Weird Science Wednesday

First, a few things...

I'm a winner!

And a complete moron.  Late last night, I was sitting with Fluffy reading MATCHED, by Ally Condie when the phone rang.  

"Hello?" I said.

"Emily, this is your very great, very awesome writing buddy."

"Oh, hi!" I say enthusiastically.

"You do realize you need to validate your NaNo novel in order to win, right?"

"D'oh!"

I rush onto the computer to paste in my novel to get credit for all that writing I did when I see another very great, very awesome writing buddy emailed me, worried that I might not get credit for winning NaNo.  Yeah, I have great friends.  People like me need them.

So thanks, my wonderful writing buddies!  You're awesome!  And congratulations to all those winners out there!  And if you didn't win, you're still awesome because some of those word counts were REALLY high even if they didn't quite hit the 50,000 mark.

Feel free to give yourself a shout-out in the comments if you're exceptionally proud of your achievements!  :D

Now, on to Weeeeiiiiirrrrrd Sciiiiieeeence Weeeeednsdaaaaay!

You'd think that for someone who likes to write so much science fiction, I should probably know a thing or two about science.  Well!  I do!  And I thought, "Hey!  Why not have a day designated for nifty scientific facts I've come across over the years?!"  So that's just what I'm going to do.  There's some technology and scientific facts that I've learned about that most (if not all) of you have never even heard of before.  How?  Well, I've developed a lot of interesting contacts since joining the military.  One particular tech is something I've used in both ELEMENTAL and HANSEL AND GRETEL.  I'm not going to tell you about that one yet, because it's pretty pivotal to the plot of H&G.

However!  I will teach you all about a little tidbit I picked up that is pretty important to TALES OF MORCAH.  

Oh the wonders of melanin!  

What is it?  Well, the simple explanation is that it is the thing which gives us our skin color.  Lots of melanin leads to very dark, black skin, while very little melanin leads to extremely pale, white skin.  Most of you may already know this, but did you know that two dark-skinned parents could actually produce a white child?

It's true!  And not only is it true, I've seen it in action.  But how? you ask!

Well, let's get all scientific about this with visuals!

Let's say this is how genetic code (in regards to melanin) looks:

Mm: Medium-dark to Medium-light skin

MM: Very dark, black skin

mm: Very light, pale skin

Let's say two parents carry the information for medium-toned skin, which would look like this:

momma            dadda

                                                                    Mm                 Mm

They have three children (sissy, brother, moe)

When momma and dadda came together to make sissy's code, the M from momma and the M from dadda came together to construct her melanin levels.  Sissy's genetic code would then look like MM (i.e. very dark--sissy's genetic code is now limited to only dark skin for her future children)

They come together again for brother bringing along an M from momma and an m from dadda.  Thus giving brother Mm (i.e. medium--also notice that brother carries the genetic information to pass on dark, medium, and light skin to his children)

Finally it's Moe's turn and momma brings an m while dadda also brings over an m.  Moe's genetic code of mm gives him the lowest levels of melanin.  Also, now Moe lacks the information to give his future children dark skin.

Momma and dadda now have a dark-skinned child, a medium-skinned child, and a white child (though both the parents are medium, aka, brown-skinned)

I met a family like this in Iraq and from what they said, it happens often enough there to not be a surprise.

Why doesn't it happen in the U.S?  Well, the answer is simple.  Most white Americans are Northern European while most black Americans are African.  These continents offer extreme lighting conditions.  Pale-skinned people (i.e. low melanin levels) absorb vitamin D very easily, while darker-skinned not-so-much.  Too much or too little vitamin D can make a man impotent and a woman infertile.  After enough years, the genetic pool became limited in certain areas because people with both information died out, leaving only those who could survive the conditions.  

Of course, you may notice that with some white and black parents, their children's melanin levels vary just as widely as the example I gave above.  This is because all the available information is being blended again.

I use all this information to explain Lilly's particular condition.  An albino has the least melanin, giving them the appearance of pink skin and pink eyes.  It's all due to a lack of genetic information as far as melanin is concerned.

So, are you fascinated??  Or are you just rolling your eyes at me saying, "Emily, we learned all this in biology, and it is boring."  Well, I think it's fascinating!  And I hope you did too.  :D

                                                                 

NaNoWriMo Novel Excerpt

After all this talk yesterday of how I got through my NaNo writing, I decided I'd shame myself by posting my first chapter for all you dear readers to see what I mean by keeping it simple.

You have no idea how terrified I am right now.  I don't like posting ANYTHING without at least attempting to tweak it to perfection.  But not today.  This first chapter is totally raw and untouched.

Enjoy!  eek

TALES OF MORCAH, Ch. 1

                

               Too many people in the world walked around trying to be different—unique—and none of them actually knew what it meant.  As I stared at my reflection in the passenger side window, going down the last street to my first day of high school, my mom humming along with the song on the radio, I was all too aware of what it did mean.

                I shook my head. 

                This year would be different.  Middle school was over and all the stigma that went along with it.  Right?  Maybe not.

                I pulled out my hot pink barrette and fluffed my hair around my face.  The other classmates wouldn’t be as shocked if my eyes were partially hidden.  But then as the wisps of snow white hair fell in my periphery vision, I decided to pull all the strands back again.  There was no way to limit the shock.

                I groaned and slumped down in my seat, letting the seat belt snag at my jaw-line.  This was going to be a nightmare.

                “Lilly, honey,” Samantha Grey—aka my mom—turned down the radio and started in on one of her many speeches.  “This is new for everyone.  I’m sure you’ll find your classmates have matured over the summer.  They’ve got far better things to do than taunt you.”

                Yeah, that’s what Mom had been saying for the last four years or so.  So far, no one’s matured.

                As we pulled into the school parking lot and I caught sight of Eric Greene fooling around right outside the doors with his stereotypically beautiful brunette and bubbly girlfriend, Sarah Hutchins, anxiety set in.  These two had been the king and queen of the tormentor gang.  Just seeing them made my heart pulse overtime, and I would have to walk past them to get into the building.

                I had to remind myself over and over that it had been two years since I’d seen them—they were juniors now—and they likely didn’t even remember their sweet little name for me.  So why did it feel like I’d seen them only yesterday?  Why was my heart pounding in my ear drums?

                I gripped the door handle, not even close to being ready to step out and face this, but eager to get away from the worried eyes of my mother boring holes into my head.  She didn’t need to say a word for me to feel her own growing anxiety.  She talked a big game, but I knew she was terrified for me.  Ever since I’d been put on that suicide watch three years ago, her words had been overly sweet and optimistic, but her eyes and attitude belied her true feelings.  If she could take me away from this, she would have already.

                But sadly, the world wasn’t rife with people like me and anyone who was different was usually cast off from society.  Maybe if we’d had some money, I could have bought my friends like Sarah Hutchins, but I suspected it would take a lot of money to make people ignore just how different I was.

                I smoothed my hair behind me ears and got out of the car.  My mom started to say goodbye, but I closed the door before she finished with the “I love yous.”  I just wasn’t in the mood.  My mom was really the only thing I had in this world and I hated that I had to spend most of my days without her.  It was better to get it over with, rip through the goodbyes like a bandaid.  I’d see her later.  Much later.

                The air was still warm, so I didn’t wear a jacket, but I pulled the sleeves of my shirt down for reasons other than the weather.  There were a few hundred kids who’d never seen me before who I preferred not to shock immediately.  It just made it easier on everyone if most of my body was covered.  There were some things I couldn’t hide, though.  I sighed.

                Sarah and Eric were still too lost in their own make out world to notice me reaching for the front door.  I was going to luck out.  Maybe I’d have a chance to make a few friends before their name for me stuck.

                “Hey, Casper!” 

                Blood rushed up to my face as all hope fizzled away into a gory death.  I slicked my hair behind my ear and turned to Eric.  “Hi,” I squeaked. 

                He was leaning against the blood orange brick wall of the building, away from Sarah, and staring at me with a devilish grin.  After roving his eyes all over my body for a very uncomfortable few seconds, his gaze finally rested on my eyes.  He cringed and my face fell.

                Up until two and a half months ago, I’d been wearing contacts to hide the pink tint to my eyes.  Up until two and a half months ago, my mom had a job where she could afford to buy me a little relief from the world’s scorn.  Now, though, everyone would see the full extent of what I was: an albino freak.

                Sarah’s lip curled into a disgusted sneer.  “Freak,” she mouthed.

                Yeah, tell me about it.  I turned away and walked into the front foyer of the school.  A few groups of kids hovered around the walls, but I kept my head down and ignored them.  No doubt, these would be the first wave to pick up my nickname the moment Eric and Sarah entered the building.  From there, every kid in Bethlehem Central would know it and whisper it behind my back by the end of the day.

                I pulled my schedule out of my pocket and pretended to be busy.  Maybe if they thought I didn’t care about them, no one would bother me for the next four years.  Homeroom was in the English wing with Ms. Summers.  All the way on the other side of the building, past swarms of students.  So much for ignoring everyone.  I just hoped the buses hadn’t unloaded its cargo yet.

                I adjusted the strap of my turquoise satchel and plowed through the halls without ever really looking to see what was around me.  Mostly I saw a lot of shoes.  Sneakers, black pumps, ballet flats.  All of them new and shiny.  I looked down at my old, ratty ballet flats and bit my lip.  Skipping the annual August school clothes shopping was just one of the many sacrifices I’d had to make since my mom had to settle for a teacher’s aide position.  Luckily, I’d held steady at a whopping 5’5” since fifth grade.  Not so lucky?  Ratty and fringing was not the new black.

                Someone knocked into my hip, sending me into the wall.  I brought my hand out to stop from falling and whipped my head around to see who it was. 

                My best friend—no, my only friend—Maggie Walters smiled back at me with a big, cheesy grin on her face.  She put her hand in front of her mouth to hide her giggles.  Maggie was beautiful, and not just in that we’ve-been-friends-forever-so-I-love-everything-about-her way.  She was honestly beautiful with her long, wavy auburn hair and bright, green eyes.  Her parents could afford the luxury items like five-hundred-dollar pumps and designer blouses.  Her perfect complexion—granted, helped along by some makeup—made me more than a little jealous.  Most days, I wished I looked normal and beautiful like her. 

                I laughed along, pretending I thought it was funny.  Only losers got mad about stuff like that.  Only losers took it personally.  And I was determined to make sure everyone thought I was easy-going.  Easy-going people weren’t as much fun to laugh at.

                My eyes darted around the hall.  Everyone was too busy talking it up with their friends and decorating their lockers to look at us.  I breathed easy and let a genuine smile spread across my face.

                “Isn’t this so exciting?” Maggie squealed and grabbed me by the arm.  We wove in out of a few clusters of kids and stopped in front of a beige locker.  It looked exactly like every other locker that lined the length of the hall, except for a pink, sparkly envelope taped to its front.

                Everyone knew what that sparkly envelope meant.  Everyone.  Including me.  If this was Maggie’s locker—and by the way she was jumping and giggling by my side, I’d have to say it was—then she had gotten her initial invitation to join the Barbies.  At first the name had been a joke to make fun of the long line of ruling plastic princesses, but eventually, they took it on with pride and used it to their advantage.  The group had been around since my mom went to school, and it had been going on long before her.  The Barbies were royalty, akin to an ivy league top sorority.  Maggie must have done something truly amazing to get on their radar.

                She squealed and smacked me repeatedly on the shoulder.  “Can you believe it?”

                “No, I can’t.”  My voice was barely above a whisper.  To say I wasn’t as happy as Maggie would have been an understatement.  This was absolutely the worst thing that could have happened.  For her, this meant the world was going to open up to her.  But to me, the world was crashing in around me.  There was no way the Barbies were going to let her stay friends with me.  Not to mention Sarah Hutchins—enemy extraordinaire—was one of them.  But I couldn’t force her to lose this opportunity. 

                Nausea gripped my stomach, but I forced on my best smile anyway.  I would be happy for her even if I knew I was about to lose the one person who kept me sane.

                She smiled and hugged me.  It was a deep hug, a real hug.  It was the kind she always gave me when she thought things were finally going to work out.  No doubt, she thought this was an opportunity for me too.  I didn’t have the guts to break it to her. 

                “Now.”  She pulled away and looked me over before tearing the envelope off her locker.  “We have to go find your sparkly invitation.”  She ripped my schedule out of my hand and dragged me through the hall before I could protest.

                We had to shove through a growing number of kids and I knew the buses had let everyone out.  The warning bell was just minutes from sounding.  I wished it was seconds.  I couldn’t bear to look at Maggie’s face and try to explain to her why I wouldn’t be up for the Barbies. 

                No one moved willingly out of our way.  Everyone was catching up with old friends and making new ones.  Cliques were being formed right in front of my eyes.  Too bad there wasn’t an albino clique.  I suspected I could probably join the freaks, but one look at their pierced bodies, black clothes, and chains and I knew I didn’t belong.  I didn’t belong anywhere.  I was a castoff. 

                Maggie didn’t seem to notice or care that she and I were on opposite polar ends of the cheeriness spectrum.  Sunshine and rainbows with frolicking unicorns floated above her head, while a black cloud of death hovered above mine. 

                After making a few turns down into the Languages wing, she pulled me to a stop in front of a rusted, navy blue locker.  No sparkly envelope decorated its exterior.  I took a deep breath and peeked at her out of the corner of my eye.  Confusion was the main emotion on her face, but I also thought I saw a little anger, too.  No more sunshine or rainbows for her.  For some reason, I felt really guilty.  I wished I had made more of an effort to be Barbie material.  Maybe if I’d worn high heels and designer clothes, or tried makeup even though it only made me look orange, I would have been able to spare her from this moment.

                “Maggie, I’m really sorry.”

                “I don’t understand.”  Her face hardened.  “I’m just going to have to talk to them.”

                “It won’t help.”

                She bit her lip and I suspected she had been hoping I’d say that.

                I sighed.  “Look, I’ve got to get to homeroom, but I’ll see you at lunch.  Okay?”

                “Yeah.”  She waved her hand half-heartedly and I worked my way into the sea of bodies to find room 217.  A dark shadow took hold of my heart and I knew that leaving her right then was the worst thing I could do, but I didn’t know what to say.  Maggie was going to have to make up her own mind about me.  I hoped seven years of friendship would be enough.

Yeah, so there you have it.  There's sighing, there's head shaking, and a whole lot of other stuff my inner editor is chomping at the bit to fix, but this is how I went about writing my first draft.  And by not going back to buff everything to a sparkly shine, I was able to finish writing it faster than I've ever written before.

~Emily White

An Award and How to Write a Novel in a Week

A little over a week ago, I received an email saying I had been the recipient of the Masters Award, an award presented to some of the top Sci-fi/Fantasy writing blogs.  Well, you can imagine how astounded and absolutely humbled I was to receive this award.  I don't know if I've necessarily earned it yet, but I sure hope to try!





How to Write a Novel in a Week:


Now let's get this straight.  I don't necessarily think writing a novel in a week is a good idea for everyone.  However, if you're like me and you've spent years writing the first draft on past novels, there are some tricks I'll mention here that you might want to try for yourself.

Going into NaNoWriMo, I really didn't think I'd be able to write the 50,000 words in a month.  I was pretty sure I was setting myself up for failure.  On all my past attempts, my first drafts took a while.  I spent six years on my first novel, almost a year and a half on my second (ELEMENTAL), and two months on the total rewrite of ELEMENTAL.  I knew I was getting better at picking up the writing pace, but even HANSEL AND GRETEL has been taking me longer than I'd hoped.  So 50,000 words in a month?  Pretty much impossible.

October 30th rolled around and I decided I'd stop procrastinating and work on my outline.  I figured if I had an outline written, I'd know where I wanted to go with the book, and it would be easier to at least pump out 1,000 words a day.  I got through the outline on the first two chapters before I decided to check my email, twitter, my blog, etc.  In other words, I wasn't going to get through the other chapters before NaNo began.  But while perusing the internet, I thought I'd play around with a character outline.  I thought it might be fun to get a better idea of who Lilly Grey was.  This was a very smart move on my part.  It only took about thirty minutes and I had a great head start on my novel.

Knowing exactly who your MC is BEFORE you start writing can eliminate a lot of future headaches.  I know this personally.

November 1st came and my heart was pumping to get started.  The story had been brewing in my head for a few weeks and I was ready to put words down.  It turned out, having the first two chapters outlined already helped.  I knew where my start was and I had enough knowledge of what was happening in future pages to keep me motivated.  But guess what?  Having ONLY the first two chapters outlined helped, too!  Once chapter two was written, there were twists and turns propelling me forward to the third chapter that I never would have thought of before I started writing.

So I wrote and wrote and wrote and by the end of Day 1, I had over 10,000 words written and I still didn't want to stop!  Sadly, my bed was calling to me by then, so I did stop.  And that's tip #3 dear readers!  (tips #1 and #2 being outline first two chapters only and do a character outline before starting).  When I stopped for the day, I stopped in the MIDDLE of an intense scene, not at the end.  This way, I was excited about getting back to it.  I had the whole night to ruminate and plot out the rest of the scene and beyond so that when I started the next morning I could fly through another 7,000 words.  And ruminate I did.  I actually dreamed about my book every night I was so anxious to get back to it.

But seriously, you ask, how can anyone fly through 7,000 words, no matter how excited they are about the book?  Tip #4: keep it simple.  The reason all my previous first drafts took so long to write was because I'd obsess over each and every sentence, making sure it was perfect before I moved on.  But do you want to know what I discovered since I started revising and revising and revising some more?  All those sentences I obsessed over get the same chopping treatment as a sentence that I didn't necessarily consider perfect.

So when I came to a part in MORCAH that I didn't know exactly how to describe, I'd get the gist of it down, knowing I'd come back later to perfect it.  There's a lot of shrugging going on in the first draft right now because I wanted to convey nonchalance, but I didn't want to get stuck trying to come up with the perfect way to describe the nonchalance, risking the chance that I might lose my drive for the day.

And that brings me to tip #5: don't think about the past.  If you think about what you've written already, you'll think about all the things you want to improve, and then the inner editor will rear its ugly head.  During NaNo, you don't have time for the inner editor.  He needs to go to sleep for a while in preparation for the second draft.  And actually, that coincides with tip #4.  Even if you go back and edit, you'll probably end up changing a lot of it because you just haven't gotten to the ending yet.  There's simply very little point in perfecting everything before you know how the whole thing is going to look.

That makes me think of an analogy (I love analogies).  When you're laying down joint compound in preparation for painting, you don't slap on a tiny bit and then smooth it to perfection only to slap on some more right next to it.  If you did, you'd have to rework the area you already perfected and it would take FOREVER.  Instead, you slap it all down and smooth it all together at once.  The same is true for writing.  Get it all done, THEN smooth the whole thing out.

Another thing I have to mention isn't necessarily a tip, but it is something that really helped me pump out MORCAH.   I wrote it as if I was reading it.  I was so absolutely in love with all my characters, that I trusted them and let them have a little control in where the story went.  They didn't let me down.  However, giving total control to your characters is a bad idea.  I knew where I wanted the story to end, so I made sure wherever the characters took me, they still had my ending in mind.  In the end, I think I acquired a story that a lot of people will enjoy because my characters were allowed to live.

And finally, tip #6!  The most important tip I can think of: tell yourself you WILL write so many words a day and that it is EASY.  A lot of times writers have the nasty habit of conditioning their minds into thinking they can't do something or they're busy or whatever other excuse you can think of.  You're really just crippling yourself.  Though I don't fall for all that stuff about how you can think your way out of a disease, I DO believe you can think yourself out of success.  And if you can think your way out of it, you can think your way into it. If your goal is to reach so many words a day and you REALLY think you can do it (barring any real emergencies), you'll get it done.

Any other tips, my dear readers?  Have you found something that's helped you in the past?  And do you think any of you will be able to implement any of the tips I've given today?


Let us hear about it!


~Emily White

DONE!

TALES OF MORCAH is finished!  Well, the first draft anyway.  I can't believe I was able to finish a book in a week.  Phew!  All my other first drafts have taken years to finish.  ELEMENTAL took two.

But I have a problem.  The first draft finished at 47,290 words.  I know with revisions, I'll add about another 20,000 (yes, I write light the first time around), but NaNo is all about the 50,000 words.  How sucky would it be to have a first draft completed and still not win at NaNo?

I'm going to take a week off to fulfill my other writerly obligations, then reread MORCAH and start with revisions.  Wish me all luck!

Oh!  I'll be doing a post on my method tomorrow.  It's something I've never done before, so I hope it might work for some of you who edit while writing like I've always done.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!

Saturday Fun Time! And some NaNo news

First!  The NaNo news!  Day 5 ended last night with 37,173 words!  With an average of 7,000 words a day, I plan to hit 44,000 by tonight!  And I swear, I'm not even close to being the brain dead zombie I was when I rewrote ELEMENTAL (which only saw an average of 5,000 words a day).

I do have my suspicions of how I'm pulling it off this time, and I have plans to tell you readers all about it when the first draft is done.  Right now, though, I have this funny feeling that if I put words to my method, I'll lose it and not work on TALES OF MORCAH for days.  Okay, this isn't just a superstition.  I've actually done this to myself before.  I'm a procrastinator at heart who thrives on excuses.

But!  Today is Saturday Fun Time!  And for all of you new followers (welcome, by the way!), today is the day I post one of my favorite YouTube videos.  Sadly, this template--though I love the scheme--does not let me embed videos.  I don't know why this is.  It just doesn't.  But I promise, I would never give you a link that I didn't think was totally worthwhile.

If you want to laugh until you're sure you've dislocated a rib, click this link.  It is one of my all-time favorite videos, and I've saved it for a special occasion like today.  Enjoy!

Woot!

I know I said I wouldn't be posting for a while, but I'm so ridiculously proud of myself that I just had to share with you guys.  Yesterday, on the first day of NaNoWriMo, I wrote...

...

...

...

10, 341 words!

And I'm not even a half-dead zombie!  Here's hoping I get another 10,000 written today!

It Has Begun!

NaNoWriMo is here!  And do you know what that means?  A life of coffee, jammies, messy rooms, fried brains, and sadly, limited blog posts.  I'll be cutting back quite a bit on my blogging.  I'll still have a few "I'm Alive" themed posts from time to time to let you know how NaNo is going, and GWA will continue, but that's about it.

Wish me luck!  I've already started the festivities by not getting out of my jammies this morning.  Nice, huh?

And good luck to everyone else!  Let's get those novels written!

Answers Continued!

So, last Wednesday it turned out the blog was experiencing some technical difficulties and there were questions I failed to answer.  Well, today is the continuation of the answers portion of Q&A!  My apologies to those whose questions I missed before.  To show just how sorry I am, I provide LOL cat cookies.  Enjoy!

Jai asked: Emily, if you could up close and personal with any of the characters in your book, who would it be?


Hmmm...good question!  Can I just have a party where they all show up?  No?  Well...I'd have to pick Cailen.  Cailen is the super hot love interest in ELEMENTAL.  And yeah, that's all well and good, but I'd really like to spend time with him because he's a Windbringer in every sense of the word.  He's easy going and wise, but he knows how to kick some serious tooshie.  He's got this control over his ability that is practically unparalleled.  Even Ella, who technically ends up being more powerful than him, doesn't have the finesse he does when it comes to controlling the elements.


Melissa Gill wondered: If you could have dinner with any writer, living or dead, who would it be and what would you talk about?


I would LOVE to have a conversation with C.S. Lewis about his faith and just how he was able to incorporate it into all of his writing without alienating anyone.  He's definitely one of my literary heroes.


And finally...


Brad wanted to know: Do you think you'll come out a "winner" in NaNoWriMo?


I will seriously try, but I have my doubts.  My biggest hurtle will be stopping myself from editing and trying to write perfection in the first draft.  I still haven't been able to convince myself that the first draft is going to be craptacular.


So, that's it!  *looks at comments to make sure she hasn't missed any*  Yup, definitely it!  Thanks for all your questions, everyone.  And if you see a question that you'd like to answer, go ahead!  I'd love to see what you guys have to say!

Monday Update

It's been a while, but I have so many things to update all of you lovely readers on!

ELEMENTAL

Okay, I actually don't have anything new here.  At this point, my query is out with agents with very slow response times--like weeks to months slow.  I'm still sending more out and plan on getting another ten out today.

HANSEL AND GRETEL

Moving along very well.  I will admit I hoped to have been done with the first draft by this point, but this plot is so complex that there's no way I could have punched it out in a few weeks.  Right now, I'm adding those scenes in the beginning it started to become apparent I needed but thought I could wait on.  I couldn't wait.  They're pretty important scenes that basically set the tone for future relationships.

TALES OF MORCAH

Big news!  Big, BIG news!  I signed up for NaNoWriMo and this is the novel I'll be working on!  I'm really kinda terrified about this.  I've never done NaNo before and I'm really hoping I can pull it off.  *crosses fingers*  If you're doing NaNo, too, then tell us all about your novel!

HUGE NEWS OF MAJOR EXCITEMENT AND IMPORTANCE!!!!


I'm going to my first writers conference ever!  Yay!  I signed up for the SCBWI Winter Conference in NYC last week.  Unfortunately, I wasn't wealthy enough to sign up for the intensives scheduled for the day before the conference, but I'm still excited.  How about you guys?  Anyone here going to the Winter Conference?  If you are, we definitely need to meet up!  Maybe grab some chow in China Town or something. :D

And if you don't plan on going, what can I say to convince you?  ;)