A Summer of Conferences - Part 2 Comic Con

Any resemblance I may display to Sheldon Cooper on 

BIG BANG THEORY is purely coincidental. 

Comic Con, how do I love thee?

Let me count the ways...

Meeting Eddie McClintock from the show 

WAREHOUSE 13. 

Super funny and sweet person. Love the show. 

Best t-shirt EVER!

Hilarious live radio comedy show. Grab their podcasts immediately! Will Wheaton was the guest performer. Extra Bonus - Tahereh Mafi and Ransom Riggs were in the audience. I had a chance to channel my fangirl self and meet them. Both charming and gracious. Isn't it cool when people you admire turn out to be wonderful!

New backpack.

Old friend. 

Daughter becoming Viking.

Panels - Panels - Panels

The wild wit of Shannon Hale moderating a Fairy Tale Remix panel that included Cornelia Funke and Marissa Meyer.

Simon and Schuster Panel that made me commit my entire year's income to buying books. 

(I just happened to win an entire gift bag of middle grade releases - HARDCOVERS - Whoo Hoo)

YA Panel that made me commit next year's income to more books. Yes, that is Margaret Stohl and Scott Westerfeld. Kami Garcia and Tahereh Mafi among other wonderful authors are down the line.

All right everyone - channel you inner BIG BANG THEORY - and beeline it to Comic Con next July. Even if you don't get "official" passes, there are tons of offsite venues, performances, and fun.

I'll be waiting...

And to quote Dr. Sheldon Cooper, 

"I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested."

Batting Slump

Ever been in that twilight where your dedication to the routine of sitting down everyday to write is intact, but you feel disconnected from the material appearing on the page? It’s not quite a writer’s block where you are locked up so tight nothing flows, but your words feel more like hiccups than a good breath. I’m dubbing my slow trickle period a "Writer’s Slump," like a batting slump in baseball. We show up to the park in our uniforms, but our bats don’t connect crisply with the pitches.

Here are some of the culprits that have been known to throw me into a slump: 

• Querybummertosis (for symptoms see Tahereh Mafi's awesome post)
• Whenever I have to write report cards
• Missing the WIP I just finished and feeling unfaithful working on something new
• Not enough food in the house
• A chapter that just doesn’t work no matter how I tweak it
• Feeling fat
• Grown children who want something from me
• Taxes
• My characters aren’t whispering in my ears
• Dirty laptop screen
• I’m not waking up in the middle of the night with an “ah ha” moment
• Oprah’s last episode

What did I do to connect with the pitch and deafen the crowd with the crack of my bat? 

• Showed up every day in front of my keyboard
• Wrote snippets not connected to my current WIP
• Walked in the moonlight
• Watched a movie
• Plucked a book off my TBR pile and devoured it
• Listened to my favorite music

 What throws you into a slump and how do you pull yourself out of it?

AND NOW IT'S TAG TIME…

Thanks to the wonderful Deana Barnhart for tagging me. So here goes:

Do you think you’re hot?

I’m glistening. *dabs face with cool cloth*

Upload a picture or wallpaper that you’re using at the moment. 

 My next car

When was the last time you ate chicken meat?

I had eye-rolling, delicious hibachi chicken in a peanutty sauce at a Japanese restaurant early in the week.

The song(s) you listened to recently.

“Misery” by Maroon 5 and “Rhythm of Love” by Plain White T’s.

What were you thinking as you were doing this?

Smoothie or Ice Cream?

Tag you’re it…

 Lisa Gail Green

Julie Musil

Jessica Love

Michelle L. Brown