My Not-So-Secret Shame

Remember this?



Well, that's me watching the replay of the Glee finale last night.


But here's why it's so weird:  I'm not all that invested in the characters on the show.  Don't get me wrong--I enjoy the show.  The characters are not without their charm.  But the reason I watch it is for the singing.


I. Love. Choirs.


And they make me cry.  Almost without fail.


I used to be able to control it.  I used to be in a choir, for God's sake.  A Swing Choir.  Which is a lot like a Show Choir or a Glee Club.  At the time, I would have fought you to the death for saying it was the same.  We wore no sequins!  We sang jazz standards!  We were acapella or accompanied by only one piano!  Our choreography didn't suck!  But, really, it was Show Choir.  And I used to be able to sing all those songs without bawling.


As the years have passed, I have slowly become afflicted with a need to cry whenever I hear beautiful choral music.  In fact, I see my own Swing Choir about once a year at a Christmas performance, and I spend the whole time glassy-eyed and quivery-lipped.  It's pathetic.


I cry in the car all during the Christmas season.  I cry virtually every episode of Glee.  I cannot explain it.


But I do have greater sympathy for that pathetic little Sanjaya fan than I did at the time.


Does Glee make you cry?


- Liz

Open Letters

Dear Friday,


Thursday was not forthcoming with the sleep.  You're going to have to make do with caffeine and sugar.  Starting tonight, we're going on a sleep hygiene diet--promise.


Zzzzzz, 
Me




Dear Fall,


I think you know that you and I haven't exactly been friends in the past.  I hate the cold, and really it's all you have to offer.  Your pollen and mold, while I'm sure delightful in an Earth-renewing kind of way, make my eyes itch and my nose drip.  I appreciate the earlier sunsets a little, because my son is much more willing to go to bed when it's dark, but if we could somehow negotiate for a permanent 8:00pm set time, that would be great.  Also, if you want to put a cap on the cold weather in the 60-something range, I would be willing to reconsider my position on you as an all-around harbinger of suck to come.


With Hope,
Me




Dear WIP,


Let's pick up the pace.  We've done a lot more than this in a lot less time before.  You're just embarrassing me.  I'll bring the chocolate chip cookies and the fingers, you bring the work ethic.


Love,
Me




Dear Zit on my Forehead,


Can we be done now?


Thanks,
Me

Twitter Is...

         

a C.B. radio

a bathroom wall

a confessional

an ad hoc psychiatrist

the hive mind

the lazy man's research tool

a note passed in class

the margins of your notebook

a waiting room

a news channel

a suggestion box

the complaint department

a whisper in the dark

a giggle in Church

the echo off a canyon wall

a booster club

addicting

What did I miss?

- Liz

Weekend Roundup

I spent too long trying to
figure out if the two pics were
the same girl.

I was pleasantly surprised by Rachel Hawkins's Hex Hall.  I'm not an enormous paranormal fan, so I was expecting to find it acceptable, but not much more.  Instead, the voice made me drool with envy.  And the plot, while somewhat predictable, threw me a few twists that made me appreciate Hawkins's skill.  All in all, a big thumbs up and I'm looking forward to Demonglass.

My pathetic blogging efforts continue to be sporadic.  I have a great plan for a blog, but I can't find the video I need on-line, so it's not coming quickly.  Grr.

Bender.  HA!

Yesterday's "Futurama" marathon made me so freakin' happy it was a little pathetic.  Personally, I think it's the funniest cartoon on television--and yes, that includes "The Simpsons," "Family Guy," and "South Park."


My work on Chronic (still hate that title) is starting to pick up a bit.  Working on Chapter 8 right now, of an anticipated 24, so a third of the way done, I guess!  How crazy is that?  It does, however, mean I am just about to enter the dreaded Middle of the Book (cue suspenseful chord progression--duh-duh, DUHN!) so prepare for me to hate everything about it and think I'm a big fat hack.


On the query front, things are quiet.  Unfortunately, no news is not usually good news in the agenting world.  Especially when some of the agents in question are "No response means 'No'" people.  Right now, I've only got one lonely partial out in the world, but you just never know which one is going to be The One, right?  Right?  Hello?  Is this thing on?

J.A. Souders - who will probably want to
kill me for putting her picture here

My friend J.A. Souders is having a big ol' contest over at her blog.  She's giving away all kinds of goodies, from books to manuscript critiques and all you have to do is follow her blog.  Easy, peasy!  So go do it.  


So, how was your weekend?


- Liz

Check Out My Fancy Cover!

I was lucky enough to work with the astonishingly talented Wilette Youkey on a for-fun cover for my project, The Sorbet Guy. 


Check it out!!

So cute, right?!

Wilette is fabulous to work with, quick and obviously wicked good at what she does.  She asked me questions about what my characters look like, any important symbols in the book, and for examples of book covers that I like.  


What we ended up with was this chalkboard-based motif that tickles me no end.


If you want to see more of Wilette's amazing work, or see about using her services for a cover of your own, please check out her website.  You won't regret it.


I'm gonna go gaze at my cover and smile goofily for a while. 


- Liz

Author Bios, or One More Annoying Thing To Do Before You Get Published

Yesterday, the lovely C.A. Marshall wrote an excellent blog about author bios.  That's the little blurb about the author at the end of the book.  For those of you who don't know, the authors write those themselves.  It's all part of the package that an agent sends out to editors when you are "out on sub."  (A place I'd dearly like to be.)  

Yeah, that's right, after you've already tied yourself in knots over condensing your magnum opus into a two paragraph tease for your query, after you've suffered the slings and arrows of making a three-hundred page epic into a three-page synopsis that somehow manages to retain all the wit and wonder of your manuscript all while telling the cut-and-dry beginning middle and end of your story, you now have to talk about yourself in the third person.  And be interesting.

Good luck with that, right?

As is so often the case, this is a topic that seems to be swirling around the blogosphere of late.  Literary agent Natalie Fischer inaugurated her blog with a post that had a great tip about writing the dreaded Bio. To whit:

           Bio:

           (name) lives in (state) with her (husband/cat/parrot). An avid writer, she spends her days (job), and

           contributes to (blog/magazine/newspaper). (Title) was a (second/first/third) place winner in the (contest).

           (name) is currently hard at work on her next project, (wip).

Okay, so maybe that doesn't seem so hard.  But some of my favorite author bios have some sparkle.  Who doesn't want sparkle?  (Damn you, Twilight for ruining that word for me.)

Cassandra's blog contains some really excellent examples of bios from books she's enjoyed.  I added one of my favorites in her comments section, so I won't bother you all with rewriting that. 

I figured I would try my hand at this bio business.  You know, better be prepared for the inevitable, right?  (Dig me and my power of positive thinking.)  So here we go.

Simple version:

Liz Czukas lives in Wisconsin with her husband, son and cat.  The Sorbet Guy is her first novel.  An avid writer, she spends her days as a nurse and her nights hard at work on her next project, Chronic.

*THUD*  (That was the sound of me putting myself to sleep and hitting my head on the desk.)

Vampire-free Sparkle Version:

Liz Czukas lives outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her husband, son and the world's loudest, fattest cat.  The Sorbet Guy is her first novel.  During the day, she maintains her secret identity as a labor & delivery nurse.  At night, she spends all of her time writing, using the Internet to turn her brain to a well-informed soup and devouring as much pop culture as she can get her hands on.  Liz is hard at work on her next project, Chronic, due out from [fill in publisher here] in 2013.  She loves visitors at www.lizczukas.com, but makes no promises about refreshments.

So which one do you like better?

If any of you writer types want to share your bio in the comments, please do!  Maybe we can all help each other be sparkly sparkle sparks.  *Yurp!*  I think I just made myself throw up in my mouth a little.

- Liz

Testing, Testing...Is this Thing On?

Me for the last month

So how do you account for a near-month absence?  I have no idea.  I've put myself in a kind of suspended animation in late.  There are happenings in my life I could blame, but what it boils down to is the same--I simply haven't been blogging.  I don't know all of the reasons why, and I don't know if I'll be keeping up in the future any better than I have in the past three weeks.


For now, I'll give you all some updates, if you're interested.


1.  Still at work on my new work-in-progress, which is still titled Chronic, much to my dismay.


2.  Still waiting to hear from a whole lotta agents on my most recent batch of queries.


3.  I've been reading like a fiend lately, and I would highly recommend all of these to people:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson, and English As A Second Language by Megan Crane.


4.  Next week, Mockingjay comes out, and I'm so excited I might pee a little.


5.  My son started preschool last week (just a two week summer session before the real thing in fall) and it was heartbreaking, and exhilarating.  The handful of hours to myself each week stretch out before me like the most delicious buffet you've ever seen.


I'd love to promise that I'll be around more, but I just can't.  My own laziness knows no bounds.  In the meantime, know that I appreciate every one of you that comes to read, whether or not I know about it.


So what have you all been up to?


- Liz