HAPPY ST PADDY’S DAY!!!!
This is my favorite day of the year. Kiss me, I’m Irish! Erin go bragh!
Celebrate St. Paddy’s Day, As always, at O’Connell’s Irish Pub & Grille www.oconnellsnorman.com/oindex.html -both the Campus Corner location and Lindsey St- in Norman Ok, is having it’s annual green beer and more party;
McNellie’s Abner Ale House at 121 E. Main St. is having a St. Paddy’s Day block party www.mcnelliesnorman.com
There is at least one other bar in Norman, Ok serving green beer but I haven’t found it yet.
Top of the mornin’ to ya, and the best of the rest of the day!
Lots to do in Norman, Ok this weekend
Lots of stuff to do this weekend:
Norman Public Library celebrates The Kick-Off for the Big Read:The Maltese Falcon.
Thursday, March 11th :6:30 pm The Great Decisions series discussion on Global Crime, with OU Law Professor Peter Krug. Room A/B; 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm Junior League of Norman meeting in Lowry room;
7:00 pm Thursday Night Page Turners discusses the Maltese Falcon
March’s art walk Friday March 12, from 6-10pm http://2ndfridaynorman.com
Saturday, March 13, at 2 p.m Panel Discussion, The Maltese Falcon: The Plot Thickens, at the University of Oklahoma Law School
Sunday March 14 Science Film Series Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History http://www.snomnh.ou.edu/publicprograms/index.htm#SundayScienceFilms
Keep up with all the activities in Norman, Ok: http://www.ci.norman.ok.us/community-event-calendar
Sooner Con 2010
As SoonerCon 2010 http://soonercon.com Club Liaison I’m cooking up some exciting ideas for the SF/F Clubs attending this year’s CON. June 4-6, 2010.
There will be prizes for the club with the most members registered for SOONERCON 2010! Prizes for the club that signs up the most new members during SOONERCON 2010! Prizes for the club that has the most members show up in their club uniforms.
There will also be a Club Rally Room Party Sat night.
And many other club events throughout the CON.
If you’re club will be attending please contact me:
ladyvck@vickeymalonekennedy.com
not an empty nest in sight
My baby boy just turned nineteen. It’s sad. Time disappeared so quickly. One day he was a cuddly little blond baby boy and the next day he’s a six-foot-four college sophomore still sleeping on my sofa.
He had a dorm room the first semester of his freshman year but wouldn’t stay there. I couldn’t understand why he wanted a dorm room considering we live on the same street as the college he attends. But it’s all part of the college experience. A part he didn’t really experience. So I refused to pay for a dorm room this year.
Don’t ask me why he isn’t sleeping in his own room. Maybe it’s because his TV is still in the garage. Maybe it’s because he can’t get into his room because of all the stuff piled inside his door. I’m not cleaning it.
Personally I don’t mind if he stays at home forever, but he does have a perfectly good room and a perfectly good bed so I’d like to at least move him back into it and get him off my couch.
I have five adults, three dogs, one ferret and one baby living in my house. Most of the time it’s okay. There’s not enough room to walk through the living room, much less sleep in there.
I’m thinking of redecorating. Maybe some really uncomfortable straight back chairs and fragile little love seats. Something pink, lacy and ruffled that a really big guy wouldn’t be caught sleeping on.
It could work.
Working while you wait
Miss D had surgery on her shoulder this morning. Everything went well. She looked like hell (sorry kido, but you looked like death warmed over) when she came out from under the knife. She went home to bed and was doing fine when I talked to Bird this evening.
I went home, fed the baby and crashed myself.
I never really know where story ideas come from. Some just pop into my head fully developed. Others come in brief flashes or a few sentences and demand I flesh them out from there.
While sitting in the waiting room one of those, nearly, fully developed stories hit me out of nowhere. I’m not entirely certain where it is going –to Earth I think- but I do love the beginning.
I got 10 pages hand-written. For some unknown reason I didn’t take Dora with me. I’m about to type those pages and maybe finish the first draft before I crash again.
Oh yeah, saw an ad for the following contest while I was there:
Good Housekeeping’s Short Story Contest
Deadline: All entries must be received by September 15, 2009.
To blog, or not to blog, that is the publishing question
I’ve been reading Midnight Sun on Stephenie Meyer’s website http://stepheniemeyer.com
It’s Twilight from Edward’s point of view.
Apparently someone leaked the first 264 pages of the book on the internet before Meyer finished the novel.
Because of that leak, rumor has it that she has put the rest of the book on hold for now and is working on other projects.
I’m wondering how they could turn Midnight Sun into a movie considering that it is basically the same story as Twilight just from a different perspective. Could that be part of Meyer’s motivation to drop the project? Are the producers of the Twilight movies encouraging her not to waste her time on a remake?
I’m also wondering if Meyer has considered continuing the book Midnight Sun as a blog, since part of it is already on the web. She could charge a subscription fee for readers to follow the blog –that way she won’t be losing money by posting it- and still sell the print version when it is completed. She probably wouldn’t even need to post new pages every day to keep the readers hooked.
I have a feeling that is the future of publishing: Authors posting novels as they write them on pay-to-read sites. It not only gets the material into the hands of the reader quicker it also increases the number of potential readers exponentially.
Publishing companies could reap the benefits too by providing the subscription sites and editors to clean up the author’s work before the stories are actually posted. Publishing companies could provide security services and encryption methods that would prevent the readers from simply copying the story and re-posting it for free.
Posting books to subscription sites, as the author writes them, could also be a good way for new authors to get their foot into the door of the publishing world. New authors could post the first few chapters for free and build up their fan base. Readers only need to subscribe to books and authors they like.
It’s a win-win situation. We’ve all spent our hard earned, shrinking dollars on books we never finished because they had shiny covers but the insides weren’t quite as lustrous. It’s green. And most importantly it’s instantaneous.
Let’s face it we already live in an IMing, blogging, texting, tweeting, real time world. Why shouldn’t we be reading the next best-seller that way?
Must be more productive!
Must stop procrastinating.
Must update blog daily.
Should change the heading of ‘To Do List’ to ‘Must Do List’.
What I am doing today: Meeting Miss D for lunch and a movie. May go to see ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’. Then we will probably go to Hastings for coffee and writing. I’ve got a long list of projects to work on. Join us.
This evening I hope to attend the Southmoore students talent showcase at 7pm at Shekinah Church located on 104th and Walker. It’s free! However, each performer will have a donation box for any loose change. This donation will help them to attend the Smithsonian Educational Tour to New York next summer!
There are a few contests coming up that y’all might be interested in entering.
Glimmer Train
SHORT STORY AWARD for NEW WRITERS
Deadline: August 31, 2009
- Open only to writers whose fiction has not appeared in any print publication with a circulation over 5,000. (Entries, of course, must be unpublished.)
- Stories not to exceed 12,000 words.
DEADLINE Sept 30, 2009
Norman Galaxy of Writers’ annual contest
www.nonprofitpages.com/normangalaxy
DEADLINE
November 7, 2009
Must be a member of Norman Galaxy of Writers but it is really cheap and easy to join.
Better late than never
I’m back.
I went through a dry spell where writing and life in general were less than rewarding experiences. Thankfully I’ve found an oasis in the desert that has been my life for a year or twenty.
First I got kissed by Michael Dorn aka Worf at Dragoncon 2008. First step in awakening the dead.
Then I had a new baby. Well, my daughter had the baby. My first grandbaby. A little girl. Born Feb 3, 2009 at five o’clock in the morning. Talk about a breathing life back into a pile of dust.
I won money prizes at OWFI this year. 2nd Place Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Short Story for “Inheritance”, 3rd Place Mazie Cox Reid Column Award for ” A Shot in the Dark: Tales of a Night Nurse”, and 4th Honorable Mention Adult Short Story for “Borders”.
My best friend Lisa A Willis gave me a beautiful Mentor of the Year Award.
2009 is looking bright and fulfilling already. I’m satisfied. Okay, I’m a little happy. I admit it. But don’t expect me to blog about it.
Oh yeah, I’m on Twitter and Facebook now.
Miss Klingon Empire Beauty Pageant 2008
I didn’t take home the crown, but I did win the prize.
vck
P.S. A special thanks to my dear friend Keith R. A. DeCandido for holding my hand backstage during the contest. He helped keep me on my feet and out of trouble. Big hugs and kisses to Keith.
The times they are a changing
| My son will graduate from high school this Friday. He doesn’t turn eighteen until Sept. But I figure once he’s a high school grad he’s pretty much grown. He’s always telling me I need to cut the umbilical cord.
Anyway, there is a part of me that is really excited about him growing up because once he is an adult I don’t have to be one anymore. I won’t be legally responsible for anyone but myself. It won’t be considered child abandonment if I just take off and stay gone for weeks at a time. I doubt I’ll have any more money but I won’t feel as guilty about spending my money on me, me, me, instead of the kids. I’m not too worried about the empty nest syndrome. My daughter lives less than a mile away and comes home nearly every day for something. Usually money. He is planning to go to college at (not OSU his dear ole mum’s Alma Marta) but that other Oklahoma university right down the street from my house. So he’ll be living at home at least his freshman year. They got rules. Still, I’ve been a mother -stop laughing Bill- most of my life. So it will be an adjustment. Of course I will still be their mother but there is a difference in being the mother of minors and adults. I’m accustomed to telling them what to do. Not that I actually expect them to do what I tell them. I will probably always put in my two cents worth. But how do I transition from the ‘because I’m your mother and I said so’, parent to the ‘may I offer my opinion’, parent? The Klingon in me says, “Just beat your opinion into them!” But the Klingon in me isn’t always reasonable. (Of course I would never tell her that) |
