Oh My Hero Bloghop

Victoria Smith and Jaycee DeLorenzo are hosting the Oh My Hero Bloghop! The idea is to post a picture of one of your hunky heroes, then interview him. I picked five of the questions from Victoria's and Jaycee's blogs to ask my hero.


Meet Logan. Nice, yes? Logan is the hero from a short story I wrote, my first attempt at romance writing. It was very fun!





1.  In one word, how would you describe your heroine?

Vibrant.

2. Do you believe in love at first sight?

Absolutely.

3. What's your favorite pastime?

Gardening. Not very manly, I know, but what can I say? I like pretty things.

4. What is the first thing you notice about a woman that you find attractive?

Her laugh. I love a woman who has a big laugh and uses it often.

5. What do you value the most in a potential love interest?

I want to be with someone I can have fun with, someone whom I can really be myself around.

Thanks Victoria and Jaycee for hosting this very fun bloghop! I'm looking forward to checking out every one's heroes.

You can click on the links at the top to get to Victoria's and Jaycee's blogs, where they have their own heroes posted and the links to everyone else's. Have a fun weekend everybody!

Teen Talk

I'm home from the State Speech trip. I had a lot of fun hanging with my kids, and the other coach, but I'm glad to be back. For one, I'll be happy to not hear about the British boy band, One Direction, for awhile!

I couldn't believe how crazy my girls were for this group. They asked me if I'd ever been this in love with a band. I told them I didn't think so. The next day I found out they know the boys from the band's middle names and shoe sizes! I told them NO, I have definitely never been that into a band.

Shoe sizes? How did they find that out? Why is that information even out there? Who cares?!

Anyway, I also listened a lot to how they talk to each other, the language they use, etc. Some of them did use a lot slang, particularly shortening of words. "She cray." (Meaning, "she's crazy," in case you didn't know.) But, the funny thing is, they use it like they're making fun of it.

They always use a bit of a goofy voice when they say these kinds of things, like it's a joke. And I honestly believe that if they were to read it in a book about teens, they would roll their eyes and say, "teens don't really talk that way."

I should note, too, that not all of them did use those kinds of expressions. For the most part I find that teens don't really talk all that differently than my friends and I do. (Despite the fact that we are ridiculously old ladies in our early thirties.) ;)

Speech

So, in case anyone was wondering how my speech kids did. . . They did great!

We took seven kids to Sections, (six entries, we had a duo) and three of them made it into finals. From there, one of them will be competing at State next Friday. Yay! I am very proud of all of them.

I had a very talented team this year, and I get them all back next year! Not a single kid on the team was a senior. So they all have (at least) one more year to try and make it to State. I have a feeling that next year we will be taking a few.

I am also directing our high school play right now. 2222:The Zombie Apocalypse. It's about people filming a (really bad) zombie movie and it is hilarious! I'm very excited about it. I may have to share pictures after we perform. :)

I hope to start blogging more regularly again soon. Thank you for not deserting me yet!

Taking Critique

  I deal with critiques in two different areas of my life. Writing, obviously, but also in speech. At a meet the student speaks in three rounds. They have a different judge each round and each judge writes up a critique sheet for them, critiquing their performance.

I have taught my students that these critiques are one person's opinion. We decide what advice to take and what to leave. Normally the judges give great advice and we use it to make the performance better. Sometimes they don't.

Last week one of my Humorous girls, (Humor is one of the categories) received a critique telling her she was monotone and overly sarcastic. We told her to ignore it. In fact, we told her the judge must be deaf, because she is far from monotone. She is hilarious! We also pointed out that no other judge has ever told her that, and that they have all told her she is very animated and talented.

I'm telling this story because I was glad I could point it out to myself recently when I received a very harsh critique on part of one of my manuscripts. Basically the person hated it. It bothered me at first, but then I reminded myself that it was the same ten pages that had gotten an agent to request a full and an editor to say she loved my voice.

It's all subjective. It's all personal opinion. Heck, I hated Eat, Pray, Love and most of the world loved it. So while critiques can be immensely helpful, and you (I) should think about what each one is saying, that doesn't mean you (I) have to listen to every single one.

Check out more insecure writers here.

Oh, and ps. Of the sixteen kids I took to sub-sections, eleven placed and seven are going on to Sections on the 14th!