AletheaKontis.com

I really don’t have much to say this morning. I spent most of yesterday writing and making trips to the post office. I suspect today will be full of more writing and less post office.

Although, usually on days when there’s nothing to say, I end up posting like 3 times. We’ll see if this ends up being true today. In the meantime…Chapter Three is calling my name.

Happy Wednesday, everybody.

Now that she’s got a bit of time between Return of the Dapper Men and her next book, artist J. K. Lee is filling her Etsy shop with fabulous new holiday ornaments, like this guy above. I seriously advise snapping one (or many) up now while they’re 1.) available and 2.) affordable. After USA Today called Return of the Dapper Men a “classic,” I can’t imagine either of those options will be open for very long. And I will be one miserable little girl the first year I can’t get a J.K. Lee ornament, let me tell you. I’m torn to pieces about missing ornament gulag as it is.

So hie yourself over to Janet’s Arts & Sundries shop and grab them now, while they’re still available!

See, now your Christmas shopping is almost done! You’re welcome.

“Don’t dress your cat in an apron
Just cause he’s learning to bake
Don’t dress your horse in a nightgown
Just cause he can’t stay awake…”
–Dan Greenburg “Don’t Dress Your Cat in an Apron”,  from Free to Be You & Me (1974)

I have this song/poem on my iPod shuffle that I take to the gym — Casey put it on one of the first (and historically still the best) mixed tapes she ever gave me. I love it because of the message, telling children that you can be whatever you want to.

One of the things Casey’s Mom always told her was to try and get through high school without having a label. She advised her to make friends with everyone…which she did. Everybody knew Casey. She was a cheerleader and the lead in Alice in Wonderland and the President of the Conservation Society, and every guy in school wanted to date her because she was a cute little blonde thing. To the best of my knowledge, she succeeded in going labelless — everyone who remembers Casey remembers just that: Casey. If she had any label, that was it. She was my role model…and in many ways, still is.

She was the original Princess.

I mention this poem because it played on my iPod this morning about 2 seconds before The Today Show (I swear, the gym TVs don’t have any other channel) featured a piece about the woman (“Sarah”) who everyone (including me) linked to a few days ago, with her infamous “My Son is Gay” Halloween blog. (Here it is again, for those who haven’t read it. It’s really well done.) The crux of the essay is that Sarah’s 5-year-old son wanted to be Daphne for Halloween, so she got him the costume. The mothers of her child’s classmates had fairly nasty things to say on the subject, and came off as sounding judgmental and ridiculous. Because they were.

When I look at this child, dressed up on a day MADE FOR DRESSING UP, I think, “What an awesome kid. What a great sport. What an original mind. Well done! You look great!” I don’t think, “Oh my god, this kid is gay.” What? I mean, where do you even get that? Dressing in women’s clothes does not make you homosexual. It makes you an actor. Eddie Izzard = not gay. Here are some other fairly well-known men, the majority of whom are/were not homosexual (ironically, the one gay member always played the straight man):

And for those of you who haven’t heard Dan Greenburg’s poem, here is a cute little girl I found on YouTube, whose mother filmed her reciting the poem in the bathtub. There are a couple of boys to be found on YouTube as well reciting the same poem, but Kate here is my favorite because she’s memorized it. And she’s smiley. And she squeaks.

Lots of errands to run today. Strategic hits, all of them…it’s kind of amazing how much we got done. SEARCH AND DESTROY, BABY.

Now, I am organizing art supplies. And then I will work on my novel. Maybe not necessarily in that order…but both need to be done.I am SO behind on NaNo…but I am so not worried, because I know I will do the work.

How’s your weekend shaping up?

Today is Guy Fawkes Day — one of my favorite holidays, thanks to Dianna Wynne Jones and the book Witch Week. I hope you have a wonderful day, no matter which side of the pond you’re on.

And because I am signing off the intarwebs to get some work done on this here NaNo book (curse Cooks Source and all the distracting hullaballoo yesterday morning), I will leave you with Mr. Angry Noodle. For no other reason than I think he is funny.Have a great weekend!

“Yes Monica, I have been doing this for 3 decades, having been an editor at The Voice, Housitonic Home and Connecticut Woman Magazine. I do know about copyright laws. It was “my bad” indeed, and, as the magazine is put together in long sessions, tired eyes and minds somethings forget to do these things.

But honestly Monica, the web is considered “public domain” and you should be happy we just didn’t “lift” your whole article and put someone else’s name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace. If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me! I never charge young writers for advice or rewriting poorly written pieces, and have many who write for me… ALWAYS for free!”

–Judith Griggs, Editor of Cooks Source, to author Monica Gaudio

***

I wish I was a lawyer, just so I could take this jerky editor to court. If you are a writer, you should know how big a bunch of crap this email is.

Please read the full story of how this Cooks Source (did you hear that, Google? COOKS SOURCE) editor blatantly stole content from Monica here.

Nick Mamatas also does a lovely job of covering the incident here.

Above all, if you are a writer, please share this message and pass it along. Don’t you dare stand for this crap. EVER. Thank you.

Here it is, in all its glory (unfortunately, it’s not very bright in the bedroom…I should have taken the picture before we moved it):

It is the Technomobili Multi-Function Espresso Computer Desk. We got it from Staples where — in addition to this desk being on sale — we got a free chair since it was over $120. Quite a good deal, if you happen to be in the market for a desk. You must have patience when putting it together because it will take you about 4 hours, but it’s very sturdy and totally worth it. I highly recommend this one.

I sent a Tweet when I got home from the gym yesterday morning, and then I took the day off from the computer. The Fairy Goddaughters were out of school and my new desk arrived and needed to be assembled (that only took about 4 hours).Ariell and I went for a ride and got Starbucks and went to the library. We made hamburgers for dinner. I watched a cheesy romance movie and then fell asleep watching FGB try and beat this skeletony-bat thing in a WoW raid. The girls and I finished off the night hanging out in the kitchen, eating apple-monkey-bread and talking about random stuff. It was wonderful.

It’s always refreshing when I banish myself from the electronic world and take a real, stress-free vacation.

Of course, now I have *that* many more words to catch up on with NaNoWriMo, three book reviews to write, and a novel to revise. Which I will do. Directly after a nice, long shower.

May you all have a productive day! Go NaNo!

Just a few, but fun stuff. I really had a great time with the pumpkins, and I thank FGB for twisting my arm and buying me some at the last minute. (Speaking of arms, carving two-and-a-half pumpkins is QUITE the triceps workout. Ow!)

Also, I forget how gorgeous the fall is further north. I’m so glad I came back to live here a while in it. I am once again reminded why this is my favorite season. The beauty takes my breath away sometimes.

Click here to see my Halloween 2010 album.

Yes, it’s that time again — All Saints’ Day and the start of NaNoWriMo. You guys know NaNoWriMo — National Novel Writing Month! It was established, in essence to prove to everyone in the world that yes, you too can be a writer. All you need to do is SIT YOUR BUTT DOWN AND WRITE. It’s just that easy.

50,000 words in one month — it’s tough, but not impossible.

I like to have a project ready for NaNo, though I don’t officially sign up. The first time I did it, I finished my novel at 36,000 words, in about 6 weeks. For me, this was PHENOMENAL. It didn’t matter that I didn’t hit 50K. I finished, and I proved to myself I could finish.

Now, since then that novel has doubled in size and been re-organized and added to and is much better…and it will soon make its way to my agent…but for my first try I still give myself props.

You don’t have to get to 50K. But you still have to try. Even if you get 30K — that’s 1000 words a day — you can accomplish a very great deal. I dare you all to try it with me! You can keep your word counts in the comments, if you like.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe the parts for my new desk just showed up. LET THE WRITING BEGIN!!