May Monster Madness Quiz & Celebrate

The Monster Madness Blog Hop is hosted by 

Annie Walls, Emma Little Gothic Horrors and Something WicKED This Way Comes.

For those who love monsters and horror!  

I've made a Horror Quiz of 10 multiple choice questions.  Hoppers and my bloggy friends can have fun testing their knowledge of horror movies and TV.  Just press "Start" below and see how well you score! 





(If your browser can't see or start the above quiz, you can take the one below.  Same questions, but hosted on another site)
MMM Horror Quiz


For more people on the hop, go to the Linky: May Monster Madness Linky Page

CELEBRATE THE SMALL THINGS

This week I'm celebrating:
1)  I spent hours and hours trying different quiz sites to find something that could be embedded in a blog -- but I did and my great bloggy peeps can have some fun!
2)  I'll be going out to dinner with friends to celebrate my b-day next week.  I think I'll eat Mexican food -- an unusual treat here in Egypt.  And I'll go out to dinner with hubby on another night.  I believe birthdays should be celebrated for at least a week.  Why limit yourself to only one day??
3)  For a flight from the US to Egypt 20 years ago, I bought Relic by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child to read on the plane.  I loved it!  I recently came across its sequel, Reliquary, and it's just as good! Plus, they wrote a whole series with the same characters.  I see some good reading in my future.  :)

Did you enjoy the Horror Quiz?  What was your score?  If you put a quiz on your blog - what would it be about?

This post is part of VikLit's blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is follow the link and put your name on the Mr.Linky list, and then be sure to post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! 

Celebrate & Ta-Da!

On the entertaining rollercoaster that is my life,  I'm happily on an upswing this week!

I'm celebrating:

1)  After a crisis last week about finding my heroine was a pile of poo,  I'm happy to report I have a shiny new one! Yippie! One CP has given her a thumbs up so far.  Others will chime in soon, and I'm very optimistic!

2)  In Egypt, we had more rain than usual this past winter.  As a result, something bloomed in April/May.  A LOT of something.  Something that I'm allergic to.  (I don't know what it is - only that it is.)  After sneezing for an entire month and producing enough snot to fill a swimming pool, I'm happy to announce that the something stopped blooming.  My snot can now only fill a wheelbarrow -- which is better than usual for me, as I'm one of those weird allergic-to-everything-that-grows-or-dies-or-hangs-in-the-air people.

3)  My husband's brother and his family have left Cairo and come to the Red Sea for a vacation.  If you're expecting a sugary declaration of how lovely it is to see them ... Get real.  There are few things I dislike more than sightseeing, shopping, sitting in coffee shops, lying on a beach or beside a pool and doing nothing.  Luckily, I've reached the age where "No" is a new and exciting part of my vocabulary.  (Seriously, try it sometime.)  Consequently, hubby went off to ferry them around and entertain them, leaving me at home where I can get so much work done!  Woohoo!  I'm in revision heaven!  PLUS, I sent my agent an email giving her my new novel's blurb, character POVs and arcs and she replied with ... wait for it ... "It sounds absolutely phenomenal!"  Yes!  All is right with the world!


Is there anyone else who gets excited about a staycation because of how much writing you can get done -- or am I the only weirdo?

This post is part of VikLit's blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is follow the link and put your name on the Mr.Linky list, and then be sure to post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! 

Celebrate & Revision Blues

Well ... the happy reunion between me and my WIP is on the rocks.  CP feedback on the first four chapters has been pretty good ... Except ... they like the "bad" sister, find her entertaining, and enjoy her voice -- despite the fact she has zero morals!  However, the "good" sister -- you know, the heroine -- got an ambivalent, we're-not-connecting-to-her response.  Naturally, the polite response has been translated by my exaggeration-prone brain as:

"We hate her."

"She sucks."

"My grocery list is more exciting."

"Is that who we're supposed to root for?"  *snort*

"Dull as dishwater and twice as smelly."

So I'm now shopping for a new heroine.  Anyone got an extra one lying around???  And I'm reminding myself of this great quote:

CELEBRATING THE SMALL THINGS

This week I'm celebrating:

My friend Kim Graff is giving

FREE QUERY CRITIQUES!!

In addition to being one of my CPs, Kim is a great writer, free-lance editor, 
designs covers and swag,

and is an intern at PS Literary Agency.

Just click for info on where to send your query for your

TOTALLY FREE CRITIQUE

 It doesn't get better than that!

Do you think writing a "bad" person is easier than writing a "good" one?

This post is part of VikLit's blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is follow the link and put your name on the Mr.Linky list, and then be sure to post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! 

Celebrate: Return of the WIP

I returned to my WIP this week.

We laughed

We cried.

We hugged.

And there was much rejoicing!

I don't know how long the honeymoon will last considering the vast revisions I have to plow through.  But at the moment, I'm a happy camper!

It wasn't just the A-Z that kept me busy.  My novel released in December, and I got caught up in promo-ing, doing interviews and guest posts, holding giveaways on several sites, endlessly searching out book bloggers for reviews, and committing myself to featuring and/or reviewing others' novels.  

Yes, it was a social media circus!  

Finally, 90% of that is done.  My time is freed up, and I can do that thing a writer is supposed to do -- WRITE!

Do you get fed up with promo-ing?  Would you actually stop doing it to give yourself more time to write?

This post is part of VikLit's blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is follow the link and put your name on the Mr.Linky list, and then be sure to post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! 

IWSG: Turtle Power

Look!  Up in the sky --

It's a bird!

It's a plane!

No, it's...

Super Turtle!

I have some good writer qualities. 

These aren't them:

• I take forever to decide on a project.

• Writing an outline can take me a month or more.

• I can't fast draft.

• No matter how hard I try, things always take longer than I think they will.

• When I get overloaded with commitments, my WIP is the first to go on the back burner.

• When my schedule is clear, I still can't seem to get a lot accomplished.

• I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. (courtesy of Douglas Adams)

Now, I could get really down on myself about my faults, what I can't do, and my amazing resemblance to a turtle, but instead of bemoaning it -- I'm going to OWN IT!

Yes!  I'm a turtle!

It takes me a looooooong time to get anywhere, 

but I DO get there eventually.

And I'm very proud of myself when I do.

So if you bear a remarkable resemblance to a turtle - 

be proud of it!

(And wasn't there a little story about a tortoise and a hare?)

This is a post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. It exists so the community of blogging writers can share and support each other, blog-hopping to cheerlead and commiserate. To find out more, visit: Insecure Writer's Support Group. Plus, check out the IWSG Website for lots of helpful info and links.

Celebrate & Book Winners

This week I'm celebrating:
1) The A-Z April Blog Hop is over.  Whew.  That was a toughie.
2) All my poor bloggy buddies that I've neglected during the hop can expect regular visits from now on!
3) Now I can get back to my WIP.  Yay!
4) Did I mention the A-Z Hop is over?  It's over.  OVER!!  

*cackles insanely and stumbles off to bed*

 The winners of the Soul Cutter giveaway are:
Bish Denham
Zoe Byrd
Emma Yardis

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post is part of VikLit's blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is follow the link and put your name on the Mr.Linky list, and then be sure to post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever!