Thursday, June 17, 2010

Friday Five on Thursday Night!

1. I am eating Baskin Robbins ice cream as I type this. Mint chocolate chip. Mmmmm. So. Good. Don’t hate me.

2. We just got back from baby girl’s first summer gymnastics lesson. All the good moms were talking about recipes and how much weight they’ve lost so far this summer. I picked up a club sandwich on the way home. Made baby girl a PB & J. Now I’m eating ice cream. I think that speaks for itself.

3. I’m still contemplating working out. It *was* a resolution. I was walking for a while. That fell by the wayside in May, when it turned 90 degrees times 100% humidity. . . . Welcome to Summer in North Carolina.

Hmm. I also said in my resolutions that if I overbooked myself, the workout would be the first to go. Does that mean I’m in the clear?

4. Speaking of overbooked, baby girl had art camp this week. I drove about 30 minutes one way every day to get her there. The good news is it’s one of my favorite towns: right on the river. My mom rode with me a couple of days, and we did some window shopping and visited art galleries. This place has an amazing arts community. . . . I want to move there and open a book store and become a zen bohemian artist vegetarian writer.

Ugh. There was turkey on my club sandwich. And Bacon. Vegetarian FAIL. And there is nothing zen about me or anything I do.

5. Just finished THE LAST SONG by Nicholas Sparks. I can always count on Nick to provide the story if I bring the tissues. I’m on to Stephenie Meyer’s latest: THE SHORT SECOND LIFE OF BREE TANNER. I also have two Debs ARCs in the mail . . . and a TBR pile a mile high.

And as a bonus #6: I will spend Friday afternoon coloring my hair. In an effort to become a redhead, I am attempting Feria R68: Ruby Rush. We shall see.

Have a Great Weekend!

Love,
~Leigh~

Monday, June 7, 2010

Why Revising is Important

As a writer, you *must* pay attention to detail. There’s really no way around it. I’m the kind of writer who likes to push out a rough draft in three or four months, but there are many more months spent editing and deleting and re-writing. It actually took me a few mss to realize the importance of this, though. First drafts are never perfect, and the “layers” that matter are always added during the revision process.

You also have to check for consistency. Make sure your main character’s hair is the same throughout all 50,000+ words. One time, I changed a character from blonde to brunette halfway through.

Last night? I was working on a chapter and realized that I had the father, after dinner, tell everyone he was going to the den to watch football. This matters because my main character has things that she needs him to do, and it always seems like he’s putting them (and her) off.

Watching football is no big deal in and of itself . . . but you have to consider this action within the context of the story.

It’s spring, the main character is getting ready for graduation, and her brother’s summer wedding is only a few weeks away. . . .

What’s so wrong with this?

There are no football games on TV in May. The season is over.

*facepalm*

Happy Monday!!

Love,
~Leigh~

Friday, June 4, 2010

Friday Five: Birthday Edition

1. I turn 28 on Saturday. I feel every bit of 17, which goes to prove that age is just a number. I’m especially honored to have a birthday sandwiched between a couple of YA greats: Melissa Walker (Violet on the Runway) has a birthday today, and Sarah Dessen turns 40 on Sunday. It’s a great weekend for us YA Geminis—here’s hoping that some of their greatness rubs off on me!

2. I went to see Shrek 4 yesterday, which was really good. I perked up every time this one ogre came on screen, though, and couldn’t figure out why I was so intrigued by this hairy, green monster. At one point he said something, and I thought “Wow. What is up with this ogre?” Turns out the ogre’s voice was Jon Hamm. Score One for Don Draper. Apparently it’s not just your dashing good looks that leave me wanting more. You could be a bald, fat, green man and I’d still sigh every time you spoke.

3. Speaking of Don Draper, I’m excited about the new season of Mad Men in July. Kinda miffed that they made us wait an entire year for it. Also on my agenda for the summer: Annie (The Musical) in Raleigh, Michael Buble in Raleigh, Norah Jones in Durham. Toss in a stack of books to be read, movies to catch up on, the pool, a new ms to start working on, and chauffeuring the baby girl to gymnastics and art camp, and it looks like my summer is set.

4. If you haven’t visited leighbrescia.com lately . . . don’t. Because it’s not there. Long story short: I designed the website myself using Sprout, and when it went to a paid service earlier this year, they dropped those of us who weren’t interested in paying for the services we got for free. Especially not when there’s a site that’s way cooler than Sprout (wix.com) that lets you design even better flash sites. All this really means is that I’m working on something new and will have the site live again soon.

What this also means is that, because it’s ten times more awesome than Sprout, and because I’m now working on a new project, that they’ll turn to a subscription-based site, too. In this case, though, I would be willing to pay for it, because it’s *that* cool.

5. I’ve been staring at this space for five minutes, trying to think of a five. I am clearly out of things to say. A shock to those who know me, I assure you.
I hope you have a Fabulous Weekend!

Love,

~Leigh~

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Teaser

I just posted a new teaser on the other blog. And I'm sorry, but I'm too lazy to post it here, so I'm providing the link instead. :)

http://leighbrescia.livejournal.com/32971.html

Have an Awesome day!

~Leigh~