Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Seven Scintillating But Mostly Useless Facts


Fellow bloggers Ishta Mercurio (awesome name, don’t you think? Ishta, you should name one of your characters after yourself:) ) and Carol Riggs gave me these delightful awards a few weeks ago. Thank you so much, ladies!


To claim Carol’s, I have to tell you seven things about myself, so here are seven scintillating but mostly useless facts I hope I haven’t mentioned before:

1. Bob is thiiis close to being finished--like, I-have-the-first-few-chapters-and-almost-the-whole-manuscript-completely-totally done. More about that in the next couple of weeks.

2. I already have a Shiny New Idea that I could start outlining, like, yesterday. Actually, for the first time in my life, I have a few Shiny New Ideas, but I’m pretty set on this one. I think.

3. As scintillating but mostly useless fact number two implies, I’m not very good at coming up with Shiny New Ideas. Some writers have more ideas than they could write in two or three lifetimes. I’m lucky to come up with one roughly every time I need it.

4. My blood type is O-positive (’cause I’m sure y’all were dying to know that).

5. I can say “y’all” because I lived in Texas for, like, a year when I was twelve. (Have I mentioned that before?) The rest of my childhood I spent in Utah. (Pretty sure I’ve mentioned that before. Oops.)

6. My sister is half Guatemalan, but it didn’t occur to me she wasn’t white until I was, like, sixteen.

7. I don’t usually say “like” as often as I’ve said it in this post.

I’d like to pass these awards on to the following six bloggers, all of whom have served as betas for Bob in one way or another:

A.L. Sonnichsen of The Green Bathtub
Bittersweet Fountain of A Bittersweet Fountain
Jenilyn Tolley of Jenilyn M. Tolley
Jess of Must Love Books
Liesl of Writer Ropes and Hopes
Myrna Foster of Night Writer

Amy, Mandy, Jeni, Jess, Liesl, and Myrna, feel free to claim one or both of these. I’m feeling generous today:)

Thanks for reading, everyone!

22 comments:

Esther Vanderlaan said...

How cool! Congrats on your award, and to the others who received an award! Go Bob! Great work!

You know what's funny, my mom's parents lived in Texas. She says "Y'all" a lot, too. :)

Ben Spendlove said...

Don't you love Shiny New Ideas? I love Shiny New Ideas. I reckon the pronoun "y'all" ought to be adopted by all English speakers. (I can say reckon because I lived in Australia.)

Jess Tudor said...

Thank you!!


I have that problem, too - I'm never overflowing with ideas. I have an on-going file for ideas that come to me while I'm working on something else, but it isn't that long. I wonder how we can cultivate that or if it's just us. I tend to get a lot of crazy ideas in dreams.

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Esther, I'm beginning to believe the list of places your mother HASN'T lived would be a lot shorter:)

Ben, didn't know they said "reckon" a lot in Australia. Now if I ever write an Australian character, he or she will have that extra bit of authenticity.

You're welcome, Jess! I have a similar file, but most of the ideas in it are utter slop.

Myrna Foster said...

Okay, the one about your sister made me laugh because I had a neighbor (three years younger) who people always thought was my little brother. Yeah, he was half Mexican, and I was blonde with blue eyes. We'd just smile at each other and shake our heads.

Congrats on the awards, and thanks for sharing!

Myrna Foster said...

And I remember when Bob was a shiny new idea about a year ago.

Esther Vanderlaan said...

You know what? I know what you mean :)

Mandy P.S. said...

Thank you, Krista! :)

Jenilyn Collings said...

Thanks Krista! That made my day!

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Myrna, great story about your neighbor. That reminds me of another (related) memory. My half-Guatemalan sister was always pretty obviously adopted (take that, adverb police!), but people couldn't always tell with me. When I was nine or ten, one of my friends was certain I was lying when I told her I wasn't my parents' natural child. She insisted on speaking to my mom about it, and my mom, of course, backed me up. My friend felt a little sheepish that day.

And I remember when Bob was a Shiny New Idea, too. Has it really been a whole year? Hasn't it been way longer? (Sometimes I can't decide which I think it is... :) )

Glad I'm not the only one, Esther:)

Bittersweet/Mandy and Jeni, you guys are so welcome!

Carol Riggs said...

Nice things to learn about you, K! Ah, love the Shiny New Ideas! I have one of those myself that I'm keeping on the back burner 'til I can get to it...

LD Johnson said...

I'm one of those that has lots of shiny new ideas - overflowing, but have trouble settling on just one.

I'm a true dyed in the wool Southerner - ya'll, reckon (yes, we say it too) and fixin' are the staples of our language.

Abby Minard said...

Congrats on the award! Having a shiny new idea is always exciting and I have to reign myself in so I can actually finish my current WIP.

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

Krista congratulations on the awards and your writing success...it sounds like Bob is almost complete. :) WTG!

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Carol, I hope you can get to your new idea soon. They are rather shiny, aren't they?

Okay, LD, that's something I've always wondered - is it y'all or ya'll, and who decided? Or is there an official spelling? Or does it vary by region...?

Ah, Abby, I'm the exact opposite. I try to hang on to an idea for as long as I can so as to put off the torture of coming up with a new one:)

Sharon, thank you! And he is almost finished! Like, I could probably count the days left on two (jazz) hands! That deserves another exclamation point! :)

A.L. Sonnichsen said...

Thanks, Krista! You are so sweet!!

I am so happy for you about Bob. I hope the query-go-round is an awesome ride for you. :)

Amy

Lindsey Edwards said...

Congrats on the blog awards. Looks like a really cool blog you have here. Must put this on my list of blogs to stop by! :)

www.thewritewords-lindsey.blogspot.com

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Amy, you're welcome! And I hope so, too. (Although, no matter what happens, I think it's hard to be anything but dizzy while riding the query-go-round:) )

Lindsey, thank you. And thanks for dropping in. Feel free to visit anytime.

LD Johnson said...

Sorry I'm late answering your question . . .

I've always spelled it ya'll. I don't use it in my writing, though. It's one of those words, like reckon and fixin', that I can't stand, but find it flowing out of my mouth anyway.

After doing a little research, it seems that Southerners use ya'll and everyone else uses y'all. Wikipedia says it's y'all.

I flipped through a couple of great Southern writers, Faulkner and McCullers and found both uses. So who knows? All ya'll keep writin', ya hear.

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Thanks, LD, for this detailed answer. I do pride myself on knowing that, no matter how y'all is spelled, "all y'all" is the plural:)

Ishta Mercurio said...

Aw, Krista, thanks for the compliment on my name! :-) I've honestly never been tempted to name a character after myself - but I do have a cat named after me. And you deserve the blog awards.

I love Shiny New Ideas. But then if I don't write them down, I forget them. I'm fickle that way.

Krista Van Dolzer said...

Ishta, where did Ishta come from? Is it a cool place I've never heard of? A lesser-known Greek goddess?