Tuesday Ramblings - Yes I'm a day late!

Good Morning!
I meant to ramble yesterday, but I was gone all day. I went with my daughter and the kids to the Zoo. They have so many baby animals. And I just have to share..

This is the baby Giraffe and below is the mother and it's baby tiger, it's a little hard to see. But she actually had triplets.

But the best is the baby elephant, Zuri! Isn't she a doll. So tiny yet weighs so much!

Okay enough of my Zoo ramblings. What I really wanted to discuss, I mean ramble about was...

Conference Pitching!

How many of you have gone to a conference to pitch your story? And how many of you have taken a workshop on the Perfect Pitch? What did you learn? That industry standards are approx. 10 minutes. That seems like such a short time to me. But when you're sweating bullets sitting in front of an agent or editor, believe me it's the longest ten minutes of your life.

Okay all that being said. How do you sell an idea or your story in that short of time? Do you think it should be shorter or longer? I mean you could sit down and throw out a hook...

In the early sixties during the time of make love, not war, Kathleen finds love and starts a war with her family.

And then discuss for a minute or two. Or would you rather have time to throw out a full blurb and then discuss? Tell me what you think works best for you!

Done a ramblin' for today!

See you next week.

First of the week ramblings

It's Monday. It's fall the air is crisp--which is why I have a jacket on--and my brain is lazy. It's time to get motivated, I need to do my 2000 words every day. But for some reason I cannot force myself to get motivated. What do you do when this happens?

I usually crank the music and meditate. I try to visualize my characters and what they're going to do today. I've done all, it's not working today.

Well that's my morning ramble about motivation. Now I'll tell you a bit about the book I finished reading this week.
Mr. Cavendish, I Presume
Julia Quinn
Avon Books
This is 2nd book about the Duke of Wyndham. The first one The Lost Duke Of Wyndham was wonderful I loved it. You can check out my review: http://marysbooksblogger.blogspot.com/2009/03/julia-quinn-book-review-lost-duke-of.html This was from two other characters points of view. Both in Mr. Cavendish, I Presume.

I'll give you a quick review of my thoughts without giving away anything. This is Thomas Cavendish and Lady Amelia Willoughby's side of the story. I love Julia Quinn, she always tells a wonderful story. I am conflicted on this book. On the one hand her characters come to life and as always I'm ready to give her a 5. However, on the other hand I felt like I was reading the same story, which I was, just from two other character's point of view. Though I like to read some stories twice, it's usually because I choose to do so, not find another book and the story is the same. Because I loved the characters so much, I'd still give her a 3 on the story.

I would still recommend you read it!

So all and all on an average I give this book a 4

Good Monday to everyone!

Welcome to some more of my ramblings. For lack of a better term that is. It's cool and rainy and I'm loving it. Fall my favorite time of year. However, that's not what I'm about to ramble on about.

First before the official ramble, I'll tell you a bit about the movie Julie & Julia. Remember last week I told you all I'd report back how I liked it.

Basically it's a true story. Julie who has ADD and apparently can never finish any projects. She's a writer (aren't we all?) and of course hasn't finished her novel. She becomes obsessed with Julia Child and her recipes and mostly Julia's story. Their lives had several parallels. Anyway, Julie's husband encourages her to start a blog, and she does.

She sets out to try all the recipes in Julia's cook book in 365 days and blog about it. And I actually found her blog, it's called The Julie/Julia Project. It's pretty fun to read, check it out.

The movie is entertaining, though some of the time I must admit to being impatient to move along.

Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci were the stars though, and for that reason alone I'd recommend it. However, Julie Powell who wrote the blog, being an author; I'm torn between liking her story and hating her guts. I mean how many of us have dreamt of someone reading our blog or excerpt and the phone starts ringing off the hook with offers to publish our books and make movies of them? And it happened to Julie Powell. I give this a 4

I guess that was quite a ramble in itself!

I won't ramble on about what my original subject was, but I'm going to ask you the question I was going to end with anyway.

Do you think it important to volunteer in your writing organization? (RWA, Mystery Writers, etc.)
And if you do, why?
Till next time!

Good Morning Labor Day Weekenders!

It's the end of the holiday weekend. Did you do something fun? Leave a comment to let me know. We went to Wendover, Nevada. For those who are not familiar with this town, it's a mini-Las Vegas west of Salt Lake City (about 2 hours). I for once, broke even. Usually I might as well hand my money to the door man. (There really isn't one.)

Then we went to a BBQ at a friends, ate too much and relaxed. Today the girls are going to see Julie & Julia. I'll let you know how it is.

As you have noticed I'm changing how I do my blog. Instead of straight reviews of things, I'm mixing it up and trying to have fun. Not to mention blog on a more regular basis. So to make it fun I'm going to be doing monthly polls. (Look to the right) This month is on what Genre's you like to read. Who knows what next month's will be.

I'm going to post recipes for the holidays, ideas for Halloween and do some holiday blog contests. Come back to check it out. Or you can become a follower (again look to the right). Though follower sounds so submissive, maybe the blog gods should have used the word voyeur instead. Isn't that someone who watches?

On to a review of a book I just finished. It's one (autographed) I received at Nationals.
Black Hills
Nora Roberts
Putnam
Cooper Sullivan is a New York City boy, through and through until he is forced to spend the summer at his Grandparents' South Dakota Ranch. Though it's rough going at first he does come to love it. But there are still things he needs to prove to himself and his father back in the big City.

Lil Chance loves her family's land and has plans to build a wildlife refuge, after of course she becomes a wildlife biologist. She's wanted to do this for as long as she remembers.

When the two are young they fall in love, but that love doesn't keep them together because the forces of who they are keep them apart along their paths. Years later when Cooper's grandfather has an accident, he comes back to the ranch to help. And to stay.

Now he needs to convince Lil he'll never leave again. Very hard to do when in the midst of all this there's a serial killer running loose with Lil as the target.

I found this a very interesting book. It kept my interest most of the time. When it comes to Nora I know when I hit the final pages I'm going to pull an all nighter to finish. Because I've been so busy I let the very last of the book wait, so I could anticipate and also pull my all nighter when I wouldn't have too much in to do the morning.

I started to read the last, and I put it down during a very critical black moment. I was tired. (Very bad thing for the author, that's the last place you want a reader to put it down) I finished it the next night in about twenty minutes. I was very disappointed that it didn't live up to my normal experience. However, I would still recommend the book.
All in all I give this 3 and a side car