Sunday, March 29, 2015

Week in Review 3/29/15

 
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Last week's week in review had Jennifer F. Donohue asking about one of my favorite topics: paint!
Did you repaint the office? Did I miss what colors you'd selected? We've got paint chips up in the circulation room of the library, but no consensus yet. One of the orange-y colors was called "Pompeii Clay", which I thought perhaps not in good taste, but I found a nice gray to pair with it (they did not call it "Vesuvius Ashfall"). My coworkers do not agree

we DID repaint the office and the color was my new fave: Montgomery White.
I haven't taken pictures yet cause it's still not completely pulled together. Soon though, soon!

Christina Seine's new notebook has a quote I like very much:
The very first thing I wrote in it was a line I heard today while watching the "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" - (to paraphrase): "Everything is going to work out alright in the end. If it is not alright, then it is not the end yet."

And it turns out that Amy Schaefer, while not liking acronyms much, has a some pretty good ones;
"...but of course, the EFI report was bogged down with the AWT--"
"What does EFI mean?" I asked. I already knew the answer to this question.
"Extremely Frigging Important. Then Charlie--"
"And AWT?"
"Awesome Wonder Team."
"Right. Carry on."

Kate Larkindale makes a good point that applies to people just starting a "new career" as writers:
I've just started a new job, and after 23 years at the finished end of the film production chain, going back to the beginning of it has been like learning a new language.
Publishing vernacular can be rare and strange indeed. Even for people who have been "in books" or a career that was a different kind of writing can be bewildered by all sorts of terms.
I'm reminded of this every time a query writer writes that s/he wants me to "review" a book.

On Monday the discussion turned to the value of a blurb offer in a query letter.

Colin asked:
My question for QOTKU, therefore, is: How does blurbing work? How do publishers know they're going to get good reviews from the people they ask to blurb? Do they ever get blurbers write back saying "Sorry, I hated this book. I can't give you a positive blurb." I would like to think so."

No one knows what kinds of blurbs they're going to get. Generally the unspoken protocol is that if you don't like the book, you say you don't have time now to read for a blurb.  You do NOT trash it.  Well, you can, but it would be very very rude.  And unless it's hilariously funny, a bad blurb would never be used on a book.

That said, I've used some VERY bad reviews in subsequent press releases (earlier in my career) because it was very clear that the reviewer had missed the point of the book completely. 

and bass points out one of the biggest problems with blurbs:
I do recall, however, middle-school-me almost refusing to read The Hunger Games when I borrowed it because Stephenie Meyer had blurbed it and I was in a huge anti-Twilight phase.

Colin asked:
Is it the job of the publisher or the author to ask for blurbs? Are authors required to pursue them, or are they only asked to do this if they happen to have contact with HPNYTBSAs?
The editor and agent and author cooperate jointly on blurbs usually.

Angie Brooksby-Arcangioli asked:
My question is do publishers pay for blurbs? Especially HPNYTBSA?
No. No one pays for blurbs. If you see anyone offering to sell you blurbs, it's a flim flam artist not a real service.

And then Chirstina Seine just blew us all out of the water with the Pinterest board for Carkoon.


And until I was doing this week in review I had managed to forget that last Monday was pretty awful here:


1. There is no heat in my office
2. My computer broke
3. I left my cell phone at home

Julie asked how all that happened: the boiler in the building went on the fritz and my computer just died. It was very old so not a complete shocker, but annoying all the same.  This was the desktop in the office that has all the company info, not my laptop that has my day to day stuff on it.

I seriously thought of exiling myself to Carkoon, if only to get warm.
But then I had a better idea: a writing contest. The entries in contest are always great, and make me laugh, and THAT will warm us all up.

So, Tuesday was the Surprise Writing Contest in honor of Colin's birthday.
The prompt words were chosen for their relevance to Colin:
smith: obviously, since this is his name
exile: since his exile to Carkoon, this is where he lives
link: he's become the blog's resident link master, helping everyone do clickable links
seven: well, I thought there were seven kids, but now I hear there are only six?
music: Colin blogs about music (among other topics)

And there were some fabulous entries, We saw the finalist on Thursday, including Colin's own:
(2) Colin Smith 12:20pm

"What ya doing, Dr. Smith?"

I gritted my teeth and turned to see the Robinson boy.

"Fixing the communication
link in my ship so I can call for help."

"Where's the Robot?"

I moved to hide the disembodied pincer that sat beside my leg. After
seven years' exile with these fools, I was desperate enough to cannibalize that machine to try to fix my ship.

"I'm channeling his
music circuits to… uh… enhance the frequency."

"I hope it works. The rescue ship's here and there's only room for the family."

The brat even smiled and waved as he ran off.

Which I loved because it was an homage to Lost In Space from 60's TV, but even if you didn't know that the story worked perfectly. I love that in stories, the multiple layers. Incredibly hard to do in 100 words!

And the winning entry was
4) Lobo 10:50pm

Indus’rial sabotage. Murder. Same ta me (truth b’told). ’Specially after that tex’ile mill job. But we’d already hit two competitors and my sevens game was callin’.

Creep kept squintin' at the building through oily Detroit smog. “He sleeps here with all them T-cars.”

“Model Teas, ya word
smith.” I said. “An’ people say yer the smarty.”

Creep linked up the dynamite plunger, grinning so wide I thought his cheeks would bury his eyeballs. “Whatsa fella’s company again?”

I shrugged. “Stars with an F.”

“Should I start the
music?”

“Nah. Leave ’im. Man sleepin’ with cars pro’ly don’t have much a future.”


I loved this because of the creative use of the prompt words (always something I look for) and that if you knew your history, this is really funny. If you don't know your history it's just a good story. Again, layers. And that's not even mentioning voice, which is hard to nail in a novel, let alone 100 words.

All the entries had a lot going for them, it was a tough choice.
I like what donnaeverhart pointed out in the comments on the contest:

I've been thinking about something for a while. Many times we woodland creatures worry about nitpicky things like someone stealing our stupendous writing idea if we shared too much of it.

This contest actually proves what we've been told many times in the writing community; "Only you can write your story."

Think about it. We're given five words, and not one of us ever comes close to having a similar story. We might re-use a word or two in the same way (wordsmith, for example) but beyond that, our stories are as diverse as our fingerprints and voices.

And donnaeverhart also wondered:
.." I've often wondered,(one or two of mine have landed here I think)what it is that makes them not a story for you? I've come to the conclusion it's because in some way, the writer hasn't resolved the MC's situation. I.e. it's left hanging in some way. Am I close?
Mostly it's that "not a story" is more like a scene, not a story with a start, middle, and end. It's hard to describe, but there's almost always what you'd call a punch line, or a twist of some sort that gives it that extra boost to story.

On Wednesday we talked about querying magazines versus querying books,

Janet Rundquist asked:
"There are a lot of places now to publish articles that don't require querying first at all. The danger there is if your writing isn't up to par, you can damage your career pretty easily."

I'm not quite sure what this means. ie: the publication will remember your first sub-par submission and it will prejudice them for future attempts? Or that they might actually publish it and others will see this sub-par quality and make judgments from there? Or...?

If you have a lot of bad writing up on the web, and you query me, I'm going to see it. This is particularly true of non-fiction. A non-fiction query has a concept and a plan. There are a lot of good concepts and plans out there, so the trick is figuring out if this querier can actually write. First stop: the google.  Locate all the pub credits. Read.
The google is merciless though: it coughs up the bad writing as well as the good.

Colin asked:
How is it different with a short story submission to a mag?
Very different. Those rejected stories don't get published, and if you get rejected, it's not likely editors remember your name. It's also expected that writers get better over time, so some very bad work is simply ascribed to "new writer" and that's that.
 It's the rush to publish that will kill you. There are a lot of places to put work out there that have NO editorial oversight. Editorial oversight is your friend when you are a writer. Especially when you think it isn't.

Bjmuntain had some good points on writing non-fiction article as well:
One thing to take away from querying non-fiction magazines: Don't wait until you've finished writing the article to query, unless you want to prove to yourself you can write that article. Non-fiction magazines buy ideas - very unlike fiction magazines - and they'll reject the idea, too. They don't want to see a full article until they commission it, based on your idea. Since you wouldn't sell the same article to two magazines (even similar magazines have different focuses and styles), you'll just be rewriting the article again.

Basically, the difference between fiction and non-fiction magazines is: Fiction magazines buy writing. Non-fiction magazines buy ideas, and they assume you can write the idea. This latter is why it's good to have 'clippings' - articles or other writing you can point to, to tell the magazine 'See? I can write goooood.' Of course, that's where the catch 22 comes in: magazines want you to have previous published pieces, but you can't get those unless a magazine will publish them.

If you feel your non-fiction writing on your chosen topic is professional enough, you could start a blog about it, to get pub credit and followers. I believe it's not difficult to get a blog on io9, and it may attract more readers. Or, if you're able to market your blog, you can do that, too.

And I'm really sure Barbara Poelle hasn't seen her new bio courtesy of brianrschawarz, but I plan to have it engraved on something silver for her:

a woman who was clearly the sole influence in Eve's decision to eat the apple in the garden of Eden in the first place...

And then the comments just fell off into the hilarity I love, which is a good thing because this was the day that I got my new computer and discovered I couldn't get my back ups reinstalled.

Fortunately on Thursday, I was able to get tech support on the phone and several hours later, voila!, success.  Not much work got done, but all in all, we're counting that as a good day.

On Friday, we turned to the topic of very small print runs of a book.

Carolynwith2Ns had a lovely analogy for this kind of thing, and then everyone else just fell off the topic and right into hilarity, starting with Amy Schaefer wishing us happy returns from the future and Colin talking to himself about the reality of Carkoon.

LynnRodz did ask a good question though:
Am I wrong to think "this is the day and age of forever" only applies to free blogs?

Yes. The New York Times is pretty much forever online too, which is ok if you're just publishing blather cause the NYT isn't going to print that, but there are sites without those standards that last a long time.
bjmuntain has an excellent point here:
Once you put something out on the internet - no matter where - you no longer have control over it. Despite security precautions and content protection, it's out of your hands. (You still have copyright, but you don't have control. Neither does the website it was posted on.)

On Saturday, a reader asked if I had ever missed a "big book."

Melissa had an interesting story along those lines:
I heard a Pulitzer-prize winning author speak at a class and tell the story of some good advice she once gave. An editor friend asked her thoughts about a horse book that was going up for auction. This author had a love of horses and dabbled with a few books in the genre.

"Do you think I should bid on it?" the editor asked.

"No, horse books never sell," the author advised.

With this great tip, the editor passed on the chance to bid for Seabiscuit. Amazingly, they're still friends.

This actually underscores my point: that editor was not the right editor for that book. How do I know? She asked for opinions on whether she should buy it. The right editor generally LUSTS for the manuscript, wants to buy it, and the only thing she wants to know is how much she can offer.

Dena Pawling asked
How much extra work are books/authors like that? Previously you mentioned/joked that Little, Brown had an entire branch office dedicated to James Patterson. I'm sure an agent can max out on the number of clients she represents. So if, for example, you represented five Lee Child's, or apparently just one James Patterson, would that be all you could handle? Their royalty statements are probably longer, and I imagine you have to field more calls regarding sales of rights [a nice bit of extra work, I'm sure]. But is a mega-selling book/author 10% more work than your “normal” clients, or 25%, or 100%? Inquiring minds [okay, maybe just mine] want to know.

If you have a mega-best selling author, yup, you staff up for it. Much depends on the kind of work being generated. Film deals, translation deals, permissions, rights. Some of that requires planning and executing. Some of it just requires detailed record keeping and follow up.  The king of kind of (yikes!!) work being added determines what kind of staffing up you do.

Craig has taken my answer to the question as a personal challenge: 
Nothing you have turned down has gone on to big things. I guess that I'm going to have to prove you wrong. I'm sorry, I still love you and have all of the respect in the world for you but that is just how it has to be.

Craig, the trick here is that you're going to have to query me for the book that DOES become a big success. It doesn't count if you queried me for an earlier novel and I passed then.

Mister Furkles asked: 
With over 100 queries every week, do you even remember the ones you turn down. I imagine you might remember manuscripts, especially if you read to the end. But do you remember rejected queries?
I don't remember the queries I turn down. BUT, I read pages from most of the novels that I think might be a good fit here, so I read a lot of stuff I don't take on.

And just in case you need something to scare you more than querying, DLM gave us this:
Last night, I must've had you on my mind too, because - after running across something about "body horror" when researching agents, I ended up having a dream about having scary cysts removed from my body that turned out to be lima beans.

I honestly didn't realize just how much a part of my mental landscape this community is ...


A few housekeeping notes for y'all.

Next week is Holy Week, and I will NOT be posting original content to the blog Thursday-Sunday. I will be in church, praying for all the people of the world. Yup, we do that and it's actually very interesting to see the order folks get mentioned.  We pray for everyone including atheists this week!
Thursday is The Easter Triduum and the mass of the Lords' Supper.
Friday is the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion at 3pm, followed by Tenebrae at 6pm.
This is the only day of the year that I wish I lived in a less secular world.  When exiting the church after the light has gone out of the world, it's jarring to see people just conducing their daily business as normal, laughing, eating ice cream, reading novels!  Fortunately, we DO live in a country where I can go to the church of my choice on a Friday, even if it's not the faith of the majority.
On Saturday, the Great Vigil of Easter starts at 8pm, and of course Sunday is Easter.

No matter what your religious leaning, or non-leaning, we can all celebrate the arrival of spring, and rebirth. I hope it is a lovely time for you, and the start of a great new season.

38 comments:

DLM said...

Seriously, y'all have become a part of my life in what turns out to be a TRULY alarming way. :)

Also - yay! First comment!?

Colin Smith said...

Yay Diane! Congrats on being the first commenter of the day. :)

A really great WiR again, Janet. And thank you for answering my questions along with everyone else's. Elses'. Elsies? Who's Elsie? nevermind.

And I REALLY liked your little breakdown of why you picked me as a finalist and Lobo as the winner in the contest. Not that I for one moment think you were misguided, but I think it's instructive to see the kind of things you look for. Not just from the viewpoint of the contests, but also bearing in mind your job. As a literary agent, I'm sure these are things you look for in manuscripts too. And you're probably not the only agent who smiles at layering and voice. Indeed, if you've ever wondered what "voice" means, you've pointed to an excellent example: Lobo's story. Could this be a regular feature of post-competition WiRs--"Why I chose x as a finalist and y as the winner"?

This week's questions and answers really were fascinating, touching on areas of publishing I never knew I wanted to know more about! :)

It also tugs at my heart to see our society become increasingly secular. But I agree--one of our country's most fundamental values is the freedom to believe or not believe. To worship or not to worship. It would break my heart if we ever lost that.

Just a reminder to my fellow commenters: while we honor Janet's commitment not to post original content Thursday-Sunday this week, perhaps we can take this time to check out some of our fellow commenters' blogs? And if you haven't put your blog/tumbler/whatever details in your blogger profile, maybe now's a good time to do that. Janet's blog is a great community meeting place, but we can drop in on each other's "homes" too, can't we? :)

Lisa Bodenheim said...

ahhhhhh. Lovely WIR read with a great mug of cappuccino to warm me up in this lovely springtime rain happening here in the Midwest. I hope the computer backups issue is just a temporary glitch and not a permanent rift. Now I'm ready for Sunday afternoon and evening.

A blessed Holy Week for you Janet (btw, it's Tenebrae, needs an "r"). Speaking to your wish to live in a less secular world, there is the Iona Abbey (Scotland), on a small inner Hebridean Island of the same name that offers a Holy Week or Weekend for guests http://iona.org.uk/ I recommend it. I lived and worked there for 2 years, and Holy Week was intense and tiring and exhilarating.

Sandra Cormier Turnsek said...

Have a Happy Easter, Janet!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Janet. I'm glad I was able to offer some good insights this week. :)

You know, of all the Easter masses I've gone to (and sung at), I don't think I've ever heard the Triduum described so beautifully. Thank you for that!

Colin Smith said...

Oh, and I checked with my wife and we do only have six kids.

When we were first dating she told me she had a three year old son who lives with his father in Florida. For a split second I believed her, and she still takes great pleasure in reminding me of that. ;)

Dena Pawling said...


“A softly honeyed bisque that casts a delicate, warm glow. It's that perfect pretty pale yellow that's infinitely versatile.”

Last I checked, I am NOT color blind. But altho I agree it is a nice color, Montgomery White sure looks like a soft peach/pink to me, NOT white or yellow.

I must be getting old.

If it's still cold there in NYC, please feel free to come to hot and stifling SoCal, or at least ship us your cool air and snow. We're sweaty and dry here. Last week was 95-98 degrees every day. This week is forecast for 85-88. This does not bode well for summer, OR the current drought.

Thanks for answering my question. I hope you have a wonderful Holy Week and Easter.

AJ Blythe said...

We're current renovating thanks to a leaking shower (who knew how much damage that could cause!). Unlike Dena, I am colour blind, and The Hub has no patience for choosing colours (after 5 minutes he'likely to point to Lemon Loud and go 'that one', gah!). The assistants in the local paint shops/tile shops/carpet shops are all going to beathe a huge sigh of relief when I'm finished with them :)

Unfortunately for me Easter doesn't herald the arrival of spring and rebirth - Down Under we're 1/3 of the way into the golden glow of autumn (albeit a chilly glow). Regardless of the colour of your leaves I wish you all a safe, Happy Easter and Holy Week.

Elissa M said...

Dena,

It's probably your monitor settings. You can't trust printed colors, either. You have to see actual paint chips, preferably in the lighting where the paint will be used. Daylight, of course, is the best light for seeing actual color, but it isn't always best when picking colors for interiors.

No, I don't paint walls for a living. I paint canvas (or panels).

Amy Schaefer said...

Could this be a regular feature of post-competition WiRs--"Why I chose x as a finalist and y as the winner"?

Nice, Colin. Ask Janet to work a little harder for us. Because we definitely don't get enough of her time and energy. I'm just going sit back here with my binoculars and my popcorn to watch while someone whacks you with the cluestick.

A very peaceful Holy Week to all who celebrate it. A very peaceful transition into April for those who don't.

Now, if anyone can find a way to send a chocolate bunny or two down the wormhole to Paradise, it would be much appreciated.

Colin Smith said...

Amy: I have to earn my place in exile somehow. :)

Bonnie Shaljean said...

> The king of work being added determines what kind of staffing up you do.

The king of work. Love it. Where can I get one?

Hmmmm, the Queen of the Known Universe meets the King of Work - there's a story in that somewhere.

LynnRodz said...

It amazes me how the WIR shows things I'd missed during the week when I was certain I had read everything.

I'm glad Dena commented because that Montgomery White definitely looked like a pale pink in my eyes. Then it turned into a pale peach, then a pale apricot and then I gave up.

I had the same reaction as Amy when I read Colin asking Janet to do one more thing for us, but I didn't want to get on his bad side or else he might've taken away my cocktail privileges. Then I thought what the heck, I'm going to be cocktailing somewhere else these coming weeks so why not say something. (Opps, now that didn't come out sounding too good.)

I'll be heading to Amy and AJ's side of the world (not as far south) in a few days for a little R&R. (A few island hopping, then Bkk and HK for some good Asian cuisine. Carkoon's lima beans and kale have taken their toll on me and no one seems to be baking cookies.

How much wifi connection I'll have...I shall see.

Anyway, have a great Holy Week, Janet, and a Happy Easter. That goes for everyone who's celebrating as well.

JulieWeathers said...

Colin, I think QOTKU may be sending Mother Goose and her friends to take care of you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj-6nJCQYdo#t=193

Karen McCoy said...

*Exits writing cave.*

*Waves to the wonderful community, both on and off Carkoon, and vaguely wonders whether lima bean cysts would sting.*

*Re-enters writing cave and prepares for edits.*

angie Brooksby-Arcangioli said...

Wonderful WiR. It seems like a month passed in seven days. I can't imagine adding computer troubles to all the work you have and blogging daily.

Christina's link makes her president of Carkoon's Media department.

Thanks for answering all the questions, mine included.

I hope Easter week is peaceful.

DLM said...

Karen McCoy, the good news is, in dreams I don't tend to feel pain. Though the psychological pain did sting!

Colin, don't you mean I was the first vommenter?

Janet, thank you for the thoughts on the week's observances and prayers. You reminded me, I need to add my friend to my own church's prayer list; she and her husband lost their home in a fire this week, and she is succumbing to horror and depression right now.

Anonymous said...

Happy sigh.

Mom was this weekend and we had ourselves a Scrabble Marathon. Three games on Friday. Two games Saturday. Two games today. We are very competitive, and it's downright hilarious at times the way we look. Poor hubby drifts through and asks a question, only to be met with grunts and silence.


Hey Dena...I'm thinking Montgomery White might be the new, "is this dress black and blue, or gold and white?"

LynnR - I tried to warn Colin about his demands before. I'm seeing Carkoon as a permanent place of residence at this rate.

Anyway! Awesome WIR. Thank you for answering my questions, Ms. Janet.

Your last paragraph has highlighted the essence of your wonderful spirit and care for people. Here's to a peaceful and spiritual time for all in the upcoming week, no matter your stance on Holy Week.

Anonymous said...

Oops. Atoll Amy, I hooted at your vomment here:

"I'm just going sit back here with my binoculars and my popcorn to watch while someone whacks you with the cluestick."

:>) Too funny.

Craig F said...

Thank you for investing the time in the WIR. I think you skimped on telling us what you did this week though. You told us of your paint color, which I didn't look at because monitors lie even more than our cats, but nothing else. The WIR should be as much about you and your week as a recap of the week's comments. We tremble in anticipation.

All right, the query I sent you sucked more than a little but I was hoping for a holdover from my question dated 30 Oct. As far as what book to query it goes like this. I started out planning a sci-fi book but building a viable world takes a lot of time. The story is about the first people to leave Earth. As I was coming up with more questions at each turn I decided to write a thriller to set it up. That has turned into a series of three. I might do things the Lucas way and start with the sci-fi and run out a few but I want more time to world build. So it will be the book I queried you with. A Janet Reid still gets to kill the bad guy.

I hope you Easter break refreshes you. We will all miss you and most will still be checking this site anyway, I'll miss all of you for a longer time. My doctor has cleared me to take the big flight on a silver bird. I'm off to beat my head against a wall in China tomorrow.

Karen McCoy said...

*briefly takes break from editing to respond*

DLM--I'm glad the damage from the lima beans wasn't permanent.

And I'll be sure to keep your friends in my prayers too. What a terrible thing to happen. :(

DLM said...

Donna, hee on that comparison - maybe Montgomery White is the new black! Or orange? :)

I'm going for the OLD black - finding the glossiest, blackest black I can find for my kitchen (lower cabinets only) and upstairs bath.

Karen, thank you so much. It took several days for the reality to hit my friend, and yesterday she just fell apart. She and her husband have had blow after blow since they married, and I have them in my prayers always. She's deep, deep in my heart.

Colin Smith said...

Here's Julie's link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj-6nJCQYdo

I think these ladies work for the Buttonweezer Correctional Facility here on Carkoon...

And, in my defense, I'm only asking because I know Janet likes to know what's helpful and useful, and I thought it was both. I'm not saying she HAS to do this... heck, she could quit the blog tomorrow and she would already have helped writers of the world more than some of the best-selling craft books. It was just a thought.

Mind you, the idea of setting up a separate blog for writing contests was just a thought, and look where it got me!

Back to the fried lima beans and kale sauce. Don't grimace. It's a Carkoonian delicacy. :)

Anonymous said...

I dunno. To me, Montgomery White looks pretty grey... oh wait a minute.

*dusts off monitor*

Oh. Now I have no idea what it looks like... but those colours that can't be easily pinned down are usually the best colours to go with more than one other colour. They'll look different beside different colours. Which is why they're great for office walls.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. Would she consider more work "helpful?" Pondering. Drums fingers. Taps toes. Considers maybe Colin has been hired as the new minion.

Jury is out.

Dena? Can you cross examine?

Anonymous said...

Diane (I love your "heee.")

Black is awesome on cabinets! I've seen it done...it's bold and very elegant.

AJ Blythe said...

Colin, you've obviously been on Carkoon too long, or maybe it's all the kale and lima beans you're eating. But putting ideas like quitting the blog into Janet's head! Agh!

Dena Pawling said...


If I have to change my monitor settings, then Montgomery White will just have to remain a soft peach/pink. The last time I messed with my computer, it took my husband several hours to fix it. I've learned my lesson :)

I'll let you know if I see any llamas in various shades of Montgomery White. Or not.

I just finished our taxes. We have one employee/W2 income and two small businesses. God bless Turbo Tax! But that means now I'm brain dead [I suppose this assumes facts not in evidence....] so not sure I'm able to cross examine a turnip at this point, but possibly a peach/pink llama.

Lilac said...

I'm so moved by what you shared with us about the Holy week and Easter, Janet.

Your call for prayer, when there was a cyclone on Amy's island, made this blog not just an exceptional university and community for me. But a home.

Thank you for praying for all the people of the world. In my own humble way, I will be praying for them too. Thank you for your immense generosity, and as Donna said, your wonderful spirit.

Have a peaceful Holy week and Easter. We will miss you.

JulieWeathers said...

Well, I'm glad the computer is back on. I seem to have missed the update on the heat.

I love that color. I would put it in my bedroom in a heartbeat.

I love that Janet is taking time off for Holy Week. There isn't nearly enough focus on that. I believe I'm going to spend some time renewing my heart and spirit also.

Julie

DLM said...

Donna, I stole the "hee" usage as you see me use it most from Sarah Bunting of Tomato Nation. She was doing that like fifteen years ago and I loved it and still use it, but credit where it's due.

I steal from the funniest. :)

The cabinets have been a nice buttery golden yellow for several years, but when the Harvest Gold range had to go I decided it might be time to change them. It's actually still a very nice color, so I'm not rushing to it. But the BATHROOM badly needs updating, so that's spurring me along at this point.

Dena, congratulations!!!! I got my "your return has been accepted" from state and local just this week - yep, Turbo Taxing it.

Lilac, she really has given us a wonderful home, hasn't she? I know I don't express my gratitude enough.


Janet, thank you for making this place so open and comfortable. And for letting us use your forum for our personal administrivia! :)

Lilac said...

Diane, she really has given us a wonderful home. I wish I knew what else I could say or do to express my gratitude. :-)

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

Actually this my Holy Weak. No I didn't spell it wrong. When it comes to formalized religion I am the wholly weak. I am spiritual so I wish everyone, the good, the bad and the WTFs of the world, peace, a free ham, lots of butter on their mashed, and tons of funny looking eggs.
And yes to Colin, I will be visiting fellow bloggers. I guess I better update mine.
Great AIR and I mean great. And thank GOD Janet does not remember any of my queries.

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

AIR = WIR
I hate typing on my Kindle.

Amy Schaefer said...

I dunno, Carolynn. AIR could be Authors in Residence. That's us, right? Because we are certainly resident in this comment stream. And we are great. So, hooray for all of us!

Dena Pawling said...


I'm thinking of you Amy. Hope you're safe.

http://www.stripes.com/tsunami-warning-issued-for-parts-of-pacific-after-earthquake-1.337411

JulieWeathers said...

Colin,

Thank you for fixing the link. I've been listening to this all day to get pointers on how to defend myself.

I obviously need an umbrella and a large bible.

Julie

Sam Hawke said...

Eep, people looking at other people's blogs... *dusts off wordpress*

I look forward to poking around all of your houses too. :)