S.E. Sinkhorn is hosting the Mash-up Blogfest over at her blog Maybe Genius. This sounds like a really fun fest, I wish I could've join in on the fun. Won't you join me in visiting all the participants' sites to see what they enter. Go here to see the participants.

Francine over at Romancing the Blog is hosting the Bad News Blogfest on October 3. Check it out here and sign up to join in on the fun!

Don't forget the They're People, too - Blogfest over at Tessa's Blurb is this Saturday. Click here to join in all the fun!

Okay today's coffee is Starbuck's Toffee Mocha (a skinny one, of course--starting to wonder if regular would taste the same *sighs*) and it's pretty darn good. Anyway, about the title of this blog. I've decided (last time I swear) that I will not revise my manuscript any more. I'm sending it out on its final query quest. My decision to say goodbye, brought about a mourning process, I wasn't ready for.

I wore black all of last week (okay, most of my clothes are black), I pulled up passages to visit my characters one last time, and I archived all documents and pictures pertaining to said story. A cloud of depression rolled over me as I researched setting and characters for my new project. It just didn't help.

I realized my characters in my finished project had become real to me. I sat down with them every morning, drinking coffee and having conversations with them. I cried with them. I laughed with them. They'd become so important to me that it was like attending a funeral when I said a tearful goodbye to them. So I forced myself to move on, peeking over my shoulder as I went to make sure they were okay. They were. They probably didn't even notice I had gone.

As I wrote the first scenes of my new project, it felt awkward. I didn't know these characters as well. It felt weird and clumsy talking to them. The setting wasn't as exciting to me. I deleted it three times. I wondered if I could ever love any characters as much as I loved the ones in the novel that I'd just put away. Could I care as much, understand them as much, or love them as much? By Thursday, the darkest night, I felt doomed.

Then glorious Friday arrived and the light shot through the window, illuminating a new beginning. I changed the name of my characters in the new project, found a better setting, and wrote for nine hours straight. They breathed. They cried. They drove me to write more and more. I felt like I'd said goodbye to an old lover that was dragging me down and said hello to a new one who was showing me how much better I could be. I'm obsessed with my new relationships, happily skipping in the sunlight with them. Getting to know them. To love them. To follow them on a new journey. One I hope will lead me to my ultimate goal -- published.

But here's the thing, even though I've moved on, I secretly wish that my finished project would find a publishing home so that I can write many more adventures with those characters. So how do you move on from the characters you love so much?

That's it. Slurp! Okay, even though this coffee is the skinny version it rocks!

Okay, today's a home brewed cup of Starbuck's coffee with French vanilla creamer, and I think it's going to be a more-than-two-cups kind of day. I've been sick for six days and my head felt like a big boulder rocking on top of a skinny stick. I'd get up to write and have to stop and rest. So now that I'm better, I'm diving into my final edit (until further notice) of my current WIP.

So here's the thing, I have a list of words that I tend to use often. One of them being glance. All my characters are glancing here and there and up and down that they all seem to have an annoying tick. I did a search for glance in my pages, and the result was well over 260 in my novel. This had come up with a conversation I had with a fellow writer on Twitter. Her over used word was nod. A couple of novels that I've critiqued used smile all the time that their characters resembled the Cheshire Cat. As writers we tend to get too close to our work and can't see the technical beyond the creative of our writing. The technical is just as important as the creative. We want our readers to be in the story and not stumble over all our writing ticks.

Since discovering my tick, I've whittled down my glances considerably, and my story flows better. I also searched other writers' tick words in my novel and found a few I didn't even know I had over used. That's the beauty of discussing your work with others, you discover weaknesses you never knew you had. So what's your irritating tick word?

That's it. Slurp! (Yuck. Cold. I need to top off my coffee.)

Okay, KarenG is having a Blog Party BBQ at her blog over here; http://karenjonesgowen.blogspot.com/ Go there and meet a whole bunch of awesome writers to friend. I'll be stopping by a satchel of them myself if not all this weekend.

And here's my easiest recipe you'll ever find, okay maybe just the best darn recipe you'll ever find, alright how about a pretty good recipe you'll ever find for Sausage Chile Con Queso:

1. Fry up one package of sausage (spicy hot is better) (or tofu sausage for you town folk or any other kind of meat you have a hankering for) dump it, grease and all, into a crock pot (or you sissies can dab the grease away--whatever).
2. Now cut  a whole block of Velveta cheese into cubes and dump that in there too.
3. Then you open a can of mushroom soup and slop that in there as well.
4. Dump a whole can of petite stewed tomatoes into it.
5. Okay, this might be a tough one, I know cuz I was back East and couldn't find any chile, so we might have to compromise on this one. Go into your grocer's frozen section and get a package of Bueno Autumn Roasted Green Chile (or any kind you can find, canned or a salsa--make sure it is hot--okay medium or mild for you whimps.) put that in the crock too.
6. Turn on high until cheese is melted and then stir and put on low. You can add some shredded white cheese if you want a more sophisticated taste. At this point, it is ready to serve from the crock pot, or for you fancy schmancies, a crystal bowl. Serve with tortilla chips. Keep reserves in crock pot on low. 

That's all there is to it. Now check out my blog about Parallelism or parallel parking or some jibber-jabber below. Hasta Luego, Amigos!

Okay, I've had so much coffee that I'm totally writing under the influence today. I did have a wonderful skinny caramel latte when I went to Borders to write (gawked at some hot guy who looked like Jon Hamm, but then he picked his nose and ruined the fantasy for me). That's enough about my boring escapades.

Parallelism is a similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. My favorite sentence, and probably most Americans' favorite, that uses parallelism is John F. Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country". 

So why am I blogging about parallelism? Well, because it's a mistake I've seen lately while critiquing others' work. When listing a series of words in a sentence, it's very important to do it right. Here's a little quiz  on parallel structures to test yourself.

Question 1:

(A) My mother added ice, lemon, and mixed in two heaping teaspoons of sugar into a glass of water.

(B) My mother added ice and lemon into a glass of water, and then mixed in two heaping teaspoons of sugar.

Question 2:

(A) There's nothing I like better than finding a good book, sitting by a tree, and spending a couple of hours reading.

(B) There's nothing I like better than finding a good book, sitting by a tree, and to spend a couple of  hours reading.

Question 3:

(A) Sara's Coach purse is more expensive than Kali.

(B) Sara's Coach purse is more expensive than Kali's.

Question 4:

(A) She wanted three things out of her writing class: to learn a skill, to make good friends, and to learn about life.

(B) She wanted three things out of her writing class: to learn a skill, to make good friends, and learning about life.

Question 5:

(A) She found the book repulsive, offensive, and she thought it was embarrassing.

(B) She found the book repulsive, offensive, and embarrassing.

Question 6:

(A) Sandy kept her bathroom clean, neat, and she made it conveniently arranged.

(B) Sandy kept her bathroom clean, neat, and conveniently arranged.

Answers:

1-B One of these sentences is independent. This is tricky. They both sound okay, but one is more clearer than the other.

2-A Three gerunds are parallel as opposed to two gerunds and an infinitive.


3-B Kali's not expensive the coach purse is.

4-A The second sentence mixes two infinitives with a participle.

5-B Use three similar adjectives instead of two adjectives and an independent clause.


6-B Modifiers can be added to parallel forms for variety.

When I was just learning, I mistakenly believed that I had to vary the form of my expressions. I worried about echoing words. But I know now that with Parallelism, it's stronger to repeat words as in President Kennedy's statement above. 

Listen not with your eyes but with your ears; the eyes cannot see what the ears hear.


That's it. And stay off the road when I'm parallel parking.
 

Lisa Galek is having a contest go check it out over here: Read. Write. Repeat.: September Contest - Win If I Stay: "So, I decided to do a contest. I loved, loved, loved If I Stay by Gayle Forman when I read it at the beginning of the year. I laughed, I cr..."