Category Archives: blogs

October 23, 2013

One Last Night (WIPpet Wednesday and ROW80)

Good Wednesday, friends. Are we all healthy? Happy? Warm or cool as is seasonally appropriate in our parts of the world? Good. Have a seat, and let’s see what we have to share today.

*flips through imaginary papers*

First up: WIPpet Wednesday, and today I’ll be sharing from the first draft (sorry!) of my NaNoWriMo project, which will be further work on the second novel in a planned trilogy. This isn’t your first look at this story; this scene takes place not long after this one, which I posted way back in June.

Let’s have some mood music:

WIPpet math: October 23 = 2+3 = 5 paragraphs from Aren’s perspective.

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She slipped the chain over her head and rubbed her thumb over the pendant’s surface, admiring it before she let it settle against the skin over her heart. “What do you think?”

“Perfect,” I whispered. I think she knew I wasn’t talking about the necklace.

“The story’s not over, though, is it?”

“Not remotely.”

She left the necklace on all night. Maybe it was all a mistake. Maybe her coming to my room only made it harder for me to leave the next morning. I needed sleep before I started a long journey, but I needed her more. She didn’t have to use words to tell me she felt the same way.

—

*sniffle*

To see what the other WIPpeteers are up to, head on over to the ever-convenient linkie-poo and give them all of your clicks and comment love, and say hi to our host K.L. Schwengel on the way by. To join in, choose a sample of your own work in progress that relates to today’s date, whether it be the chapter or page number, or something more creative. Because, you know.

OK, ROW80 update!

I… I missed my Sunday update again. Oops.

Still not much progress in the writing department, but I did read another non-fiction book. I gave Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World, by Kristen Lamb, five glittery unicorn stickers out of five. It’s a fascinating look at the dynamics of how we interact with people on social media, and it answered a lot of the questions I’ve had about Twitter and other sites. She explains why it’s more important than ever to make a personal connection with people, and how to do that without going crazy. I learned a ton about marketing, and I was entertained the whole time. It’s NOT a book about how to sell books by blasting people away with automated tweets and having a million Facebook fans, and it’s NOT a list of marketing techniques that will be outdated next week. It’s about being real, and I think (based on some of the accounts I follow on Twitter) that this is something we all need. These are tips and techniques that will apply long after we’ve all moved on to whatever the next social media juggernaut turns out to be.*

The chapters on blogging are valuable, too. I was happy to learn that it’s okay that my blog’s not all about writing. In fact, Ms Lamb recommends that we share our other passions and reach out to a wide variety of readers, since they’re the people who might just (perhaps, maybe, some day) decide to check out our books. So if you’ve been wishing I’d quit posting about ponies, Newfoundland, and my failed attempts at gardening… well, I’m sorry.

So yes, highly recommended read for anyone with a book coming out, however you’re publishing. It’s about so much more than just social media, but I’d say it’s worth the purchase price just for the section on “Twitequette,” which should be required reading for everyone on Twitter.

As for writing… well, I made some notes while I was waiting (FOREVER) at the doctor’s office yesterday, so… yay? Maybe this afternoon, when I’ll finally have the house to myself for a few hours… I hope.

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*Also, tweeting about how much I was enjoying the book got me two twitter responses from the author herself, which was really fun. She walks the talk, guys. 🙂

16 Comments | posted in blogs, book reviews, ROW80, Torn, WIPpet Wednesday

October 9, 2013

Happy Anni-bloga-birthdary!

By Kate Sparkes

*pops champagne, drinks half of the bottle*

I’m sorry, did you want some? Help yourself. Let me get out the cheese tray.

Well, kids, it’s been a year since I opened up shop here at Disregard the Prologue. Remember that? No? That’s okay. It was quiet here back then. The only sounds were the crickets, the wind, and the sound of me saying “excuse me, my mistake” when I tripped over the occasional tumbleweed that blew through.

Now? Well, if you count both WordPress and e-mail followers, we’re sitting at just over 250 of you crazy people. Not a lot by most blog standards, but a whole lot more than I ever expected to see hanging around here. That’s not to say that it’s crowded; I’m sure most of the people who signed up to follow don’t come by much. But those of you who do, who read the occasional post and comment, or even just lurk in the background, mean a whole lot to me. Whether we agree or disagree on the topics I’m posting on, I love having comment conversations with you. I love that you guys encourage me when I’m feeling low, that you help me out when I need readers (or someone to exchange cereal with), that you contribute your amazing insights in the comments of my posts and offer posts on your own blogs that are both entertaining and distracting. I hope you all get something out of this relationship, too. I assume you do… otherwise, you’re all some kind of saints for keeping me afloat.

A lot has happened here in a year, most of it behind the scenes. A year ago I was wondering whether it was time to start querying agents with a novel; now I’ve decided that’s not the path for me, and I’m figuring things out as I take another route to my goals. More importantly, a year ago I thought I was alone in this. Now, I have a community of ROWers and NaNoers and WIPpeteers who all have their own crazy dreams and plans, and we can hold each others hands and kick each other’s asses, and OH IT’S GLORIOUS.

What will the next year bring? I honestly couldn’t tell you. I’m looking to have a book out in the spring, but that’ll depend a lot on editing ~~issues~~ insights and whether my brain turns to mush before then. That means we’ll be having a cover reveal, a launch party for those on the exclusive invitation list*, giveaways… and probably a lot of me pulling my hair out by the handful. FUN!

All I can promise is that I’ll be here, I’ll be posting, and I’ll be cheering you all on in whatever it is that you’re doing in the next twelve months.

Feel free to mingle in the comments section. Grab some cake, there’s pop in the fridge for anyone who’s not into champagne (honestly, it’s not sitting so well for me right now), put on some music, dance the night away. And let me know how you got here, and what you’ve got planned for the next year. 🙂

Oh, I promised party favours, didn’t I? Let’s see… how about a little scavenger hunt? Find my first post, make a note of the name of one of my old blogs, and e-mail me your answer and your mailing address to kate.sparkes (at) live (dot) ca, and I’ll send you something nice. And flat. Because postage.

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*If you want to be on the list, I’ll be posting information soon on how you can opt-in to e-mails, and I might even get me one of them there fancy-schmancy Facebooker thingamabobs. You just never know…

9 Comments | posted in blogs

September 16, 2013

Can We Start the Countdown, Now?

By Kate Sparkes

Hey, people! It’s less than a month until Disregard the Prologue’s first blogiversary!

Stop, please! You’re embarrassing me.

Anyway, I’d like to do some fun things that week (the blogiversary itself falls on October 9). I’ll be writing some new posts, maybe some fiction if I have time, and re-posting some bits of bloggy goodness that happened way back before most of you were regular visitors.

BUT…

I don’t want this to be all about me and this blog, because that’s just silly. This should be a party, and I want my blog friends to participate.

So here’s the deal: if you’ve been around for a while (lurk-following or commenting, doesn’t matter) and you’d like to do a guest post, send me a pitch (see “about me” for contact info, or comment here if you’re feeling brave). Want me to post a video of you showing off a special talent for the benefit of the other guests? Sure! Have a party recipe to share? Please, let me know! I’d love to do give-aways on anyone’s books, or promote free days, because what’s a party without prizes? Heck, maybe I’ll go to the dollar store and pick up some party favours (as long as they’ll fit in a flat envelope, because I just got KILLED shipping a package to California today. Ugh.) A party needs music, games, ~~strippers~~, drinks, and lots of confetti.

I think we all know that this isn’t exactly a professional blog setting, so this is pretty open. I’d like to keep it reasonably family-friendly, and there’s one other rule: any guest post you’d like to propose needs to be for the benefit of the little community that’s grown up around DtP, not just self-promotion. Of course, if you want to give something away (even if it’s just entertainment or advice) that just happens to promote your book, blog, or service… well, I probably won’t stop you. 😉

Maybe no one will want to participate, and that’s fine. But I hope you’ll all come by during the week of October 7-13 to see what kind of party we’ve put together.

WOOOOOOO PARTY!!!

5 Comments | posted in blogs

August 27, 2013

Recalled to Life

By Kate Sparkes

“Live like someone recalled to life. Because you are.” Wise words!

El Space--The Blog of L. Marie

“Buried how long?”
The answer was always the same. “Almost eighteen years.”
“You had abandoned all hope of being dug out?”
“Long ago.”
“You knew that you were recalled to life?”
“They tell me so.”
“I hope you care to live?”
“I can’t say.” (11)

If you don’t like book spoilers, you might say, “Fiddle-dee-dee,” and skip this post. It includes a spoiler for A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens—at least the first part of the book.

Last chance to depart before I launch into the rest of the post. . . .

If you’re still here, there’s a method to my madness, so please bear with me.

In Dickens’s saga of life before and during the French Revolution, the lines you read at the beginning of the post are an imagined conversation between Mr. Jarvis Lorry, an English banker, and Monsieur Manette, a former prisoner of the…

View original post 473 more words

1 Comment | posted in blogs

July 31, 2013

Why I Blog (blog challenge day 31)

By Kate Sparkes

Wow, we’ve reached the end! With a little creative planning, a little pre-writing, and some scheduled posts while I’m away, this has worked out pretty well.

“Why do you blog?”

Many reasons. I blog to share myself, to get my voice out there, maybe to have someone hear me. I blog to share my work, to gauge interest in projects, to get a bit of feedback, perhaps even to build an audience (…or maybe not). I blog to add to the chorus of those of you who are doing the same, sharing your hopes and dreams and frustrations and setbacks, your fears and the doubts that plague all of us. I blog to help, to offer insight based on my own experiences, and to encourage anyone who needs it. I blog because it lets me connect with all of you, and allows me to share things that I think are important (or that just make me happy). I blog to learn about myself and my process. I blog to keep writing when the words won’t come anywhere else, and yes, sometimes I blog to procrastinate when I should really be writing something more substantial.

I blog because it lets me be a part of a community.

So that’s that. No big, shocking revelation, no twist ending for this little project. No cliff-hangers to deal with, either, and no body count to speak of– guarantees I can’t make with fiction. 😉

4 Comments | posted in 31 Day Blog Challenge

July 30, 2013

Making Up is Hard to Do (blog challenge day 30)

By Kate Sparkes

You’ve witnessed the horror that was her purse.* But are you prepared to survive… THE MAKE-UP BAG?

I hope so, because that’s today’s topic.

It’s actually not that terrifying, or even exciting. This is just what I keep in my little travel bag for touch-ups. It DID say bag… if it had asked for all of my make-up, we’d have a longer post on our hands, with foundations and creams and mascara and eyeliner and eyeshadow and LOTS OF FUN THINGS! I don’t do fancy make-up, but I do like having the option. 🙂

powder
oil-absorbing sheets
lip thingers
dental floss
meds (including advil)
emery boards
lots of hair clips
tiny tweezers

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*Gah, I hate that word!

6 Comments | posted in 31 Day Blog Challenge

July 29, 2013

On the Road Again (blog challenge day 29)

By Kate Sparkes

Oh, the places I’ve been… or not.

“Where have you travelled?”

Not many places compared to a lot of people. 🙂

Counting the places I’ve lived and places I’ve just visited:

CANADA: Ontario (Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, places in between), Newfoundland (everywhere along the Trans-Canada and a few other places on the Avalon penninsula), Alberta (but only in the Calgary airport for a stopover), Saskatchewan (Regina, when AJ was there for his Mountie-fication), Nova Scotia (Halifax, Sydney… lots of Cape Breton, actually), Quebec (Quebec city on a school trip, worst drive EVER through Montreal), PEI (vacation with my family, so pretty), New Brunswick (juuuuuust passing through…)

USA: Florida (Busch Gardens > Disney, IMO), Virginia, New York state (but not city… yet)

Elsewhere: Iceland, when I was a baby, so I don’t remember that.

Seriously, that’s it. I could be happy spending the rest of my travelling life just exploring Canada, but I would like to visit England some day. And New Zealand. Maybe Italy…. Ireland, Scotland… any chance of me going to Narnia? No?

8 Comments | posted in 31 Day Blog Challenge, about me

July 28, 2013

Oh, Joy! (blog challenge day 28)

By Kate Sparkes

Day 28: “What are you looking forward to?”

(caution: language)

Confession: I’m writing this on July 22nd. I’m looking forward to that magical time in one hour when my dear AJ gets off from work, and then he’s on VACATION!!! You have no idea how exciting this is. AJ has been putting up with unbelievable shit at work lately and doing his best to cover for other people’s assholery. He’s been overworked, and has gone weeks where he’s been either at work or on-call 24/7.

You might say he’s looking forward to getting away.

I’m excited to see my family soon, I’m looking forward to OMG THE AMAZING FOOD WE’RE GOING TO EAT IN ONTARIO, and to meeting our newest niece for the first time. But right now, at this moment, what I’m most looking forward to is seeing AJ relax and not jump every time the phone rings. It’ll be relaxing for all of us. 🙂

1 Comment | posted in 31 Day Blog Challenge

July 27, 2013

Hot and Cool (blog challenge day 27)

By Kate Sparkes

Day 27: “post your favorite recipe”

OK, I’m going to not do that, exactly. To me, a “recipe” means you have to give things like measurements and temperatures. I don’t have that for you. What I AM going to do, just because y’all are so special to me, is tell you how I make my buffalo chicken fingers, because they’re fan-effing-tastic. The non-recipe is based on my mom’s chicken wings (if you want to use wings, go ahead; I just find the strips are easier to judge as far as cooking times, etc)

The secret, my friends, is TZATZIKI.

For the uninitiated, tzatziki is Greek yogurt stuff with cucumber and a whole lot of yum. I get mine in the deli section of the grocery store, where they keep the hummus and all of that (President’s Choice tzatziki is yummy). Yours might keep it in the dairy section. Either way, you’re going to mix that with milk to make it thick enough to coat your chicken strips*. Then dip that in bread crumbs to coat, and cook in the oven. I’m not giving times or temperatures, because my oven is strange, and it depends on how thick you’re cutting your chicken. I usually go 380 degrees for ten minutes, flip, then check to see how much longer they need (usually 7-10 more minutes).

After that, dip in your hot sauce of choice (I always use Frank’s hot sauce mixed with melted butter. More butter=milder sauce.)

Then chow down. The tzatziki adds a cool flavour that offsets the hot sauce very nicely, and it makes the meat wicked tender. Unless you overcook it… watch out for that.

Serve with rice, or whatever you feel like. Mashed potatoes work well, too. Pour extra sauce all over your side dish. Num.

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*Yes, raw chicken, not frozen chicken strips. I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts and slice them up. Feel free to make nugget shapes if you’re feeling rebellious.

3 Comments | posted in 31 Day Blog Challenge

July 26, 2013

Back in the Day (blog challenge day 26)

By Kate Sparkes

Hey, remember that time I did a 31 day blog challenge? Good times.

“An old photo of you”

Hmm. I don’t think I have a copy of the picture of me as a baby handy, and I think my mom has lost the picture she took to prove to her sister that I was a girl (mom, if you still have this, please don’t post my baby coochie here). How about something a little more than ten years old? That’s half-way to vintage!

In keeping with my general policy of not posting pictures of AJ, I can’t post most of our wedding pictures, but here’s my mom fixing my hair. Actually, she’s pretending to fix my hair so we could have this mirror picture. I was not as terrified as I look here… tired, still struggling with depression and anti-depressants, but not terrified. 🙂

4 Comments | posted in 31 Day Blog Challenge, about me