Steampunkery Goodies

I have to say I am fascinated with just about anything Steampunk. I love the look of the gadgets and attire, and I LOVE worlds created in that same theme. Well I just was over at Tiffany Trent's website and am excited to find another book to add to my ever growing list of must reads. She is even having a contest where the prize is Steampunkery Goodies. How is it I didn't know about this upcoming book The Unnaturalists? Go over and check out that cover. It is just awesome. Tiffany says that the folks over at Simon and Schuster truly captured the book in that cover. I know one thing is for sure - the bookshelf devoted to my love of Steampunk stories is getting a new addition!

What Will 2012 Bring?

A better title probably would have been What Will I Bring to 2012?

I was reading Diana Peterfreund's Blog this morning and saw a detailed list of what she as hoping for in 2012. I thought that was a great idea, so I'm going to do the same here. I'm so looking forward to the new year, and figure maybe if I write down my own bullet list of the things I want out of 2012 I just might achieve some of them.


Work

•  A kind word costs nothing but is worth so much to the receiver. Remember everyone likes to be shown appreciation for a job well done.

•  Delegate. Delegate. Delegate. They won't learn the job if you don't let them.

• Help plan a Holiday Party for 2012. It has been too many years since we had a sit down dinner for everyone. 

• Have fun with the new Newsletter . 

Home

• Set up my craft room/writing room instead of using it as the catchall room.

• Take all of the boxes of crafty items and all of the unshelved books scattered throughout the house and put them way in their proper places in the new improved craft/writing room noted above. (Once it is set up of course)

• Sweet talk ChopSuey into knocking down the wall. Yes that one. 

• Get the forced air vents and furnace professionally cleaned. We've been here 14 years. I guess it's about time.

• Turn the basement into the Family Movie/Game Room. 

• Move AlleyCat into the room off the balcony. It's about time she has a real room of her own.

• Get the other garage door hung. We've had it in the garage for what, 2 years now? This will be the year to hang it.

• Take better care of the yard. It's not going to do it by itself. (Though I wish it would)

Family

• Get our Will set up. I can't believe that we have never followed through with this before. We aren't getting any younger and need to make sure both girls are taken care of.  All parents need to consider doing it, but I think parents with a special needs child/teen has to take extra precautions and make their wishes known.

• Work with Peanut on her communication skills. We got her an iPad for Christmas this year. She has been using one at school for adding to her vocabulary and improving her communication skills and we want to continue it at home. When she turns 18 she will have an opportunity to participate in a school to work program, but I've already been told that her ability to communicate would have to improve. 

• Finding more Me and AlleyCat time. She's at that angsty age of 14 and I'm scared one of these days she won't want anything to do with me. We need to continue to make sure AlleyCat knows just how proud we are of her. She is such a great kid, awesome student and fantastic sister. Book signings is something she loves to go to, so I will have to research what authors will be here in 2012. (It's a win/win for me too!)

• Try to get Chopsuey to go out of town with the girls and I, even if it is weekend trip to the ocean or the mountains or somewhere in between. 

• Spend more time with mom and dad. I hate to hear  it said my sister who lives four states away spends more time visiting than I do at forty miles. (Actually I improved on that greatly since 2010 but sadly it was on account of my mom and a bout of that dirty beast cancer).

Self

• Get to know more online people in the writing community. Make connections. Look for critique peeps.

• Find the time to write. Quit coming up with excuses and continually proCASStinating with Twitter and sit down and write. Come up with a schedule with Corbin and go back to our weekly writing sessions via phone. 

• Be more active. I have got to get this butt off the couch and outside walking. I can't keep going on like this. Something has got to change.

• Go to SCBWI-WW conference this spring. I just saw the line-up and laughed when I realized I already follow about half of the speakers on Twitter.

• Make more items for my etsy shop. Of course my version of  the ClockWork Angel Pendant has been a hit, but I'd like to fill the shop with the other book inspired items I've been making.

• Post more here on my Blog. Maybe it will be my own spin on Field of Dreams - If I write it, they will come.

What are you looking to get out of 2012?

Happy New Year To All!

Maggie Stiefvater is giving away a bunch I mean a BUNCH of books!

I was lucky enough to meet Maggie this year at an impromptu book signing. It wasn't a scheduled signing or anything, but she had tweeted that she was going to be in Elliott Bay Books signing stock, and if any of her followers happened to be in the area, to go ahead and stop by. I was so excited because I missed her signings in the Seattle area and was really bummed so I snuck a little extra time into my lunch hour (more like a lunch hour and a half) and tracked her down. She was super sweet. Signed all of my books (five) and even drew a wolf in Forever. (Yes I did a little happy dance on my way back to car)

I know. I know. Quit rambling Cass and get to the goods. What are the rules? How do you win this bounty of books? Well, you have to pick your favorite post from her Blog. Easy. Right? NO. So much to choose from. But once you finally whittle it down to one super fantastic favorite post, the hard part is over. Now all you have to do is talk about your choice on Facebook, tumblr, twitter, heck if you still have a myspace account you could talk about it there. Just as long as you can copy and paste a link back into something fascinating called a GIANT CONTEST TABULATING MACHINE WEBSITINATOR. (I'm not quite sure what it is exactly but hope it is something magical)

Okay so now that you know how to enter, are you curious what my favorite post was? It was pretty easy. It was this one HERE. Yes November Cakes. Come on guys. Who wasn't excited to find out that Maggie made up a recipe to a made up food.(Actually my excitement came later, keep reading) Maggie posted the recipe before I read the book. (Yes, it took me a while to finally set aside the time. I can't just read a book a a little bit at a time. I have to devote large blocks of time so that I don't miss anything in the worlds I like to visit) So when I first saw the November Cakes post I thought "Clever girl. That's kinda neat." But it ended there. I filed the post away in my mind and went about my business. See I didn't read the book until Thanksgiving weekend, and when I got to the the part in the book where November Cakes came into play? My mouth started to water and I remembered her post and hurried back to jot down the recipe. This time my thoughts were "Wow. Not only does she write, play musical instruments (including but not limited to the bagpipes) scores music, creates stop motion book trailers and finds time to talk to the folks at NASA, but she creates her own recipes too? Genius!" And it gets better. Now she has improved on the original recipe and says you should use this one here.

So even though the November Cakes post might not have started out as my favorite post, it sure ended that way after reading The Scorpio Races.

And even though it's not part of the contest, I want to tell you what my favorite tweet of Maggie's was this year. It was on November 23rd. You all know just which one I'm talking about don't you? She was hinting about the WinterNovel she had been working on and was giving her followers a teaser. She said that if we were fans of a certain work of hers, two words would tell us who she was writing about. Wait. You look confused. You do know which tweet I'm talking about. Right? It was this tweet right here:

Yes that's right. We are going to be taken back into her world of the Fae. And I for one can't wait. Hurry Maggie. I want to read The WinterNovel. Like Now.