Crystal Jordan :: Blog

Happy Halloween!!

I got fun news today! I just got approved over at Romance Divas to review romance novels. Yeay! Free books! I’ll post a link to the review when I write one. Some of the books might be steamy and I’ll warn you if they are.

Also, my revisions for RD#3 are moving along. Still no new stuff — I must finish the reviews for the library journals. Almost done though. I made very good progress this weekend. I’ll have to reward myself with extra Halloween candy.

Trick or Treat!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. It’s the one holiday where I don’t have to cook, clean, or share my favorite food with anyone else. Yeay!

Plus! Plus! I get to dress up and go to work looking that way. How often can I come in with fairy wings and antennae and not get reprimanded or sent to an institution for Loony Toons? That is cause for celebration, my friends!

So, I figure most people love Christmas. Or even New Years. And both of those holidays have Eves. Like the day is so fantastic, you can’t make it fit into just one day. So, I have Halloween Eve (or is it All Hallow’s Eve? Eh. Not important!)

Here’s a quiz – What’s your Monster Name?

Your Monster Profile

Infamous Cannibal You Feast On: Snow Cones You Lurk Around In: Corn Fields You Especially Like to Torment: Hippies

Merry Halloween Eve!

As always I post ahead on weekends. That’s my time for getting stuff done. Computers are not permitted to even be hooked into the internet on those days. Temptations are bad, bad, bad for Crystal!

Hey, it works. I go with it.

My hope for this weekend is to have the first of my two looming reviews done. The second one should be a piece-o-cake after this one. I think it will all get wrapped up by this time next week. Then back to my WIP. Can’t wait. Don’t get me wrong, I like doing the reviews or I wouldn’t volunteer for them. Still, I like spending time in my own little world (I made it–of course it’s fun!)

My dear friend Thom over at the Audio Artifacts blog emailed me this little librarian gem that I just had to share with you. Have a lovely weekend!
-Crystal

The University of Iowa Libraries is (single administrative entity)
celebrating its sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary this year. We do
exhibitions in the North Lobby of the Main Library, and the one that has been up this fall is about (gasp!) librarians–titled “Beyond the Bun: A Look Inside Librarian Culture.” The following quotations were prominently displayed–

“Beware the lustful fires that burn in a librarian’s heart. They can
rage beyond all control.”
–The Onion, May 28, 2003

“Librarians possess a vast store of politeness. These people get asked
every crazy question on God’s green earth and they tolerate the cranks
and eccentrics.”
–Garrison Keillor, Lives of the Cowboys

“Libraries are brothels for the mind, and librarians are the madams,
greeting customers, understanding their strange tastes and needs, and pimping books.”
–Guy Browning, The Guardian, October 18, 2003

“He’s like Super Librarian, y’know? Everyone forgets, Willow, that
knowledge is the ultimate weapon.”
–Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

“Librarians are subversive. You think they’re just sitting there at the
desk, all quiet and everything. They’re like plotting the revolution,
man.”
–Michael Moore, Buzz Flash Interviews, March 13, 2002

“Show me a computer expert that gives a damn, and I’ll show you a
librarian.”
–Patricia Wilson Berger, Chicago Tribune, June 1990

“If reference librarians were paid at market rates for all the roles
they play, they would have salaries well over $200,000.”
–Will Manley, The Truth About Reference Librarians, 1996

“In the nonstop tsunami of global information librarians provide us with floaties and teach us to swim.”
–Linton Weeks, Washington Post, January 13, 2001

Grace Fitzgerald, University of Iowa

So, I managed to get a few pages edited in my WIP. I’m still too far behind on the book reviews to allow myself to write anything new, but I got ahead in my daily goal; so I edited a wee bit of the rough draft. That’s not irresponsible is it? Is it?

Oh, well. I’m just a bad, bad girl. We all have our crosses to bear, right? Right!

So, I responded to a post over on CJ Barry’s blog and she actually replied. To me! Do you know how many of her books I’ve read? Like, all of them. No kidding. All. Of. Them.

Same thing happened on Robin D. Owens’ blog. (Love her Heart series. Love it. My first fantasy romance after Dara Joy went underground. Dara was my very first. And you always remember your first, right? Unless you’re drunk at a party and then… Well. Let’s not get into all of those possibilities.)

I got to thinking about how blogs make people (like our fave authors) more accessible. I mean, ohmigod! The CJ Barry said something to me. How cool is that?

Even weirder: what if someday I get published and a little wannabe dweeb like me thinks it’s cool I even speak to them? Freaky.

I recently signed up on a web forum for romance writers called “Romance Divas.” Very nice and very helpful people there. I asked a question about how much I could/should stray from the path of what’s considered “normal” for mythical/legendary creatures like witches, werewolves, vampires, fairies, and elves (all of which appear in my WIP). Most of them said if I explain why I’m making the change readers should have no problem following me, but I definitely have to acknowledge all those expectations.

Sounds like good advice to me.

Check out Romance Divas!

Romance Diva’s Website

I took a fun quiz “Which Planet are You?” I found on the Romance Divas site, check it out!

.:Venus:.

“You thrive on balance in all aspects of your
life. You have a great deal of passion and when
it comes to love, you like to play games. You
have a tendency to search for something better,
a search which always seems to come up short.
You have difficulty finding satisfaction in
life, but you have a great ability to get along
with almost anyone.”

. : : Which Astrological Planet are You? : : . [10 Gorgeous Pics!]
brought to you by Quizilla

I’m taking a break from writing “Silver Bullet” (no, I haven’t decided on a new title yet) I don’t want to stop writing, but I have to. Just for a little while, I promise!

I have to review some history books for a library journal. Very scholarly stuff here. And very dry. The review deadlines are looming and I swore to get them in on time. I’ve put them off repeatedly to write my own book (much more interesting) and now I must pay for being a bad, bad girl.

So, I need to crack the whip on myself (don’t you just love self-flagellation?) and get this over with. I have to sit my butt in the seat and just do it… Yeah… Any second now…

…would still be long, straight, and rock hard.

Last night’s Grey’s Anatomy episode described ‘Crystal’ as a ‘naughty nurse’ in a porno. In Suzanne Brockmann’s Get Lucky ‘Crystal’ was a hypothetical brainless skank the heroine thought Lucky would have slept with and in Flashpoint ‘Crystal’ was an aging stripper with ginormous breasts. So, you have to ask, what’s in a name? If these kind of hooker/slut assumptions are made about women with my name, what other assumptions do people make based on the name of a person, place…or book?

Though more votes may come in later, on Sunday, I had votes for the title of my WIP on:

A Little Bit Wicked (2)
Formerly Wicked (1)
Blue Moon Magic (2)
Blue Moon Rising (2)

So, what should I name it? I have no idea just yet, but what assumptions could be made about my book from any one of these titles?

More importantly — what do I want people to think?

I want them to think: magic/fantasy, action/adventure, interesting/worth looking at.

This may be an impossible task for one little title. ((Sigh))

Sidenote: Check out my word count! I’m up to 40% done. Yeay!!!