Credit Everyone who has a brain is serious about writing knows that you don't just vomit out a story and BOOM! you get published. Writing is the easy part. The hard part comes after. What in the blue hell are you talking about? Editing. Revising. SELLING YOUR SOUL*. Though there are many ways to go about it, editing and revision are necessary evils if you want your novel to work. Somewhere in the first draft process, you probably have some android doing the macarena in a comma happy sentence. No matter how clever you think this was. It's not. Fortunately for you, NaNoEdMo is here to help. Just like NaNoWriMo dedicates a month to the art of first draftdom, EdMo gives you a full month of editing joy**. What do you mean by "editing"? Technically, this is all grammar and spelling stuff. For some reason, I can never do editing by itself and revision comes into play. And revision is... When you take your story and change pieces of it. There's more tec...

And it wasn't me. Like any good pet owner, I signed up for those reward things at both Petco and PetSmart. Because of this, I get mail and coupons. This works out AWESOME since the Stripey and White Ones are pretty pricey. In case you're new*, you might not know that I'm talking about cats. They're pretty cute, and most days they actually like each other. However, they are indeed feline. They play with shakymice and meow - or more apt, yodel (The White One) and trill (The Stripey One). So you can imagine my confusion over this most recent marketing attempt from the folks at Petco. This flyer brings up the following questions: If I'm a cat lover, why are you showing me a semi-cute dog instead of a ball of stripey fluff? On the whole, cats do not like dogs, so why are you showing me something that angers my cats**? How does a dog fit in with a cat nutritional consult? People, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. What's the strangest piece o...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Moving... oh my. There are very few things that are more stressful. And to add to my stress, as I got home last night, I discovered that my internet was out. Three days earlier than it is supposed to be. As annoying as this is, I can't be too upset or worried about it because I have way too much to do! So, today is short and sweet as I'm borrowing internet from someone while also hauling boxes to and from my car. I know I promised to introduce you to the second member of my zombie army, however... I am sharing this! A friend recently posted this awesome trailer on Facebook. It's actually a trailer for a video game called Dead Island . Probably one of the most cinematic trailers I've seen for a game and so well done! I don't know much about the game other than it's a first person melee zombie killing game (able to be played with four other players). Awesome, huh?...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. The ladies at YA Highway changed it up this week. Today we ask the questions and you give the answers in the comments. Exciting, right? RIGHT! So, today's question: What book do you want to see as a movie or TV series? Since my Dark Tower prayers have been answered, I get to pick something else. And since it's my blog, I get to pick two. Book to TV Series Megan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts. I think it would work best on the CW. Book to Movie Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon made as an anime. Did you like this question? Then hop over to YA Highway and see what the other road trippers are saying! Don't forget to enter our race to 150 contest ! (And spread the word for extra entries.) _____ Last.fm hit of the day : No Good by Vermillion L...

We're stylin' now! Don't forget to check out the awesome contest Miranda and I are hosting in honor of hitting 100 followers! Now that our own shameless pimping is out of the way... So Kate , Perri , Kris , Pam, and Quita thought The Pie was award-worthy. We're a quiet bunch over here, humble, even*. So when someone gives us an award, it's like when Wayne and Garth met Alice Cooper. Anyway. Like with all meme-awards, there are rules: Acknowledge and link back to who gave you the award. List 7 things about yourself. Pass the award to 10 other bloggers 7 things about Alicia My imaginary friend as a child was a giraffe. My first apartment was a glorified attic.** My first car - The Ghettomobile - was the super hero of cars. I snicker way too much when I listen to death metal. Alicia + celebrities = social disasters I went to my first wake when I was 4***.  I've contemplated training the cats to do housework more than once. That this would ...

We reached 150 followers!!! The Race and contest entry has ended! Thank you to all who followed/entered and congratulations to our winners! If you're new to 'The Pie,' stick with us-- we'll have more contests in the future! ~Alicia & Miranda Last week we exceeded 100 followers in The Lurkdom. *throws more confetti* This is fantastic because Miranda and I have been planning a celebration for a while now. Like what? Besides impromptu dance parties, we're doing some giveaways. FIVE As of March EIGHT giveaways to be exact. You can win one of these fabulous prizes: One of two handmade scarves by Alicia*. Cupcakes of awesome by Miranda. An ARC of Divergent by Veronica Roth . You can read my review here . A handmade critter by blog follower Empress. Cookie Prize Pack : one box of Girl Scout Cookies and a dozen homemade zombie cookies from Miranda. Zombie Surival Kit : zombie survival flashcard, zombie mix cd, Amazon.com gift card, and your very own zombie. Writer...

Greetings from the Typhoid House! Okay, maybe not the best way to start a post, but I'm battling a head cold so my funny is on the lam. If you've tried to blog on cold medicine, you might know what I'm experiencing. That said, it's time for a Four For Friday. Four For Friday: Steampunk Edition   1. Steampunk Month . Susan Dennard declared February as steampunk month. She's giving away some books, created a quiz to find out your steampunk personality*, and more. 2. Exhibits . Back in October, Hubby and I went to a steampunk exhibit at The Charles River Museum of Industry** in Waltham. This was a big to-do because we're an old married couple and we're about two seconds away from yelling at kids to get off our lawn. Also, steampunk is pretty cool so why wouldn't we go one town away? Basically the exhibit, which has the complete name of Steampunk, Form & Function, and an Exhibition of Innovation, Invention and Gadgetry , includes submissions from...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Hey, Zombie Thursday fans and Pie followers! Life has recently become quite crazy for me. I finished up my Repo! show and am already trying to plan the next one. I'm also in the process of moving! But, Miranda, didn't you just move not long ago? Yes. Yes, I did. But I'm moving again. I'm going to be spending the next ten days packing like a crazy person. So, for today and next week, I am debuting my paper zombie army! You may recall my holiday zombie gift guide. On it, I listed a really cool calendar that also came with a crafting project-- foldable, glue-able paper zombies! Each month has a new zombie and a corresponding project to build that zombie. I found the calendar at Borders for 50% off after Christmas and could not resist. For the month of January, it's the "All Business" zombie! Even though he's dead, he still has a strong work et...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's question : How do you pick your titles? Titles. Along with blurbing and comp titles and authors , titling your creative opus is work. It has to be thought through. There might be chocolate involved. Yeah, I have problems with titles. This explains why I number my haikus . When I think of titles, I immediately go to loft and snobbish titles. For years, Falling to Normal was called Trials and Tribulations: Memoirs of a Teenager*. I loved that title and refused to change it for a looong time because nothing I came up with sang to me as my pretentious-almost-Russian-author-esque title did. Did I come up with the title Falling to Normal? Hell, no. It took an hour brainstorm session where I told Hubby all about my plot  and he came up with the title. He's ...

Thanks to everyone who entered last week's scary haiku contest. It was great reading your entries. I had a difficult time picking a winner, and since this is like Highlander,* Hubby helped me out. Here's our winning entry. It happened so quick How could she not see him there? Too cold now to care The winner? QUITA!!!! Honorable mention goes to Miranda and Meredith for their entries. Miranda's Entry You feel it's dark breath, Warm on your cold shoulder blade. The eyes are watching. Meredith's Entry Eyes that haunt my dreams Sallow skin and too much kohl Bitch be scary, yo. NOTE: While Meredith's didn't frighten me. My maniacal laughter did frighten some cube mates. Well done, ladies! In other news, we hit 100 followers last night. *sprinkles confetti* Miranda and I are working on a contest. Stay tuned, deets will come soon. Quita, I'll be emailing you for your address shortly. * Where there can be only one. _________ La...

Happy Mass Marketing Day, Lurkdom. Instead of ranting about how much I hate this holiday, I thought I'd be productive and participate in Stina and Christina's Just Kiss Already Blogfest . The rules are simple: post a 250-word scene where actual kissing happens. Then read and comment on at least three other participants. While trying to find something for this, I realized that I don't have a lot of kissing scenes in my writing repertoire.* Because of this, I'm sharing a scene from my recently finished WIP**, Phoenix Rising. So if it's still a little rough, that's why. Kyla wanted to go home. She should’ve never made the initial arrangement in the first place. Should she call Janice and tell her she wouldn’t be coming home tonight? What would she say? “I’m paying my debt of gratitude to the police for not hauling me to jail.” She was over her head. The water stopped running. A moment later, the bathroom door opened. “Found your way back here already?” A...

Falling to Normal Wordle Crutch words are those sneaky things that are the backbone of your personal vernacular. They can be disguised as fillers, such as "um," or actual phrases, like "you know?" and "omigod!" They're so insidious an unobservant person wouldn't pick up on them.* This is one of the things you should be on the lookout for during the editing process. The problem with this is unless you read through your manuscript over a short, undistracted period of time, it's going to be difficult to ferret them out. Also, since they're YOUR crutch words, your brain ignores them. Since your brain likes denial, it's time to rely on technology. This is where Wordle comes into play. I touched upon this before, which you can read about here . I'm the type of person who knows when Hubby's gone looking through something in my pile of stuff. In that same pile of stuff, I remember where everything is even if I haven't tou...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . **WARNING** Today's Zombie Thursday blog is NOT intended for anyone under the age of 18. If you're under 18, you should not be reading this. I recommend that you click on this link instead and try your hand at writing creepy gothic haiku . If you're under 18 and choose to ignore my warnings, Alicia and I are not responsible for what you read or see. For everyone 18 and over, please proceed with caution. If you are easily offended, don't read. Also note that while I will not post pictures of the products directly in the blog, the links I am posting are NSFW (NOT SAFE FOR WORK). Wait until you get home. Or, if you are lucky enough to work in a cool place, click away. **END WARNING** Okay, now that I have that disclaimer out of the way... Hello! And welcome to another edition of Zombie Sex-tacular! Honestly, today I was going to post about something completely different (i...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's question : Who are your favorite literary couples? This should be a super-easy question. I mean, who doesn't have couples they love seeing together? Right? The problem with this is, I'm a cynic. My normal response to love and mushiness is the eye roll and gagging. Hubby's accepted this, you can too. Because of this "limitation," finding those great literary loves is difficult. Most of the time I only like one half of them. Vicky Austin & Adam Eddington Books : A Ring of Endless Light , Troubling a Star Why : Even though Vicky's in high school and Adam is so not, it's not creepy. Their relationship isn't one of those sticky sweet high school things, but more grounded in reality. Anita Blake and Nathaniel Graison Bo...

That's right, it's contest time. No, not the 100 follower celebration--The Pie is still at 96. This contest is to write the creepiest, scariest, OMG-I'm-peeing-my-pants-in-fear haiku about the girl from yesterday's post . How do I write a haiku? Easy. It's three lines and a total of 17 syllables. First line: 5 syllables Second line: 7 syllables Third line: 5 syllables That's all. How do I enter? In the comments section, write your haiku.   Can I enter more than once? Of course! Anything else? Contest will be open through Friday, February 11, 2011. Cookies are only guaranteed for the United States and Canada. ________ Last.fm hit of the day : Emotional Winter by Anathema

It's Monday, Lurkdom and while I so desperately want to discuss what you can learn about writing from R Kelly, the day job keeps surprising me. Which is a good thing as that means my job is secure for another day. So, because I must be diligent, I'll leave you to your day with another haiku. photo © 2006 D. Sharon Pruitt | more info (via: Wylio ) 4 Darkness descends down Devouring my bleak soul Nay! I say no more. Don't worry; despite the extreme emo-ness of the haiku, I'm in an extremely good mood. (You tell by the use of "Nay!")  We're 4 followers away from an awesome contest and a second Choose Your Own Adventure entry is on it's way. How's your Monday? __________ Last.fm hit of the day : Peace Pipe by Cry of Love  

I decided that I would do a reading challenge this year and read 75 books in a year. I'm going to do a mix of favorites and titles I've never read, so the odds of me completing this is pretty good. And I kicked of the challenge by reading five - yes, FIVE - books in January. Not everything was a winner; it turns out that some books that you would've loved in middle school should stay in middle school. I'd get into it, but this is about the best of January, not the most heckled. My choice for best? Blurb from Goodreads : When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos. Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, memb...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Tomorrow is my birthday and I'll be another year older (don't forget, tomorrow is also George Romero's birthday ). Birthdays are always kind of weird. Everyone else always puts such a huge significance on becoming a different age, but to the person who is actually turning a year older, it really feels the same as it did the day before. Tomorrow I will feel no different being 27 than I did last year turning 26. And honestly, I'll feel no different tomorrow than I did turning 25 (although I turned 25 at Disney World and that was pretty bad ass!). When do we start feeling the age difference? In fifteen years, will I look in a mirror and think, "oh, crap! I'm definitely not 25 anymore." Or do we always just feel like ourselves and it's other people who notice the differences and changes in the way we look and act? I started to think about all of this...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's question: I n the movie " Groundhog Day ," Bill Murray has to relive the same day over and over. What books would you pick to read over and over for the rest of your life? In case you've come late to the party (and with the recent surge of followers in the Lurkdom*, you might've), I'll share a non-secret with you: I love books. My love runs so deep that I have more than I have time to read, but I still prowl used bookstores, library sales, and anywhere else where I might find something to read. Chances are if you've come here from YA Highway, you have the same problem. I've been told there's a group for people like us. Despite the sheer number of books to read and my lack of time, I do reread qu...

Courtesy of Boston.com For something different, it's SNOWING and my brain is fried. As you can see from the image on your right, most of the country is dealing with this crap. (And based off the comments from yesterday's post , you're as sick of it as me.) So, instead of a bunch of words filling your screen, I thought it would be great to share some warmth. Oh really? Like what? Trees A tall ship And a patch of green Just digging these photos up brightened my day. I hope they do the same for you! ______ Last.fm hit of the day: Wake Up the Dead by The Pineapple Thief