Daily Life
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Upcoming Sneak Peek!
Just a heads up–newsletter subscribers are getting a hilarious sneak peek at The Rivalry of Renegade X next month! If you’re not signed up, you can do so here: https://www.subscribepage.com/e7w5g1. (I’m always paranoid that I’m going to spell it “sneek peak,” but looks like I made it through. *phew*) Also, you may have noticed, if you’re viewing this on my site, that the website has a new look. I loved the old theme, but it had some issues, like not showing the drop down menus properly and layering the heading so it was on top of literally everything. So, at least for now, I’ve switched to something cleaner and easier to deal with.…
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The Ten Year Renegade-iversary
Ten years ago, I was just finishing up The Rise of Renegade X. (It was the summer after I graduated college–at 25, not 22 like you might be thinking–and the last Harry Potter book had just come out–I remember devouring it in between writing sessions.) I wrote book 1 in a 28-day whirlwind from concept to finish, and it was by far the best thing I’d ever written. (In fact, for a long time, I worried I’d never write anything as good as that, which thankfully wasn’t true.) A year and a half later, I added another 20k for an editor (which I wrote in a week), but otherwise, it was the same…
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End of the Year Post
10 years ago, I was working at Burger King (a really, really crappy Burger King where the fries were cold and the pop was uncarbonated, or at least the flavors anybody cared about were–it shut down just after New Year’s that year) and thinking I was really close to finding an agent and getting published. Â LOL. Â (I was nowhere near it.) Â At some point that fall, I’d gotten a slightly personalized rejection letter from an agent whose name I can’t even remember now. Â Looking back, it was obviously a form letter, but it had my name on it and was on the agency letterhead. Â Slightly thicker paper, cream colored. Â Not…
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Back from Everfree NW!
Back from the pony convention!  Not that I was really gone, since I live here, but whatever. For those of you who don’t know, Everfree NW is the local My Little Pony convention.  I used to watch the original My Little Pony back in the early 80s, though I find that one doesn’t really hold up that well now that I’m an adult.  But the new version of the show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is AMAZING.  It’s on Netflix.  Go check it out if you’ve never seen it. Anyway, this was my first time at Everfree and my first time being a vendor at a  con.  (I make…
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Trip to the EMP and ALA
Went to the EMP/Sci-fi Museum here in Seattle this week. Â The sci-fi museum is probably my favorite museum ever because, well, to be perfectly honest, because it has things from TV. Â And I love things from TV! Â I mean, just look at that Dalek! Â I got to see that in real life and it was so amazing. Â Kinda shabby up close–was made in 1988–but still one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Another highlight from the trip was seeing Mr. Pointy and Nighthawk, two of the stakes used on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Â (I mean, you remember Mr. Pointy, don’t you?) Â I stared at these things for way…
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Gamification, Behaviorism, and My Cat
This week in my Meaningful Gamification class, we’re studying behaviorism and how rewards are used to affect behavior. Â So basically people have studied how doling out rewards/in what ways they’re doled out affects learning. Â So if you have someone push a button to get a reward, but they only get a reward at one minute intervals, then they learn not to bother pushing the button until that one minute mark. Â But if you make the rewards come at random times, so that the person never knows when pushing the button will get them something, then they learn that behavior really well and it becomes an addictive “checking” habit. When I…
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I Exist Again!
As of now I just finished my last final for summer semester! Â Now I have two weeks off before it all starts up again… Book wise, I have not forgotten about you all who are diligently waiting for The Trials of Renegade X. Â I’ve had to put it on hold for a bit while I work on finishing up my dark YA fantasy, Fire and Chasm, which needs to go back out on sub. Â And I’ve been working with the amazing Karen Kincy (author of Other, Bloodborn, and the upcoming Foxfire) on the Steampunk Book of Awesome. Â Two books at once is about all I can handle, but as soon…
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Life Changer – Writing sans Internet
Once upon a time, in 2004, in a faraway land called Bellingham, WA, where the sky, the earth, and the sea are all the same shade of gray, I got it into my head that I wanted a portable writing device. Â I had a desktop at the time and I wanted to be able to write anywhere, whether that meant when I was out of the apartment or just when I was sitting on the couch. Â I did a lot of research and discovered the NEC Mobile Pro. Â (Which, as you can see if you follow the link, is also gray.) Â It was super portable, had an actual keyboard (not…
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I’m Only Happy When It Rains – A NW Girl’s Ballad
So you know that Garbage song, I’m Only Happy When It Rains? Â Yeah, well, it took me forever to realize that song was about being emo. Â Not like I’m actually only happy when it rains, but when you grow up in the NW, especially in some sort of black hole rain shadow, a rainy day is so comforting. Â I got on this subject because yesterday it rained, and it was cold and chilly and wet and we had the windows open so all of that could blow in. Â A good rainy day, where you can hear the rain outside and smell it in the air, always makes me feel safe…
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“My wings are so pretty!” :/
So I was at the store earlier today and saw one of the horrendously non-canon toys Hasbro makes for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Â They have a talking Princess Celestia who is not only the wrong color (she’s white, not pink, in the show), but when you press the button sticking out of her flank, she says the stupidest, most vapid things that are SO NOT LIKE HER in the show AT ALL. Â When I pushed the button, she said, “My wings are so pretty!” Â And I laughed out loud in the store because it was just so wrong. Â I pushed it again and her wings lit up with…