onegrapeshy

Word-process. Read/write emails. Say "Good night" to my kids and chant "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo" with them 3 times. 

3. What fandom(s) are you most into at the moment?

Okay, I had to look up the definition of "fandom" on the Internet. I am into none. I watch very little TV. I will not be buying that Big Brother compulsory gadget to allow the US government to peer into my private life and that of my fellow unwitting citizens.

Starting in 2009, our TV will be for video-use only officially, as it already unofficially is. I got this idea from a friend yesterday and, to me, it's brillant.

Don't know what I'll do once the old analogue TV dies. Maybe I better go buy one now before the only ones available are the ones with Big Brother pre-installed.

"Big Brother" by Stevie Wonder.
Click the video to listen now, please, for the full interactive experience and the woo-ooh-woo Twilight Zone creepy effect that our current times demand. In case you can't understand the actor's first line, he says, "Thought crime is death." Sound familiar? It should after what the Patriot Act has done to our civil liberties.

 4. your favorite scent?

Freshly cut watermelon. Freshly cut grass (which smells like watermelon). Dove soap, original. Chocolate. 
 

5. What videogames are you playing at the moment?

None. Don't play them.

6. What is your theme song? 
 

"Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel. Please listen now to get the whole enchilada as in question #3 but without the 1984 Orwellian creepiness.
 

7. Do you trust easily?

Yes. And No. I trust easily but will lose it easily if I perceive there are signs that I should not trust. Want to become more trustworthy myself.

8. Do you generally think before you act, or act before you think?

I act first, typically. But am working on being more thoughtful. I'm getting better at it.

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?

Yes. Friends who caution me not to do the things they do routinely. I need to have a "thoughtful" conversation with them about this stuff. It pisses me off.

Deep breaths.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Also, I'm sure my kids will say: "But Mom, you do that to us all the time--preach what you don't practice." See? I'm already being thoughtful, mature, and self-reflective about this.

10. Do you have a good body-image?

Yes. Although my body is flabbier than it ever has been, I appreciate it more than ever. It helps me do stuff. What's not to like about that?

11. Is being tagged fun?
This is my first time being tagged. I am dodging the question as I type. Tagging back is allowing me to procrastinate when I should be revising a YA manuscript. But I am telling myself that I am not procrastinating. I am actually engaged in a creative writing exercise that is preparing me, mentally and physically, to actually tackle that manuscript.

12. What websites do you visit daily?
I've been going to PRLog.org to check to see how many visitors have been checking out my latest news release. I go to HuffingtonPost.com, but not daily. SgiBuddhism.org, but not daily. Yahoo News, usually each day I log on.

13. What have you been seriously addicted to lately?

Watermelon. But now that the weather is cooling down, the thrill is fading.

Cycling. Not at all looking forward to snow and the lack of bike-riding surfaces outside that it will mean.

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

She's so cool!

15. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head?

Now, "Big Brother" by Stevie Wonder. See #3 above.

16. What’s your favorite item of clothing?

My new Lee relaxed fit jeans. Whoever thunk up the concept of putting spandex in all kinds of fabric should win a Nobel Prize in something.

17. Do you think Rice Crispies are yummy?

Nope. It's been over 10 years since I ate them, I bet. I doubt that they've gotten any yummier since then.

18. What would you do if you see saw $100 lying on the ground?

If I thought I could possibly return it the owner, I'd try to do that. If there was no way I could find out who lost it, I'd keep it.

19. What items could you not go without during the day?

Toilet paper.

20. What should you be doing right now?

Revising my YA  manuscript.

I'm tagging: illustrator222, cindachima, andmeredith_wood

Clevelanders, Laurie Knowlton, author of 31 picture books, is offering a $125 workshop starting Wednesday, September 17 for writers whose picture books manuscripts are close to the finish line.

Participants will:

Polish manuscripts
Talking about ways to HOOK editors with marketing ideas
Making packets of extended activities to send to schools before vsits
And more!

For more details , contact Lauria via her website, Laurieknowlton.com.

If you can, around 3pm tomorrow, Tuesday, September 9, 2008, tune in to hear me live on Book Bites for Kids--a BlogTalkRadio program online at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bookbitesforkids. After that, the show will be archived so you can still listen to it.

I'll be talking about my book Taneesha Never Disparaging and also book marketing and promotion stuff.

The show is hosted by children's book author Suzanne Lieurance who has a free e-book available for children's book writers on her website. This link goes to info about my book and the free e-book:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bookbitesforkids/2008/09/09/Book-Bites-for-Kids-M-LaVora-Perry-is-Todays-Guest

Also, Suzanne's a founding faculty member of the Writing for Children Center, which offers yet another free e-book for children's lit writers at http://writingforchildrencenter.com/.

Last week I shot a segment on a Cleveland TV show to publicize the upcoming Northern Ohio Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (N. OH. SCBWI) conference and read from my new book, Taneesha Never Disparaging. Do not ask me what the heck was going on with my eyes because I have no idea. It took me an hour to download this video clip so that I could finally watch it. I can't get the program on my home TV. I barely get any stations at all on it. We don't do TV much here. Anyway, I was batting and blinking and fluttering so much I'm surprised I was able to even see.

But I read live from page 1 of Taneesha Never Disparaging. That was cool. I enjoyed it. Host Leon Bibb helped a lot in that regard. He's so smooth. Plus my co-N. OH SCBWI partner, Jean Daigneau, carried herself like a pro which made the morning breezy. Maybe that's why I blinked so much--the breeze was in my eyes...  
 

New book reviews came in this week. For now, I'm not posting them him anymore. To read them, please go to my website and click "Reviews": www.mlavoraperry.com. 

Not sure if this is a trend but I wrote a poem last night, prompted by frustration over people who try to promote powerlessness. Anyway, you can check it out on my other blog, which is less writerly than this one. That blog is more political and more (sometimes) Buddhist, too. The Poem's titled "Guidance--It's and Optional Thing (This isn't Hypnosis)." Check it out here:

http://mlavoraperry.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/guidance-its-optional/

I am still out of town. Just popping in to post a link to a conference that, if any of the last ones are an indication, should be great.

Check it out here:

http://www.prlog.org/10090107.html

Up way to late--again.   Is it any wonder my eye looks red in this user pic?

To bed now.

LaVora

It rained today. A lot. So much and so fiercely that, to my daugther's deep sadness, they closed the pool for the swimming lesson she was going to have today due to the fear of lightning striking.

When I was a kid, if it rained like it did today worms would have been everywhere. 

I haven't seen one.  Mud we've got plenty of but worms, no.

My mother's noticed the same thing. She likes to fish. She said she never used to have to "buy" bait. She could go out in our back yard and dig up all the worms she needed. 

Not anymore. 

My stepson and his wife live on the other side of town--in a suburb that's more countrified than where we live. According to my son, they've got plenty of worms. I have to take his word for it because I didn't witness this myself, but my son says his 3 year-old nephew was scooping up worms like crazy in his back yard last time we were there.

So, this de-worming thing seems to definitely be related to being in an urban environment. To pollution. That boiling frog that doesn't know it's boiling better wake up and smell the broth, I think.

What about you? Do you have worms or not? And if you have them are they as plentiful as ever?

Just curious.

East Cleveland gets bad-talked a lot--even by people who live here. But I think a place is only as good as the people that inhabit it. And we've got some good people and people who do bad things here just like everywhere else. 

I think my city's on a serious comeback (it better be. I live here!). I was raised on the east side of Cleveland (Mount Pleasant), lived in NYC for 7 years, and lived here in East Cleveland since 1992, when I married my guy. 

East Cleveland is near Cleveland's cultural hub--the orchestra, universities, museums, etc. It's a great location for that reason and because of the park I love--Forest Hill--one of the largest urban ones. Below are some of its geographical and architectural treasures. It has others.

I'm spiking this entry with lines from my unpublished YA HIDDEN JEWEL. Okay, I'm totally biting off of Jeannine Garsee (onegrapeshy ) who posted lines from her book. Before, After, & Somebody in Between,  with Cleveland photos. Her new one, Say the Word is also Cleveland-based. Hope you consider this the higher form of flattery, Jeannine...