Have Duck, Will Travel

Italian Wandering
Bartholomew

Bartholomew enjoys gelato.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Bartholomew the Acrophobic and Aquaphobic Pirate Duck.

My friend Holmes and I are in Italy for our spring break, so we decided to bring along our rubber duckies, Bartholomew (mine) and Ferdinand (hers). The ducks are greatly enjoying their vacation, and we are enjoying photographing them.

It’s a funny little pet project of ours, shooting the ducks throughout our travels. The airport is particularly amusing, as who expects to see two college students setting up ducks and shooting them?

Eventually, we hope to write a children’s book about our traveling ducks. Holmes will photograph them (our illustrations) and I will write the story!

I took this photo in Lucca, after a day of bike riding and riding a carousel (an ostrich, naturally; it was the most ridiculous animal there). We needed the gelato!

Bartholomew would like to say that anyone who tries to eat his gelato (coco e cioccolate) will suffer the consequences. He’s serious. He has a gun.

Hand Made Souvenir!

Florentine Scribblings

Well, I’m departing the grand old US of A tomorrow for the last spring break of my undergrad career. I’m going back to Florence (!), this time to visit my sister, who’s studying there (though at a different school than I did).

I recently finished up one of my sketchbooks, but was faced with a dilemma. The one I bought latest is…well…massive. It doesn’t fit in my carry-on, and like hell am I going to lug it across the city (even though I would if I had an art class there…). Anyways, I had a few lineless moleskine notebooks lying around, so I decided to use one to make a trip journal/sketchbook.

I love to write and draw, but rarely do I have a small notebook with me. I’ll be carrying this one so I can sketch and record silly comments whenever I want. I’m also going to tape in all of my train tickets and museum entry passes, restaurant cards, store names, etc.

I am so looking forward to this trip. I cannot wait to return to my home-away-from home.

Two Years Blogging…

General Geekiness

Today, by happenstance, marks the second anniversary of She Thinks Too Much. I honestly thought it was sometime last week and felt a bit guilty about it, until I realized that TODAY, February 26, was my humble little blog’s birthday.

Two years writing. Two years of thinking of posts and of reading other people’s blogs. Two years of comments and commenting. Two years of writing about how I’m writing another novel, but really two years of procrastination by research and world-building. And nearly a year of working on my epic paper, which is finally coming together.

Two years. Wow.

Thank you to you guys, my readers, for your comments, your advice and your suggestions.

The Magic of Google Docs

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

There’s something great about using Google Docs to write, both fiction and term papers.

The fact that it displays how much time its been since the page has been edited.  How helpful! I’m easily distracted at times, and being able to see just how long its been since I worked on a project is magnificent.

“Oh dear, it’s been fifteen minutes since I edited the document!” I exclaimed. “I suppose I better get back to work!”

I don’t like seeing the ‘last saved’ numbers get beyond three or four minutes. That’s time wasted, time I should be writing, producing, creating.

It’s very good for keeping me on task. I’ll have to try writing more using this.

An adventure story lover turns to chick lit…

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Inside this hardened, speculative fiction and historical fiction loving soul there is a chick lit book waiting to escape. I have the scenario in my head. I have characters semi-developed. I even have a killer opening (no, not literally, but that would be pretty awesome, if an entirely different genre).

Thing is, I don’t read chick lit. By and large, I don’t even read romances (I read stories where there are romantic relationships, but they aren’t the focus). In the last year, the most chicky-typical book I read was PS I Love You (Alexander McCall Smith’s books don’t count). By and large, my reading selections are more along the spy story, black comedy or classic route than traditionally girl books.

I’m not familiar with the genre. I really don’t want to read too many of the books within the genre–by and large they don’t appeal to me. But I have a story in my head that I must tell. I’m sure it will be filed away with countless other tales to be told, fermenting and biding its time until one day when it attacks me, springing forth with teeth bared, wearing designer stilettos.

A Call for Beta Readers (pretty please?)

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Hello dear readers!

So, I’m entering a short story contest and I was wondering if anyone would mind being my beta? I haven’t decided which story I’m going to submit, but I’ve narrowed it down to three stories I’ve written recently–two historical fiction based on the Battle of Britain and one more observational, a modern tale set in Boston.

Anyways, the submission is due on February 1st, so it doesn’t give me too much time. Fortunately, my stories are all under 3000 words, so they should take too long to read. XD

If you’re interested in being my beta, leave a comment.