what tarot card are you?

i spotted this on jason's blog. thanks, jason!

You are The Empress
Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.
The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.
The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

so the bed started shaking...

my cat was at the foot, and at first i thought he'd decided to go into a hind leg/ear scratching frenzy. no, he was sound asleep. and the bed was still shaking, and my laptop was bouncing. this went on for about 30 seconds, then gradually stopped. and i'm not talking about a little shake. i did hear a faint, steady rumble and wondered if it could be a train. but then i looked at the foot of my bed where i'd just plugged in one of those kitschy, religious nightlights of a woman being consumed by flames. my new place was built by a powerful catholic. i can't go into detail, but he probably performed a few exorcisms in his day.

so anyway, other than the poltergeist, i'm really loving the new place. but have been too busy to be online. closed on my house yesterday, still don't have a real phone, just got internet but it's screwed up. i thought maybe i could keep my comcast address, but it doesn't look like it, so if you emailed me at comcast it would have bounced. and if you posted here, i might have missed it since i hadn't changed my profile address.

the ceilings here go up to the sky. and speaking of sky -- i can see it from every window! no more staring at the side of the neighbor's house! stars! sunlight! fresh air!! no exhaust fumes! it's like staying at a bed and breakfast without the breakfast. and with a shaking bed.

post-its and editing

I just received the copyedit for GOD and I have to say I don't know how I ever lived without Post-its.
Here's what works amazingly well for me:

I read through the entire manuscript, and if I can't make a decision in 60 seconds on a copyeditor's question or something I think needs to be tweaked I slap down a post-it and move on. Once the manuscript is done it might contain 150 Post-its. The second time through I just read the flagged stuff. This allows me to completely focus on the problem. I can usually make a decision in less than a minute, and am able to remove the sticker. If not, I leave it and by the time I'm finished with that round I usually have around 20 Post-its left. Repeat the previous trick and that usually takes care of them all. I've used this method for the last three books and I'm still amazed by how well it works.

I've also had this copyeditor before and she's excellent. With some copyeditors you might spend a lot of time trying to decide if something is worth fighting for, but there's none of that going on here, which makes the process pretty painless.

oh, I've added a link to the previous post in case anybody wants to watch the video about the little pop-up trailers.

watch video

KELLY PARRA AND GRAFFITI GIRL

The release date for Graffiti Girl is May 15, but it's now shipping from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and has also been spotted in stores!


Was it a year and a half ago that a rude, drunken psychic named Madame Sosostris gave Kelly a reading telling her she would be selling soon? I suppose Madame S will try to take credit for this wonderful writer's success, when we all knew it was going to happen. We're proud of you, Kelly!






Graffiti art. It's bold. It's thrilling. And it can get a girl into serious trouble....

Raised by her single mom (who's always dating the wrong kind of man) in a struggling California neighborhood, Angel Rodriguez is a headstrong, independent young woman who channels her hopes and dreams for the future into her painting. But when her entry for a community mural doesn't rate, she's heartbroken. Even with winning artist Nathan Ramos -- a senior track star and Angel's secret crush -- taking a sudden interest in Angel and her art, she's angry and hurt. She's determined to find her own place in the art world, her own way.

That's when Miguel Badalin -- from the notorious graffiti crew Reyes Del Norte -- opens her eyes to an underground world of graf tags and turf wars. She's blown away by this bad boy's fantastic work and finds herself drawn to his dangerous charm. Soon she's running with Miguel's crew, pushing her skills to the limit and beginning to emerge as the artist she always dreamed she could be. But Nathan and Miguel are bitter enemies with a shared past, and choosing between them and their wildly different approaches to life and art means that Angel must decide what matters most before the artist inside of her can truly break free.



"With characters as bold and exciting as the art they love, and an honesty that keeps them raw and real, Graffiti Girl shows us that the only thing better than discovering your talent is finding yourself along the way." ~ Jenny O'Connell, author of Plan B and The Book of Luke

"Graffiti Girl is a fast-paced story that boldly looks dreams and temptations in the eye. 16 year-old Angel Rodriguez steals your heart as she tries to find her place in the world--artistically, socially, and even inside her own family. Don't miss this one!" ~ Tina Ferraro, author of Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress

"Breaking into the YA market with the edgy debut novel Graffiti Girl, Kelly will surprise readers with her hip yet mature voice." ~ RITA Award-winning author, Dianna Love Snell

"This book blew me away. Kelly Parra writes with the keen eye of an artist. Graffiti Girl is warm, gutsy, and true-to-life -- an unflinching, honest portrayal of young adults. A seamless and impressive debut." anne frasier

available now! Amazon

Kelly's blog

the witch of blackberry hill

here's a piece of flash fiction I couldn't resist writing for Jason's wonderful contest at The Clarity of Night.


THE WITCH OF BLACKBERRY HILL

When the snow melts, they come.

Curiosity seekers searching for my house, looking for a thrill and maybe a bit of immortality. They bring cameras and equipment meant to find me, meant to capture my shadow or the whisper of my feet against the stairs. Some of them have been here before. Some have been here many times.

But they don’t know me. None of them know me.

There is no one left to tell of the rivers I swam, the sandcastles I built, or the hearts I broke. They will never know of the man I loved and the children I never had. It doesn’t bother me. I look forward to the spring when the snow melts. Occasionally I will caress a cheek or the back of a neck. The curious will turn and almost see me, the fear and life in their eyes a reminder that I was once more than this.

I can hear them now, their voices echoing through the woods.

They come.

by Anne Frasier