OMG! You can totally see her double spaces.

Up until recently, I had no idea that double spaces after a period were so offensive to many industry professionals.

Apparently back when there were monospaced typefaces (yeah, look up the word) for things like typewriters and DOS documents, a double space after the period was deemed necessary so you could easily see where one sentence ended and another began.

Now that most fonts are proportional, the status of double spacing has been changed from aesthetically pleasing to unnecessary, annoying and unprofessional? 

Oh COME ON!!! 

Does it really (I mean really) make that much of a difference?

Apparently yes. 

Depending on who you ask.

Arguments against double spacing:

They create holes in the page that jump out at you and are annoying.

They’re old fashioned.  (Old fashioned?  I’m only twenty-eight years old for crying out loud!  When did schools start teaching kids to type with only one space after a period? Cause mine obviously missed the memo.) 

My arguments in defense of continued double spacing: 

Double spaces are prettier.  Ex:

Three blind mice. Three blind mice. See how they run. 

(Are you feeling the claustrophobia?  Are you?  I know I am)

Three blind mice.  Three blind mice.  See how they run. 

(Admit it- It’s like taking a nice fresh breath between sentences.  Really.)

A double space gives the writer and the reader the time to breath, to think- that one extra second to assimilate the information from the sentence that came before.  We need it!

They say it sticks out.  I say it looks cleaner.

 Pot-A-to / Pot-AH-to.

Sure, it wouldn’t be moving mountains to just pay attention and train yourself to put one space after a period.  But it’s the principle of the thing!  -- Like why I won’t ever use the word ‘sneaked’ in place of ‘snuck’.  (*shivers* - word still gives me the willies)

What do you think?  Should industry professionals make such a big deal about double spaces?   Are they really that offensive?  Do you still use them or have you been able to train yourself out of them?

PS- I had a fantastic time combing the blogosphere for clues to DL HAMMONS WHODUNNIT contest and got to check out bloggers I’d never met before!  The prizes are insane and this is probably the most fun and original blogging contest I’ve ever participated in so check it out!

Just Kiss Already Blogfest

In honor of the big V-Day I've joined in Christina Lee's and Stina L's Just Kiss Already Blogfest!  Below is a 250 word excerpt from my YA contemporary romance Love Potion N° NOT!.  Be sure to check out the other entries here.  Have a great Valentines Day everyone!

Craig turned towards her, shaking his head.  His eyes flickered over her features.  “I don’t think you’re a loser, if that’s what you mean.”  He took her hand in his and they looked at each other for a moment; crystal blue eyes meeting deep brown. 

She barely had time to think before he closed the distance between them in one step and his lips were on hers, nudging her head upwards gently.  Avery started in panic, eyes wide and lips pliant beneath his kiss.  Warmth from his body seeped through her until her eyes slowly fluttered closed, her lips finally working against his.  She ran her fingers up through his soft hair while Craig’s arms circled her, pulling her closer to him.  He inched her back toward the brick wall, finally pinning her in place as the kiss grew heated, their mouths meeting harder and tongues sliding together in perfect rhythm.  Avery pressed against him and he pressed back, one hand gripping the back of her thigh.

BAM!  The door to the parking lot slammed open and Craig pulled away, breathless.  “Jesus.” He turned away from the doorway where students began to flow out into the parking lot, signaling the show had ended.  Avery gripped the wall behind her, chest rising and lips swollen.  They swayed inwards, hungry to take up where they had left off. 

“Hey Craig!”

Craig’s head flew up, the spell broken.  “Shit.”  His eyes grazed over Avery’s body once more before he pushed away from the wall.  “I gotta go.”

On Vacation Much?!

That’s right.  In France we get two weeks off in February.  We also get two weeks off in April, in October, and in December/January for the holidays.  Then we’re off for the summer at the end of June.

For those French people who don’t work for the school system, vacation time is around eight weeks total on average.

That’ s two months paid vacation a year.  And they can take it all at once if they see fit.

Which is why, I suppose, the French make such a big deal out of ‘going on vacation’  or ‘Les Vacances!’.

It’s something you have to do- a part of the yearly circle of events. 

In the summer, most of the French population gravitates towards the south of France.  In the winter, they go to the Swiss Alps for skiing. 

Don’t have the money?  The Center for Family Allocations will PAY for your family to go spend a couple weeks in the south so that your children can get out of the city for some fresh air.  Yes, the French Riviera is a necessity for normal childhood development.

THAT is how important vacation is to the French.  It’s downright sacred.

Now, growing up in the U.S., we had plenty of summer vacation time.  But that’s a little different than actually going somewhere on vacation.

We didn’t go on vacation, vacation came to us!  There were carnivals, fairs, 4^th of July barbeques, shopping mall trips, and days at the beach or the lake.

When I tell this to my French peeps they look at me with such pity.  ‘Oh you poor thing!  You’ve never seen the south of France?  We’ll you’ve just never been on vacation!’

In truth, I don’t feel like I missed out.  Most of my vacation was spent hanging around my neighborhood, going swimming in our little above ground pool or in the neighbor’s pool, running barefoot through the woods by our house, or going for walks with my best friend across the street and waiting for the ice cream truck. 

Yes, the ice cream truck.

If you didn’t ever experience the wonder of the ice cream truck, Eddie Murphy just about sums it up in the skit below.  (Oh -If swearing makes you skittish…um, you probably shouldn’t watch.)

Have a great weekend everyone!

*CQG*

If I Were a Rich Girl

Last week’s rejection got me thinking.  What would I do if I were filthy rich?  Would I still write?  (you know- in between traveling and eating out a different restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner? )

Would I still pursue an agent?

I suppose being richer than God (as my father would say) could facilitate the process.  I could fly to every writer’s conference all over the world until they finally get sick of me and offer to take on my book.   Or bribe someone.

But would I do it?   Or would I hold out for true love?

And what about self publishing?  If I had the money to publish my own books, market them, buy publicity and pay to have them put on the shelves at all the leading stores would I do it? 

And the answers I came up with were pretty surprising:

YES, of course I would do it!

*snort*  

 Just joking

But really, I would write no matter what.  It’s become a part of who I am. 

And truth be told it brings me joy when others read my work and fall in love with the characters I’ve spent so much time with.  It’s like every person who reads them makes them more real. 

Do I think my books are worthier than any others that are already in print or about to be published? 

Hell no!

But I do think they ARE worthy.  They have worth and they’re entertaining in their own right.

If I believe in them-  I have to believe they’re worthy enough to earn their own agent, own publisher, own readers without money being thrown around. 

Even if I end up old and grey before this happens. (which is looking like a serious possibility at this point)

It’s like the situation in day-time soap operas where the rich corporate boss pays people off to accept his kid in their elite school/club/law firm.

The kid is always so pissed when he finds out.

Because it’s like their father didn’t believe they had what it took to begin with.  And even though my books won’t slam the door in some dramatic exit if they discover their editor received a private donation, it’s still a disservice I don’t think I’d be willing to do them.

What about you?  What would you do if you were a rich girl or a ‘reech mahn?’ (Is it just me, or did that come out sounding Jamaican?  I was going for fiddler on the roof Russian.  Oh well.  Off to study how to write dialects…)

FFC Contest Winner

So we had some pretty interesting entries for the Guess That Freaky-French Commercial Contest!  

Entrants watched the freaky-french commercial that featured basically a whole city just…well, making out, and gave their best guesses as to what was being sold.

Among the guesses were:

McDonalds

Viagra

Glasses

Allergy Medicine

Deodorant

Life insurance

Dating site

Heart Medicine

Steel toed work boots

Window cleaner

Chocolate

Chap stick

 Gas-X

Eyeglass cleaner

 Jeans

 Skin cream

 Acne medication

 Tooth whitener

Contact lenses

Velcro

Aspirin

Mouth wash 

Well, the commercial was for a well known brand of GLASSES  ‘Krys’ who has just come up with a new one-year insurance policy for their customers--And I guess it really makes everyone wanna make out.

the Winner of the book ‘Personal Demons’ is :

  GINA from Writer’s Blog! 

Congratulations Gina! Please be sure to email me your coordinates so I can send you the book!

Thanks so much to all of you who commented on my Ten Sucky Things post.  Rejection doesn’t get easier, especially when you come so close, no matter how long you’re at this.  I usually deal with it in several phases. 

Phase 1: Flatness “I knew this would happen.”

Phase 2: Realization “NOOOooooooo!  Why God, WHY!?”

Phase 3: Tears

Phase 4:  Comfortable numbness.  “Put yourself together woman! You’ve got responsibilities!  There’s no crying in baseball!”

Phase5:  “But NooooooOOOOOO!”

Phase6:  Frantic Binge Querying.  “SOMEONE must be out there for me.  I have to find them!!!!”

Phase 7:  New Requests come in.  “Hmmmn.  Maybe THIS will be the one!”

Rejection

Repeat

What are your phases of grief when it comes to rejection?  

Have a great Monday people!

*CQG*

Ten Sucky Things That Would Still Feel Better Than a Form Rejection on a Full or Partial MS

Due to not one but TWO heartbreaking rejections this week, my MS and I are interrupting our normally scheduled programming in favor of a much needed Ten Sucky Things That Still Feel Better Than a Full MS Rejection

         1. Realizing you’re out of toilet paper in an empty public bathroom.  After number two.  While on a date.

2.       2. No available parking spaces within a one mile vicinity of your very-important-appointment that you’ve waited months for. 

3.       3. Kids dropping gum in your hair while you sleep that gets so stuck and ground in to your head that you have to cut it out and deal with the consequences.

4.    4. Permanent marker on your face.

5.    5. Dropping the boeuf bourgignion you spent hours preparing on the floor because you forgot potholders.  And you burned your hands.  And you were having your boss over for dinner.

 6.Bird crap on the car you JUST finished washing.

7.    7. When for some god-forsaken reason, your dishes come out of the dishwater dirtier than when they went in.

8.    8.A flickering light that you push on because it usually stops the flickering.  But this time the glass light fixture just pops off and falls on your head.  (yes, this has happened to me.  And yes, it totally hurt.  But not as much as the form rejection.)

9.    9. No internet for a whole WEEK

       10.  Dropping your cell phone in the toilet


       Any other sucky things you guys can think of that feel better than a Full MS rejection?

      My MS is singing her usual song.  Please join in if you know the tune.

 Somewhere out there beneath the pale moonlight,

 Someone’s thinking of me and loving me tonight.

Somewhere out there someone’s saying a prayer

that we’ll find one another in that big somewhere out there.

And even though I know how very far apart we are,

it helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

And when the nightwind starts to sing a lonesome lullabye,

it helps to think we’re sleeping underneath the same big skyyyyyyyy!

Ooooooh!  Somewhere out there,

 if love can see us through,

Then we’ll be together, somewhere out there,

out where dreams come true…

Guess That Freaky-French Commercial CONTEST!

I’m bored.  So I decided to hold a flash contest today on whim.  For those of you who keep up with my Friday ‘living in France’ posts, you might remember me talking about how sex sells just about everything in Europe.  Even random items like milk and coffee.

Well, they’ve gone and done it again.   The commercial below aired a few days ago and I thought it might be fun to use it in a contest.  Basically:

Try and guess what the hell they’re selling in this commercial, post it in the comments below and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a free book!   

Version "soirée" de la pub Krys, avec un baiser lesbien
envoyé par TETUMAG. - Regardez les dernières vidéos d'actu.

If you have no idea-  you’ve joined about 90% of the French population who watched the commercial and scratched their heads until the well known label popped up at the very end.  My husband and I even looked at each other like ‘what the hell?’  the first time we saw it and we’re used to this sort of thing…

For those that can't view it because they're at work, basically the commercial features an entire city making out.  Yup.  That just about sums it up.  Good luck!

I invite everyone to give it their best shot!  I might even post up the most hilarious guesses with the winners so give it your all peeps!

The book that’s up for grabs:  Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

back cover blurb:  Frannie Cavanaugh has always been a bit of a loner.  She's spent years keeping everyone at a distance, even her closest friends.  That is, until Luc Cain enrolls in her school.  He's hot, sarcastic, and dangerous- and Frannie can't seem to stay away.

What she doesn't know is that Luc is on a mission.  Because Frannie isn't exactly ordinary.  She possesses a skil so unique that the King of Hell himself has taken notice, and he's sent Luc to claim Frannie's soul.  It should be easy:  All he has to do is get her to sin, and Luc is as tempting as they come.

Unfortunately for Luc, Heaven has other plans, and he's started making progress when the angel Gabriel shows up.  Gabe with do anything to keep Luc from getting what he came for, and his angelic charm might just be enough to keep Frannie on the right path.

It isn't long before Luc and Gabe find themselves fighting for more than just Frannie's soul.  But if Luc fails to win her over, there will be Hell to pay...for all of them.