If you’re wondering if the Disco Mermaids watched the Oscars Sunday night, the answer is “Yes!” Even though the three of us watched it separately—Eve watched it in the comforts of her home, Jay watched it lounging on the sofa at his parents’ home while eating Chubby Hubby ice cream, and I watched it while teetering on the edge of my bed, folding socks and underwear, and reminding my son and husband not to involve me in their wrestling match/epic pillow fight because, for crying out loud, Daniel Day-Lewis is speaking!!!
Yep, I’ve had a thing for Daniel Day-Lewis ever since My Left Foot. So watching him win Best Actor (again) was amazing. (Watching George Clooney wasn’t awful either.)
For me, I came away with a couple of thoughts from watching the Oscars…
• Yes, Katherine Heigl looked like a goddess.
• No, Jessica Alba didn’t look fat and pregnant and bloated and uncomfortable. (It just would’ve made me feel better, okay!!??)
• Yes, Jon Stewart’s “Gaydolf Titler” joke was freakin’ hilarious!
But really, my favorite moment was when the adorable couple from the movie Once won Best Song. If you want to hear the song, click here. (Maybe even put on headphones and crank it loud…it’s truly beautiful.) And here’s an interview for a little backstory.
I love when creative people put their heart and soul into a project and then get recognized for it. It inspires me to take my writing to that heart-and-soul level and search for that perfect phrase or perfect description to make the character and the story so much more alive. So I want to thank the Academy for inspiring me to be a better writer and for nominating George Clooney…because he’s hot.
What about you guys? Any Oscar thoughts?
- Robin
Monday, February 25, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Moo! -- Jay
Stuck at home, recuperating after last week’s surgery, I decided to go through my desk and throw away things I’d been saving for way too long. But in the end, nothing got thrown away. Why? Cuz it’s all too valuable!
For example, look at this:
This is a laminated bookmark for a humorous middle grade novel I wrote about eight years ago. I made dozens of these for my trip to the first annual Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators conference in NYC. I hadn’t even finished writing the book, but I was passing these out like candy. Now, why would I do that if the book wasn’t finished yet?
I have no idea. So let’s move on...
Later that year, when I did finish the book, it won SCBWI’s Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award, which got me a free flight back to New York to meet with a bunch of cool editors. One of those editors even wanted to buy the manuscript, but his bosses at Simon & Schuster didn’t share in his excitement. I revised The ChocoBarn Cow for a year or so, changed the title to My Udder Life, but it still never sold…even though it’s really funny!
Here’s the deal. I only have two of these bookmarks left, but I’m willing to give one to you. Whatcha gotta do to get it? Just leave a comment on this post by midnight on Tuesday, telling me what you think the story’s about. If you’re the first person to guess correctly, it’s yours! If no one guesses correctly, the most creative answer wins.
Oh, and thanks for helping me clean out my desk.
- Jay
P.S. I'll even autograph it if you want me to!
For example, look at this:
This is a laminated bookmark for a humorous middle grade novel I wrote about eight years ago. I made dozens of these for my trip to the first annual Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators conference in NYC. I hadn’t even finished writing the book, but I was passing these out like candy. Now, why would I do that if the book wasn’t finished yet?
I have no idea. So let’s move on...
Later that year, when I did finish the book, it won SCBWI’s Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award, which got me a free flight back to New York to meet with a bunch of cool editors. One of those editors even wanted to buy the manuscript, but his bosses at Simon & Schuster didn’t share in his excitement. I revised The ChocoBarn Cow for a year or so, changed the title to My Udder Life, but it still never sold…even though it’s really funny!
Here’s the deal. I only have two of these bookmarks left, but I’m willing to give one to you. Whatcha gotta do to get it? Just leave a comment on this post by midnight on Tuesday, telling me what you think the story’s about. If you’re the first person to guess correctly, it’s yours! If no one guesses correctly, the most creative answer wins.
Oh, and thanks for helping me clean out my desk.
- Jay
P.S. I'll even autograph it if you want me to!
Friday, February 22, 2008
What It’s Worth—Robin
Remember that joke that goes: You know you’re a redneck when… (You can finish the punch line in your head. Or, of course…in the comments section.)
This week, I created my own version of that joke, only it wasn’t very funny, so don’t get your hopes up. Here goes…
You know you’re a freakishly obsessed children’s book writer when…your cell phone, your iPod, and your laptop are stolen from your car and you sob like a baby, not because you’ve just lost almost $2,000 worth of stuff, but because you knew that the only version of your middle grade novel was on that laptop. And now it’s gone. Like I said, not a very funny joke, huh?
Knowing that I’d just lost my novel, I started wailing and heaving and hyperventilating…so I figured it was a good time to call my husband. It took him a while to calm me down and figure out what had happened. Once he realized no one was hurt and the house hadn’t burned down, he almost thought it was cute—that I would be THAT upset about losing my work. But I didn’t find it very cute. I was devastated.
I sniffled through the rest of my day at work, and nodded my head when well-meaning people would say things like, “Well, maybe it will be better the second time you write it.” Thankfully, Jay and Eve said things like, “Dude, that totally sucks.” (They get me.)
Now, just in case my agent is reading this and starting to hyperventilate as well, I must say that this story has a happy ending. First, our insurance is going to cover most of the cost of replacing the items. And second, I found a flash card in a drawer and prayed that I had been responsible and saved my work the last time I worked on it. And my prayers were answered! I had saved the entire thing! Woohoo!
So I think I learned a few things this week…
1. Always save your work to a flash card.
2. You should probably save your work to another hard drive as well.
3. Go ahead and save your work to a disk, too, just to be safe.
4. Why don’t you just hold your laptop wherever you go and never let it out of your sight.
5. And learn to tell a funny joke, would ya!?
--Robin
This week, I created my own version of that joke, only it wasn’t very funny, so don’t get your hopes up. Here goes…
You know you’re a freakishly obsessed children’s book writer when…your cell phone, your iPod, and your laptop are stolen from your car and you sob like a baby, not because you’ve just lost almost $2,000 worth of stuff, but because you knew that the only version of your middle grade novel was on that laptop. And now it’s gone. Like I said, not a very funny joke, huh?
Knowing that I’d just lost my novel, I started wailing and heaving and hyperventilating…so I figured it was a good time to call my husband. It took him a while to calm me down and figure out what had happened. Once he realized no one was hurt and the house hadn’t burned down, he almost thought it was cute—that I would be THAT upset about losing my work. But I didn’t find it very cute. I was devastated.
I sniffled through the rest of my day at work, and nodded my head when well-meaning people would say things like, “Well, maybe it will be better the second time you write it.” Thankfully, Jay and Eve said things like, “Dude, that totally sucks.” (They get me.)
Now, just in case my agent is reading this and starting to hyperventilate as well, I must say that this story has a happy ending. First, our insurance is going to cover most of the cost of replacing the items. And second, I found a flash card in a drawer and prayed that I had been responsible and saved my work the last time I worked on it. And my prayers were answered! I had saved the entire thing! Woohoo!
So I think I learned a few things this week…
1. Always save your work to a flash card.
2. You should probably save your work to another hard drive as well.
3. Go ahead and save your work to a disk, too, just to be safe.
4. Why don’t you just hold your laptop wherever you go and never let it out of your sight.
5. And learn to tell a funny joke, would ya!?
--Robin
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Count Backwards from 10 -- Jay
On Monday, my wife gave blood. She does stuff like this because she likes to do good things for other people (and because it was Give-a-Pint-Get-a-Pint-of-Ice-Cream Day). I don’t do stuff like this simply because I hate needles. I hate ’em! I hate anything that…I don’t know…tears through my flesh. But on Wednesday morning I’m going in for my first-ever surgery. It’s relatively minor. I’m just getting sliced and diced to fix a hernia. No biggie. I’m fine. No really, I’m fine!
So I filled pre-op Tuesday with some cool activities to keep my mind distracted (which is a very easy thing to do).
First, I spoke to two Creative Writing classes at my old high school. In each class, I did something I’d never done at a school visit before, but I think I’ll make it a regular part of future presentations. Instead of reading the intro to Thirteen Reasons Why, I started a little further into the book…which required a second reader. So one student from each class read Hannah’s lines while I read Clay’s. The reason I never did that before is because people naturally interpret words differently, and I was afraid of hearing my words interpreted in a different way than I intended. But that’s what made it so fun! So thank you, Nicole and Kacia. Those readings were the highlights of my visit (even if Robin thought I sounded like Napoleon Dynamite while reading one of my lines -- What? No!).
Then my wife and I went back into the recording studio. First, we recorded some promotional stuff for Penguin (including, this time, having my wife read Hannah’s part). Then I recorded the final guitar parts for two of her songs. There’s this one little 11-note riff in What About Me which has always given me problems and took me about fifty takes to get it right. But it’s the funkiest and most difficult riff in all of her songs…and now it’s done. Woo-hoo!
Now I’m writing this blog post after midnight because I can’t relax enough to go to sleep. Robin, to her credit, offered to write today’s post because my day was so full. But I told her not to worry…because I knew I’d need this final distraction at the end of the day. And I was right.
Well, I love you all. I’ve loved writing these little blog posts for ya over these past two years. And I’m sure I’ll write some more. After all, it’s just a hernia. It’s a very common procedure. My wife’s boss is actually performing the surgery, and he’s a really nice guy. Steady hands. Very calm. And he knows that if he messes up…even a little bit…I’m gonna blog about it!
- Jay
So I filled pre-op Tuesday with some cool activities to keep my mind distracted (which is a very easy thing to do).
First, I spoke to two Creative Writing classes at my old high school. In each class, I did something I’d never done at a school visit before, but I think I’ll make it a regular part of future presentations. Instead of reading the intro to Thirteen Reasons Why, I started a little further into the book…which required a second reader. So one student from each class read Hannah’s lines while I read Clay’s. The reason I never did that before is because people naturally interpret words differently, and I was afraid of hearing my words interpreted in a different way than I intended. But that’s what made it so fun! So thank you, Nicole and Kacia. Those readings were the highlights of my visit (even if Robin thought I sounded like Napoleon Dynamite while reading one of my lines -- What? No!).
Then my wife and I went back into the recording studio. First, we recorded some promotional stuff for Penguin (including, this time, having my wife read Hannah’s part). Then I recorded the final guitar parts for two of her songs. There’s this one little 11-note riff in What About Me which has always given me problems and took me about fifty takes to get it right. But it’s the funkiest and most difficult riff in all of her songs…and now it’s done. Woo-hoo!
Now I’m writing this blog post after midnight because I can’t relax enough to go to sleep. Robin, to her credit, offered to write today’s post because my day was so full. But I told her not to worry…because I knew I’d need this final distraction at the end of the day. And I was right.
Well, I love you all. I’ve loved writing these little blog posts for ya over these past two years. And I’m sure I’ll write some more. After all, it’s just a hernia. It’s a very common procedure. My wife’s boss is actually performing the surgery, and he’s a really nice guy. Steady hands. Very calm. And he knows that if he messes up…even a little bit…I’m gonna blog about it!
- Jay
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Pain and Suffering -- Eve
Okay, I’ll admit it. I totally watched an entire episode of Moment of Truth. So. Completely. Embarrassed. The mortification factor of this show is so off the charts, I’m puzzled by how it got picked up for prime time in the first place. More puzzling is how I was able to watch an entire episode and keep my dinner down. If you aren’t familiar with this monstrosity of a reality show, let me briefly sum up. Seemingly normal people sit in what looks like a normal chair on a stage, while their loved ones sit on the side and watch as a cheesy host dude fires yes or no questions at them. Wait, that’s not all. After the contestant answers yes or no to a question, a bizarre robot-lady voice announces to the crowd if their answer is true or false. So, I guess that chair they sit in is some sort of lie detector seat that can read…well, I’m not sure what the heck it reads. Easy, right?
Wrong!
The questions are sick and twisted and become more personal and uncomfortable as they go on. One waiter guy was asked if he ever overcharged patrons to receive a better tip. Yes, he had. An underwear model was asked if he had ever “stuffed his shorts for a photo shoot.” He said “No.” The robot-lady lie detector seat said otherwise. But it’s when the overly spray-tanned, oddly orange-hued host asked things like, “Do you secretly hate your mother-in-law?” while said mother-in-law sat six feet away with mouth opened wide, that I started to get seriously creeped out.
The same guy was asked, “Do you make racist jokes about your wife and her family behind their backs?” Answer: Yes. Ouch! Another guy was asked something like, “Are you hesitating to have children with your wife because you don’t love her anymore?” What?? This is a TV show? For entertainment purposes? When that last dude turned red, puffed out his cheeks, then looked toward the heavens for salvation, I knew that life as he knew it was over (so did his very angry looking wife!) and I was going to hurl.
I’ve been obsessing over what the merits of this show could possibly be, when last night it hit me. People love to watch other people suffer. What does every good story have going for it? Conflict. What do we do to our beloved characters? Chase them up trees and toss rocks at them. What does every main character in a novel or movie have to overcome? A problem. What do we writers do to a story to make it better? Ratchet up the pain factor. Up the stakes. Create a situation where all hope is lost.
But what is it about other peoples’ pain that is so appealing to us? Do we feel for them because we’ve been there, and we like the whole misery-loves-company thing? Or are we inspired by them conquering problems and winning the battle? Or is the answer more disturbing than that? Maybe humans are sick and twisted and just really get a kick out of watching people fall apart. Why else would images of poor Britney Spears be tossed at us hourly? Somebody must be entertained by this stuff. But why?
I’m not suggesting that everybody on the planet enjoys watching people suffer. I’m just raising the question for discussion. Wondering what all you readers out there think. Could a story be entertaining if nothing bad happened to the main character? Or does it just make for a really boring story?
- Eve
Wrong!
The questions are sick and twisted and become more personal and uncomfortable as they go on. One waiter guy was asked if he ever overcharged patrons to receive a better tip. Yes, he had. An underwear model was asked if he had ever “stuffed his shorts for a photo shoot.” He said “No.” The robot-lady lie detector seat said otherwise. But it’s when the overly spray-tanned, oddly orange-hued host asked things like, “Do you secretly hate your mother-in-law?” while said mother-in-law sat six feet away with mouth opened wide, that I started to get seriously creeped out.
The same guy was asked, “Do you make racist jokes about your wife and her family behind their backs?” Answer: Yes. Ouch! Another guy was asked something like, “Are you hesitating to have children with your wife because you don’t love her anymore?” What?? This is a TV show? For entertainment purposes? When that last dude turned red, puffed out his cheeks, then looked toward the heavens for salvation, I knew that life as he knew it was over (so did his very angry looking wife!) and I was going to hurl.
I’ve been obsessing over what the merits of this show could possibly be, when last night it hit me. People love to watch other people suffer. What does every good story have going for it? Conflict. What do we do to our beloved characters? Chase them up trees and toss rocks at them. What does every main character in a novel or movie have to overcome? A problem. What do we writers do to a story to make it better? Ratchet up the pain factor. Up the stakes. Create a situation where all hope is lost.
But what is it about other peoples’ pain that is so appealing to us? Do we feel for them because we’ve been there, and we like the whole misery-loves-company thing? Or are we inspired by them conquering problems and winning the battle? Or is the answer more disturbing than that? Maybe humans are sick and twisted and just really get a kick out of watching people fall apart. Why else would images of poor Britney Spears be tossed at us hourly? Somebody must be entertained by this stuff. But why?
I’m not suggesting that everybody on the planet enjoys watching people suffer. I’m just raising the question for discussion. Wondering what all you readers out there think. Could a story be entertaining if nothing bad happened to the main character? Or does it just make for a really boring story?
- Eve
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Finding Discoland #7
“Seek and ye shall find…something TOTALLY different than what you were looking for.”
Such is the case for those who typed the following words into search engines and discovered us. The Disco Mermaids!
- teen curse words -
($#%@ is still the biggie, but ^&#*@&^* hasn't been used since 1987)
- funny rhymes asking to homecoming -
(wanna go to the dance? i'll wear my cleanest underpants!)
- sneezed on the SAT scantron -
(yet somehow, still got accepted to Yale)
- they're not dumb they're just different -
(um...thanks?)
Such is the case for those who typed the following words into search engines and discovered us. The Disco Mermaids!
- teen curse words -
($#%@ is still the biggie, but ^&#*@&^* hasn't been used since 1987)
- funny rhymes asking to homecoming -
(wanna go to the dance? i'll wear my cleanest underpants!)
- sneezed on the SAT scantron -
(yet somehow, still got accepted to Yale)
- they're not dumb they're just different -
(um...thanks?)
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