Brother being able to wipe out everything from sex to happiness. Total Dystopian storyline people! Or, it can help with that whole alcoholism thing. *Shrugs*

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/worms-alcoholics_n_5595741.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

This next story is an example of a confused and/or lazy group of cops and media people. Staring at someone and hypnotizing them are not the same thing. You need cheesy lines like “look into my eyes” and “when I say paramour, you will quack like a duck.” 🙂

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Hypnotist-Bandit-Bank-Robber-Manhattan-Beach-Bank-of-America-264094801.html

And last, but certainly not least, is a departure from my normally scheduled closing. I found this link a few days ago, and the writer in me began singing with possibility. This one is not a science-related story, but I figured that number one mostly served that purpose. No, this one is just for writers like me who enjoy picture prompts. And the best pictures of all – doors. Enjoy!

http://www.boredpanda.com/most-beautiful-doors-around-the-world/

Have a fabulous week. Oh, and watch out for exceptionally long Tuesdays.