I’ve been tagged by Jess to give 8 random facts about myself. Okay, here goes…

1. I started riding horses when I was five and when I was around ten, I’d sneak out of the house and ride boarders’ horses at the stable behind my house (none of them were mine!) around the pasture bareback and without a bridle. I was never injured, surprisingly.

2. I’m terrified of spiders and wasps. And ants.

3. I do not eat condiments of any sort except for salt and pepper.

4. I love kiddy shows on Disney and ABC Family. Hannah Montana is particularly cute as is Raven.

5. I’ve only been in love once and I’m proudly S-I-N-G-L-E!

6. I’ve never been to a football game. I know, shocking huh?! 🙂

7. When I get angry or super-excited, my voice gets an incredibly high pitch that my family refers to as “the screech monkey voice.”

8. I absolutely loathe flying.

I’m tagging Ella!

Check out the June/July issue of Girls’ Life with the fabulous Emma Roberts on the cover and turn to page 17. You’ll find a tiny piece that I wrote for them. 🙂

Yesterday, I realized with a start that Script Frenzy starts June 1! I headed over to the Website, logged in and checked out the forums. It’s pretty quiet there right now, but since it’s Script Frenzy’s first year, it may take a couple times to become as big as NaNoWriMo. The goal of Script Frenzy is different, too. The object is to write a 20,000 word screenplay. Most screenplays top out at 120 pages, which equals an hour and a half of screentime.

I don’t have an outline yet, but I chose family/teen drama as my category. It looks like I’ll be writing a new novel and a screenplay next month! Wish me luck!

Anyone else going to participate?

For my next young adult novel, I’m incorporating the theme of wild mustang horses. So, I jogged over to the BLM (Bureau of Land Management’s) Website to get some info. I have some experience with mustangs, but it’s from years ago. When I was a kid, a stable where I rode horses in Tennessee had a boarder who adopted a wild mustang. Now, he was a big, tough “I can handle any horse” type of guy and he got his a** kicked several times by his adopted horse. After at least a year of working with the horse, he finally was able to groom the horse without it spooking and it was an interesting process to see the horse grow and change. To adopt a mustang, by the way, only costs $125. Yes, $125! Obviously, there is a lot of work involved, but way too many of my horsey friends used to drop ten grand on a horse and not think a thing of it. If I’m in the position to have horses again, I’ll definitely look at adoption. If you visit the BLM’s Website this is a real issue that deserves attention. Wild horses are being shot, abused and run off their natural habitat.

Anyway, the BLM is hosting an adoption event in Ocala on May 12-13 and I called them up, got the info and am going to attend. I’m so excited and it’s going to be great research for my book.

Does anyone else attend special events as research?

I’ve got a question for you all: do you think location matters in your career as a writer?

I’ve been so conflicted about that answer. Does it help if you’re a novelist to live in or near New York City? I’m sure it would help with networking, meeting editors and meeting your agent (if necessary), but I’m not sure what the other benefits are.

I’m trying to decide where to go to grad school and if I *need* to be in/near NYC.

Of course, the other side of the dilemma is that I want to do screen and TV writing and for that, LA is the coast of choice. To get staffed on a TV show, you’ve obviously got to live in LA and go to work every day. I’ve heard of freelance TV and screenwriters, but I believe it takes a person higher up in his/her career to do that kind of work.

It seems like many writers don’t live in NYC and are doing quite well. I’m just very unsure as to what to do and where it would be most beneficial to live.

Thoughts?

I can’t believe it’s Monday already! The weekend went by really fast and it’s back to work now. I have two pieces of exciting news to share!

One, I received my contract from Girls’ Life in the mail today. I’m saving the envelope because it’s still exciting to have something published in a magazine I read for years. The envelope is cute, too, all pink and purple. 🙂

Two, I received word that a local magazine, Tallahassee Woman, has chosen me as a “woman to watch” in an upcoming issue. They’ll have a little blurb and a photo about what I’ve accomplished. I’m honored and will most definitely post the page online.

I’ll be spending the day working on YA MSS edits. I’ll also be coming up with query ideas for Teen and Seventeen. Yep, I decided it’s time to go after the majors.

Happy Monday!

Today has been a great Saturday. I’ve spent most of the morning lying in the sun on the back porch and doing edits on my YA manuscript. I’ve been doing so much editing on the computer that it is amazing to see the pages in print on real paper. I’ve also been reading Paula’s So Not the Drama and am loving it. Definitely recommended! 🙂

The next book on my list is Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News. I’m going to alternate between one YA and one adult book.

Tomorrow, my parents, brother and I are headed to the beach. We haven’t been in a long, long time and I’m ready to step away from technology and go seashell hunting. I’ll try to take pics of my trip and will post them either Sunday night or Monday.

Oh, and check out my girl Emily’s newly designed Website. Em, you’ve gotta consider Web design on the side, missy! 🙂

What are your weekend plans?

Taking a cue from Robyn Schneider’s blog, I wanted to know what you all think about video blogs or podcasts. I got a digital camera for graduation (thanks Mom and Dad!) and am toying with the idea of doing a weekly or bi-weekly video blog. Perhaps something well thought out about writing or maybe spontaneous and off the cuff.

I also like the idea of an audio blog (not more than 3-4 minutes) about writing or something related to that subject.

Thoughts? If I did decide to do audio and/or video blogs, what topics would you like me to address?

TGIF!