DISCLAIMER: This post is possibly inflammatory and most definitely sexist. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to. It’s all for fun and games/for entertainment purposes only. And because I’ve always wanted to start a cult. [Read more…]
#Team Blankie Post 2!
Hello, everyone!
I promised you more #TeamBlankie photos today, and here they are! Today’s post is fraught (I just love that word – “fraught!”) with unorthodoxy. Two of today’s featured writers have unorthodox blankies, but they are blankies nonetheless. Despite appearances, these unorthodox blankies are no less loved by their owners, and I am proud to count them among Blankiedom.
First up we have writer Stephanie Weippert. Her blankie began life as a scarf. She is pictured here with the both her blankie!scarf and her son’s baby blankie, as well as Galaya, the polydactyl cat that owns her. Stephanie writes on the less-conventional side of things (my favorite!). According to her Livejournal, that’s everything “from love stories to dystopias, including magic and space invasions.” She’s an awesome writer!
Thanks for sharing your pic and blankies, Stephanie! (And your furry muse!)
Next up we have one of the writers directly responsible for this fun-and-evil. The writer who coined the hashtag #TeamBlankie in the first place, Lindsay Robertson. She is pictured here with all that remains of a blankie that’s been loved for almost twenty-four years.
Lindsay graduated from university this summer with a B.A. in English (cue the song!), and instead of finding a job right away she decided to spend more time (all right, most of her time) writing YA urban fantasy. When she’s not being terrible at blogging regularly (she said it, I didn’t!), she enjoys impersonating a mummy.
Thanks for the pic, Lindsay (and for the cool hashtag I totally stole, and for the evil idea, and for making it fun, and for including one of my anthologies in the background of your pic. Flattery will get you everywhere. What? Of course I’m shallow! I’m mostly evil! Shallow = evil, right?)!
Rounding out this batch of unorthodoxy is #TeamBlankie participant Johanna Harness. She writes YA dystopian fairytales and MG contemporary. You want to talk about cool hashtag coinage? Johanna coined the whole #amwriting chat community thing, and is awesome at helping writers both professional and aspiring with their writing goals. She’s brilliant and pictured here wrapped in her blankie with her laptop on her head. She literally has writing on the brain here, people. You could only hope to be so dedicated to your profession!
Thanks for your awesome, Johanna! (And the pic, too!)
Keep those fantastic pics coming, writer peeps! You know who you are!
Until next time, go #TeamBlankie, and remember, there’s no “i” in “team!”
“There is a ‘me’ though, if you jumble the letters up a little bit.” – House, M.D.
#TeamBlankie Inaugural Post!
Hello, all!
I put out the call for photos of writers with their blankies, and behold! Responses! Awesome responses!
As promised, I post for your viewing pleasure, #TeamBlankie victims! “Participants!” I meant “participants!” In order to avoid image-heavy posting for those who might have slow or unhappy connections, I’ll keep these in batches of three #TeamBlankie writers per post!
Since I’m the one “hosting” the #TeamBlankie party, I figured I should probably pony up and start us off. It’s only fair, right? To ask you all to do something I’m not willing to do myself…that’s just not right. So! Here you are!
Here I am. Dina James, herself. Also known as “Our Lady of the Blankie,” pictured with the Blankie of Ultimate Softness.
Here’s another of Our Lady of the Blankie, being not so reverent:
I’m sure if you’re here you know about pretty much all you need to about me, but in case you don’t I’ll reiterate for you. I am Dina James, Chronicler of the Paranormal (which is cooler than saying “I write about vampires and other things that don’t supposedly exist.”), tea junkie and mostly evil. If you want to know more, check out my website to learn all you could ever hope to know about me.
Our next #Team Blankie vict- er…participant is none other than the wonderful (local for me!) PacNorWest author of the undead, Mark Henry. His blankie has EYES! Check it out! It’s alive! ALLIIIIIVEEE! Mark said I could have his blankie, but I had to share, so here it is! I’m sharing! Just like we learned in to do kindergarten.
Thank you, Mark, for being awesome and having a great sense of humor! (And sharing your blankie!)
The next victim to fall prey to the power of the blankie is writer Jess Ring. She writes many different genres. However, science fiction and fantasy for young adults is her favorite. She is also a screenwriting student and enjoys that medium a great deal. Check out her Twitter feed here! Jess has an awesome cat and fantastic color on the wall behind her! I want that room in my house!
Thanks for the pic, Jess!
Need more blankie!love? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post featuring more writers and their blankies.
Go #TeamBlankie!
Blanket Post
I know, I’ve been absent from the blog for awhile. I’ve been absent from most online things for awhile, so don’t feel as though I’ve just been neglecting the blog. Oh, no. I’m an equal-opportunity neglector, however this is not the point of this post.
This post is about blankies.
More to the point, I was on Twitter tonight broadcasting the fact that I have in my possession, wrapped around me at this very moment, a thing of awesome.
It is a blankie.
Not just any blankie.
This is the Blankie of Ultimate Softness (+25 to snuggles and waylay for those playing at home).
As I said on Twitter, it makes me want to run up to random strangers yelling, “FEEL! FEEL THE SOFT! OMG!”
This led to a discussion about blankies and being too old for blankies and to make a long story short, the hashtag #TeamBlankie was born, coined by writer Lindsay. Another contributor to this latest Evil Idea is writer Marissa, owner of a Blanket of Coolness.
So this got me to thinking about writers and blankies. #TeamBlankie people all seemed to be writerly people who love their blankies…. Writers on blankies….
Well? What would you do with that information? Writers don’t have calendars and layouts and stuff like heavy metal bands with hot chicks on cars. So you know what I decided?
I decided writers need a PHOTOSHOOT.
This is the official call for those photos. The topic?
THE WRITE BLANKIE. (Yes, yes, I know, but this is creativity late at night after a long day on short notice. Shut up and take the photo already.)
Here’s what this is about/for/what to do:
1) You must be a writer. You don’t have to be published, but if you’re not yet, you do have to have aspirations of that nature/be of the writerly sort. Yes, poetry counts, as does non-fiction. Writing is writing.
2) Take a photo of yourself on/wrapped in/with your favorite blankie (or blankies). You can be as creative as you want here. Toss some of your books (or your favorite books) on your blankie with you. YOU MUST BE IN THE PHOTO, not just your blankie(s). Don’t give me any excuses about how you’re not in shape or you hate how you look or whatever. Take the bloody photo, wuss. Wrap yourself up in your blankie if you don’t want anyone seeing anything more than your face. Wear sunglasses. I don’t care. You just need to be in the photo.
3) KEEP IT CLEAN. I don’t care if you want to pose on your back deck in your bikini or in your altogether with one of your books over your junk, but PLEASE do make sure your naughty bits are covered. These pics are going to go up on this blog/my FB/online, etc. so keep that in mind when you take it. I’m not going to post amateur porn here, people. This is supposed to be fun.
4) Send your photo to dina {at} dinajames {dot} com with the subject line “#TeamBlankie Photo.” Send your pic in the body of the mail – NOT AS AN ATTACHMENT. I get a lot of spam and I don’t want your photo to be caught in the filter or deleted. Also, I don’t open attachments, so if you want your photo up on the blog with your blankie, send me a photo the proper way! Also, by sending me your photo, you’re giving me permission to post it on my blog, so be aware of that before you send it! If you’re okay with me using your photo for a possible calendar or something creative later, tell me that too.
5) Tell me when you send the photo how you want to be credited on the blog. If you have a link you want me to include, I will do so. I’ll write something like “This is _____. S/he writes ____, and can be found at _____.” Then I’ll include some clever/witty/evil comment about your awesome.
If I get enough photos, I may think about putting together a calendar for people to either buy or maybe just for fun. Who knows where this could go! I need photos first!
Come on, writer peeps! Let’s have some fun with our blankies!
EDIT: There’s no deadline for these pics, really. Whenever you get a minute would be cool. We’ll just keep this thing going however long we want to! I think two weeks ought to do for word to filter around and fun pics to start rolling in, so whenever!
Updatey Thing
It’s Friday, and I’ll once again try the “Five Things Make A Post”, thing.
1. #dietgame on Twitter – for those who don’t know what #dietgame is, see my previous post on the subject. The weeks are from Monday to Sunday, and this Monday will start the final third of the twelve week round. REPEAT – MONDAY MAY 10th STARTS WEEK 9 of this round of #dietgame. For those who are playing, when you give your reports, you’re reporting on the previous week’s results. i.e. this week’s report is over how well you did or how badly you sucked LAST week. I have a spreadsheet with the reports listed, which I had to reformat today because it was getting too big. Rest assured I have it straightened out now, and some of you are SLACKING OFF BIGTIME. Just because I’m not around to kick your ass doesn’t give you any excuse to LOLLYGAG!
We get new players every round, so if you’re reading this and want to join, you’re welcome to start playing with us during any week. Just follow the rules and you’re on your way!
As for personal progress on #dietgame…let’s just say I’m nowhere near my goal. What muffins? They were on sale! And I gave the cake away! There was no way I was going to eat more than one tiny piece of that. Costco is so wasted on me.
Muffins aside, despite still being mostly good about my food choices, I’ve been backsliding/going the opposite way, which I intend to remedy immediately. Why am I backsliding, you ask? Well, that leads us to –
2. TMI – I’ve addressed TMI in one of my vlogs, and those who are familiar with my idiosyncrasies know that I’m not a real sharer-type. This is not to say that I don’t ask for help if I’m truly in need, but I generally don’t whine or even mention anything that goes on in my life that anyone could possibly offer sympathy for. There are exceptions to this. My animals, always, are an exception. The moment anything is wrong with my babies, I broadcast it. Things though like, say, a death in the family or major medical diagnosis or injury or whatever – those things I keep to myself. This is not to say that “when Dina is quiet you should start worrying”, because it’s not like that. I just don’t want people offering me their sympathies, which is why anyone would share something like a death in the family, right? To let people know they’re hurting and need comforting? Yeah, I don’t do that. I deal with things my way, and that’s, for the most part, alone.
And I like it that way.
I know, I get in a lot of shit for doing this. People, friends and family, get angry with me for dealing/coping with issues on my own/for leaving them out of the loop. “If you’d said something/if I’d known, I would have _____!”
Yeah. Exactly. That’s WHY I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t want them to respond at all, let alone like that.
I’m weird this way and I’m trying to be better about it. I’m fiercely independent, to a fault. To my own detriment, sometimes. I have a hard time handling compassion and compliments and nice things. Criticism? No problem. Criticize away. Insults? Go for it. I’m meaner than you are, I promise, and I’m secure in my existence. Tough I can handle. Compliments? Yeah…working on that.
What does that say about my psychological make-up, I wonder? Anyway, that’s fodder for a later ponder.
Next!
3. What does my mini-rant about TMI have to do with anything? Well, I’ve been busy. That’s the explanation. The fact that I’m even attempting to acknowledge that I haven’t been as around as I usually am shows actual concern and involvement on my part, I think. Rather than waiting for someone to eventually realize that I’m not up to my usual evil (and believe me, this gets noticed – I’m not sure this is a compliment. “Sure is quiet around here…wait…where’s Dina?”), I’m just posting it here. I’ve been busy. With what? TMI/personal stuff. I’ve said before, writers have lives. I have friends and family and concerns about bills and have to go grocery shopping and do laundry like everyone else, and sometimes “real” life gets in the way of online life.
Which brings me to –
4. “Real” vs. “online” life.
I’m one of these rare people that doesn’t have an “online persona”. Who I am online is exactly who you’ll see if you ever meet me. I make no bones about the fact that I’m rude, uncouth, tactless, and evil (mostly evil). I’m also (I will reluctantly admit before someone else calls me on it – you know who you are)…gah, I can’t even say it. All right! All right! I’m…kindofniceandlookoutforpeopleanddonatetothingsandcaresortofaboutcertainissues.
There. I said it. Before Skyla can accuse me of being all nice and stuff. I’m evil! EVIL I SAY!
Mostly.
But back to the subject. Real vs. online life. I realize that, while I do play a little more on the “evil” side of me a bit for laughs (it’s funny ’cause it’s true!), most people understand my evil sense of humor, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that. I’ve “met” some really, really awesome people via Twitter and Facebook, and I’m constantly amazed at the power of both things.
There are “real people” behind those usernames. While that can be annoying at times, like with pirates and trolls, most are just genuine people out to make a connection with other genuine people. I wish more douchebags would keep that in mind when they post things that make them look like the douchebags they are.
Unless they’re going for that…I don’t know…
And finally –
5. Just because I’ve been busy does not mean I haven’t been writing. On the contrary. I’m working, just not on anything that has a publication date set. And speaking of publication, I don’t have anything new to share with you all at the moment. All Wounds is still out on submission, and the submission process can take a long time. Don’t give up hope! I’ll let those patiently waiting know what’s up the moment I have anything I can share with you.
For those on the mailing list, there’s a newsletter coming out soon, I promise. I’ll be vlogging soon too…as soon as I have something to vlog about. I can barely come up with five things to BLOG about. A vlog takes a little more thought and effort.
So that’s all I have for you for now.
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