New Blog is Up!

Yay! The new blog is up! Please leave me a comment, I asked you all a question over there, and I also revealed TG's super secret identity at the end of the post... dun dun DUN.

This will be post #245 on this blog. Almost three years of blogging here. I will miss you, old bloggy friend. *sniff*

Don't forget to start following the new blog, everyone! There will probably be no more posts here.

Running, Writing, and a Very Important Announcement

These are all actually related. Wait and watch.

First off, today I ran 2 miles! Woohoo! This is a vast improvement from the 1 huffy puffy mile I ran back on October 1. Three weeks later I can run 2 and feel fantastic afterward. I'm liking the improvement. I'm hoping I can run a 5k by the end of November. Not that there's a 5k I know of that I can run, but just that I'd like to be able to run one by then. I bet I can do it. My leg muscles are complaining already. ;)

So, while I was running today, I realized that it was a great time to do some brainstorming. Heck, I was all alone for half an hour, with nothing to occupy my mind but how many laps I'd done and why the BYU cheerleaders must wear such short shorts whilst they do their regular Wednesday track running (not that I'm resentful or anything). So, I used this time to figure out some stuff for my story. And let me tell you, it was productive.

I'm so excited to work on it now! In fact, as soon as I finish up this post I'm going to write down everything I can remember from before. Stuff will probably change. For every question I ask myself about the plot and try to answer I do the "move past the first super lame idea" thing, and try to come up with a lot of possibilities in order to figure out what's the coolest/freshest/most fitting idea for the story. And it was fun! It also made running easier, because instead of thinking about how that old lady speed walking had passed me twice now, I could instead think about bakeries! And magic! And spoons! Ah, perhaps I've said too much. ;)

And now, for the VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

I am abandoning this blog.

Yup. It's going away. Well, technically I am going away. The blog will probably stay, at least for awhile, until I can get the archives saved somewhere, since I do want to keep what I've written here, since it's as close to a regular journal as I've got (lame, I know.)

I've been thinking about this for awhile now. A lot of writers now try and establish a web presence before they are published, which helps for a number of reasons. 1: It helps editors and agents find out more about them when they are considering the author's manuscripts and 2: It generates interest in the writer and their books before publication even comes.

Which is why it is time for me to shed my web presence as Nerd Goddess and declare to the world that I am Debbie Barr, and I am a writer.

New blog coming soon.

Still alive!

I'm here! I've just been busy. I keep meaning to post about stuff, but school has been rather hectic. I still love all my classes, though. In one of them I am working on The Book of Jer3miah, so here is a shameless plug:



Even though the show was created at BYU, and is about a Mormon kid, it can be enjoyed by anyone! You can view the first season at www.jer3miah.com.

Other than that I've just been working on various homework-related things and some crafts. I still haven't finished that stupid blanket, because I couldn't find the right yarn anywhere. It was ridiculous. I finally realized that the yarn I needed is only available at Michael's craft. Which is out of stock until later this week. So, in the meantime, I've been working on my cross-stitch. I'm almost finished, and I'll post pictures when I'm done. I promise.

I'll try to think of more interesting things to post about, for you few, wonderful dedicated readers. Namely obligated family members and Q. But I still loves you guys.

In Which I Share Some Writing

I have had a crazy week! Hopefully after tomorrow I can relax a little. My classes have been pretty overwhelming, what with presentations on Blake, The Office, and User-generated content, plus an ASL test, a Deaf Festival (which was actually pretty cool), and having to get pieces together for a creative writing workshop, I've been working my rear off.

And liking it.

I love my classes! They're great. Anyways, after some enthusiastic encouragement to share some of my prose poems from Facebook (okay, just Faith, but I like to pretend other people want to read it, too) I give you the two best-received poems from my creative writing class workshop. (Sorry for the elipses, they were the only way I could get paragraph breaks in properly). Any comments/criticism would be great, because I need to edit them for our "final" at the end of the semester. Without any further ado, some poetry:


Autumn

.....Last year I caught Autumn, sometime in mid-October, and poured it into a round, glass pitcher. I’ve left it in my fridge this past year, hoping it wouldn’t ferment or capture the flavor of onions. It’s color is familiar, like looking through a glass of strawberry lemonade at sunset. I’ve been tempted, at times, to drink it on a hot day.
.....Sitting on my porch I can see the whole valley below me. I hold the pitcher in my hand. The calendar tells me it is the last day of summer, and the valley looks it, dry and tired of the heat. I know my duty, and though the pitcher brimming with Autumn has been lovely to peek at in the fridge, and show off to important house guests, it will not keep much longer.
.....Looking out over the valley, I hold the pitcher steady and pour.
.....It splashes over buildings, runs down streets, clings in sticky clumps to trees, farms, lawns, a great mess of pink and orange and yellow. I let it flow over the mountains, staining them a deep red, watching the last bits of it trickle into the smallest crannies of the valley, bringing color to anything it touches.
.....The round, glass pitcher is empty in my hand. The last drop of Autumn clings to the rim. I catch it on my finger and taste it.


Appearances

.....Sometime after you brush your teeth, but before you leave for school, you get dressed, changing underwear, clipping on that old bra (the one held together with band-aids), adding layers to cover up that body you say you don’t like.
.....You choose your shirt with care, pulling it uncomfortably over your head in such a way that makes the neckline sit strangely on you. The neckline always sits strangely on you. But it is so fashionable, you say, so you re-arrange it and tell yourself it looks nice.
.....Then you wriggle into that pair of pants you say are your favorite, simply because it makes your butt look that good, even if the cut is all wrong on you and the hems are torn up. Torn jeans are in, you say, and you pull on some socks.
.....All the bending over has messed up your neckline again, so you pull and tug and re-arrange your top until your pants ride up and give you a wedgie and then you spend a few moments, perhaps with a few choice words, tugging out your underwear and then your old bra completely falls apart on you and you are all out of band-aids to fix it, so finally you just strip down and seriously consider going out nude.
.....Looking in the mirror you see yourself as you were naked. You tell yourself you don’t like what you see
.....That you will never like what you see
....................That no one will ever like what you see
...................................And you pull your clothes back on.

.....And ask your roommate for some band-aids.

In which I am (almost) famous

On Saturday I went to the release party for Shannon Hale's newest book Forest Born. It was a fabulous event, with much laughing and hanging out with Enna Isilee, and seeing Shannon's photos of her stalking various cool authors. Apparently she does that.

In any case, it was a grand ol' time.

After Shannon did a little speaking/introduction, she went and signed books. Now, if you haven't been to one of her recent events, you wouldn't know that it's first come, first serve, and if you don't get there early you have to wait quite some time to get your book signed.

Which was the case with us, since we were 10 minutes late.

Coming to the realization that we were going to be there for another hour or two, we perused the lovely King's English Bookshop and I ended up nabbing a couple of books I've been wanting. One of them was Silksinger by Laini Taylor.

Now, some of you may not remember, but last summer I won a contest on Laini's blog. And what was the prize of this contest? That I would be able to read an early draft of Silksinger and give feedback.

So, I've already read Silksinger once, and it was really fantastic. I could tell it wasn't a final draft, it didn't have that nice gleaming sheen that a polished book has, but I knew that it was going to be amazing. Naturally, I was excited to get my hands on the published version.

What I'd forgotten, though, Enna Isilee pointed out to me. My name is in the acknowledgements! Which is pretty darn awesome.

So, if my name is in a published book, does that mean I'm one step closer to being famous?

In which a discovery is made

I can't be a writer.

You, like my nice husband, are now going to try and convince me that this is not so. You will tell me that my writing is fantastic, of course I can be a writer, I just have to put my mind to it, and so on.But this is not the case.

You see, it is more than that. There is one thing a writer needs that I simply cannot have, something which, I'm sure, is what makes their writing great. Without it, I can never achieve that status.

I... am allergic to cats.

Please, just let that sink in for a minute.

This means I cannot be a real writer! All real writers have cats! Little kitties that jump on your keyboard and delete your files! Fat, lazy kitties that meow at you to feed them while you're trying to finish your manuscript! A nice, purry little thing to keep you company when your characters have taken over your brain!

Tragic.

I shall never have this. Unless, of course, I blow a bunch of money on a cat that doesn't make me sneeze/eyes burn/break out into hives. Truly it is a shame. Console me, my dear readers, on this terrible discovery.

In which I craft more than I study

I was going to be so productive yesterday! I really was! I was going to finish, like, half my homework for Tuesday! Except I didn't. (I did get stuff done for Monday, which is good).

The reason for this, is because I went to the craft store yesterday. This is always a bad thing. I went to get yarn, you see. Black yarn, because I ran out before I could finish the last ten squares of this little baby:
That's right! I Mario Mushroom blanket! Crocheted out of granny squares! An idea I totally stole from this chick and her rug.

This project should be keeping me busy for the next few months, since I am not a very fast crocheter. Also this is my first time crocheting ever! Apparently I don't do small projects.

Anyways, back to the craft store.

So, I had a few minutes to look around. TG was perusing the bookstore nearby for a birthday present for himself (Happy 24th Birthday today love!) so I let myself wander. This. Is. Bad. I should never let myself wander in the craft store. It always ends up with me spending more money than I planned.

I found myself in the area where they have little wooden trinkets you can paint. And while I was there I found some wooden circles. And I remembered this project that I've been having my eye on... and next thing you know I'm buying a rainbow of paint bottles and a bunch of wooden circles so I can create this:
I'm pretty darn proud of it. Except for that dark purple circle, because the "E" is hard to see, but that's okay! I'm really happy with how it all turned out. Now if only the rest of our apartment looked as cute as our front door...