Lisa Writing Wild

When I was seven my mom made me go to bed right in the middle of a movie I was watching about a girl who shook her baby to death. I was mad because I wanted to stay up and see what happened. After a few minutes of laying in bed and hearing the movie still on, I yelled for my mom and told her I had a stomachache and it hurt to lay down. She let me come back out to the living room and gave me a huge glass of prune juice. I drank it very slowly so I could watch the rest of my movie. I have no clue what happened in the movie, but I do remember I had the runs the whole next day at school.

Here's a before picture of our pink rug in the dining room where the milk spilled . You can see the kitchen/dining room wall was taken down in preparation for new kitchen going in in July. After:

OK, so I'm working on two projects at once right now. One is an older YA and the other is a middle grade. I'm writing the older YA, and I'm just taking notes on the middle grade novel. The only middle grade I've ever read has been Judy Blume's books, as far as I can remember. So last week I got Meg Cabot's Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls--Moving Day . It's really cute and written in the same funny way I'm planning on writing mine. The thing that stinks is that a lot of the ideas in that book, are ones I had, too. I wanted my character to be obssessed with scary movies...I wanted her to be really into baseball...and I wanted her to have to deal with moving and going to a new school. That last one I'm still going to do. But I was just a little bummed. Speaking of this book, something really freaky happened to me last Friday. A few weeks ago when I first had an idea of a character for my middle grade book, I went to Barnes and Noble and pick

For the past two days I couldn't figure out why my house smelled like sour milk. As I'm sure you know, that is not a pleasant smell. I emptied the garbarge, poured bleach down the garbage disposal and cleaned out the fridge. Finally, I remembered the other night when I opened the fridge, milk was all over the inside and went all over the carpet. I tried to clean it up the best I could (it was after midnight and I was tired). I smelled the carpet today and woohoo ! That was it. The only reason our fridge is in the dining area on the carpet is because we're in the process of remodeling the kitchen (the wall came down, but the real renovations won't start til July). I tried carpet cleaner today but it still stinks in here:( I'm thinking we're going to have to tear up the carpet a lot sooner than we originally planned. Anyone know how to get the smell out in the mean time?

Few things are more exciting to me in the writing world than when my characters talk to me. I've had a middle grade novel idea floating around my head for about a week now, plus I'm working on an older YA novel. This morning while out to breakfast at Denny's, I overheard our waitress telling another table (she was actually telling people at the table, not the table) about her new granddaughter being born and how she was the first girl in the family in 28 years. I immediately wrote that down and knew I'd use it in my middle grade story. Suddenly I had my MC (a 12 year old girl) who has four brothers and was the first girl born into the family in years. It set up a great dynamic for her family story. I love when my mind is open enough to take in the things around me and apply them to stories. I listen to everything and think where I can apply it. If I can't, I write it on an index card and file it into my Idea Box for later use. Do you have any expamples of ste

I just finished reading Saving Zoe by Alyson Noel. I bought it last week at the Rochester Teen Book Festival. It had a similar plot line to the YA I'm currently working on, so I wanted to check it out. It was a great book, well-written and kept me interested. I read it in about three days and I noticed on the third day I was feeling depressed. I get this way sometimes if I watch a depressing tv show on dvd, or read a dark book and get sucked into the character's world. One time I watched about six episodes of Six Feet Under and I was SO depressed. I finally figured out it was from the show and had to stop watching it. If I just watch one episode at a time, I'm OK. Anyway, I started to get worried about being depressed from Saving Zoe since it was similar to my story. I was afraid if I started delving into my three characters and their problems, I'd start to get depressed and not finish it. After talking it over with my husband (who is awesome to bounce ideas off

Last night in bed I started reading Judy Blume's Blubber . I haven't read it since I was about 11 or 12. It's strange how you can read a book after all those years and still remember it so clearly. I couldn't predict what was going to happen next, but as it happened I not only remembered, but remembered the feelings I had when I read it originally. Judy Blume was my favorite as a kid and I read all of her books. I'm currently working on an older YA book, but I also have a younger YA idea floating around in my head. Her books are a quick read, so I thought I'd re-read them again. My favorite by her is Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret . When I was little I felt like Margaret was my friend. I pulled for her and felt her pain. Reading it again a few months ago brought back the same feelings. Like I'd found a long-lost friend. If you don't know the story of Blubber, it's about a girl in fifth grade who is bullied by a bunch of other girls. Mos

Describe the most inappropriate place you've ever used as a restroom. Taken from The Writer's Block The only places I can think of would be a men's room (in a bar...why is the girl's line so long?) and outside when camping. Not sure which is worse.

When I was a mere child of seven, I was a fire bug. I loved matches, candles, anything to do with fire. Even using a magnifying glass to torture helpless fat ants (luckily I outgrew that). Our house had the coolest attic. I won't tell you what was plastered on the walls going up the stairs, but once you got up there, it was awesome. We had a real phone booth complete with the old fashioned phone you hold your mouth up to, a pool table, an air hockey table and a bed. Off the main room was another room where my dad built a bar with tables and chairs. It was really cool. Oh yeah, and we had a life size cut out of Conway Twitty . I know, cool, right? One day while my dad was downstairs napping, my best friend, Lori, and I were sitting up on the bar stools goofing around. I found a incense and decided to strike a match and light it. I tried over and over to light the match but couldn't get it lit. Part of it was because I was actually afraid of burning myself. Just as I was

Picture this: 1977. I was seven. Silk shorts, tube top, tube socks up to my knees. And roller skates. Pretty picture, huh? I would do anything when I was a kid to make some money. Every kid in my neighborhood wanted money to spend at the Family Del (it was actually the Family Deli , but apparently adding the i at the end of deli was just too much back then.). Dressed in my seventies funk get-up, I skated house to house (not easy to climb steps in roller skates, by the way) to collect money for the Eddie Meath Foundation .  I had no idea who Eddie Meath was or what a foundation was, but I knew my uncle had just had a big party at his house and donated some money there. I was making out pretty good when I went to the wrong house. I climbed his hundred cement steps and asked for a donation. Instead of just forking over his change for my candy money Eddie Meath, he asked, "If you're collecting for Eddie Meath Foundation, where's your tin can with his picture on it?&qu

The other day I was in our local grocery store, Wegmans , with my son. We got in line to pay and there were two people ahead of us paying with a food stamps card. I always feel bad for people, like they're embarrassed. When we have foster babies we use WIC  for their formula. I always feel embarrassed paying with WIC checks because I hold up the line. Plus, I feel like everyone's looking at my cart thinking, "She can afford *insert unnecessary grocery items here*, but she can't afford to feed her baby." I always have the urge to say, "I'm a foster parent. I'm not poor." But, of course, I don't. Anyway, we waited patiently while these people tried to pay for their items. Their food stamps card only paid for a certain amount, and they needed to come up with about $5. The lady tried to pay with a credit card but it didn't go through. Then I really felt bad for her. I was just about to tell her I'd pay for it (to save her embarrass

I finally finished my writing studio. It took me about a week to paint the walls and trim, and get everything in there. This is my first writing space that's all my own in a long, long time! Ever since becoming foster parents and taking in babies, there's been no room for me to write that's quiet. At our last place, my desk was in our bedroom. Now I'm up on the third floor where it's nice and quiet:) Before: After:

Joey (eyeing my funky pajama bottoms): "I'm going to buy you new pants for your holiday." (Mother's Day) Joey: What the heck are these? Me: Curly fries. Joey: I don't eat wiggly tangley stuff. Joey: Can I have Doritos? Me: No. Joey: It can be our secret. Me: You don't know how to keep a secret. Joey (insulted): Yes, I do. You have to stay real still. Me: Showing Joey a picture of himself on his first birthday. Joey: Studies it very closely. "I didn't know I used to be a girl." Me this morning to Joey: "Did you know we got you four years ago today? You were a little bitty baby." Joey: "Did you feed me ants?" Me: "No, we did not." Joey: "Did you let ants crawl all over me?" Me: "No, we didn't." Joey: "Oh." (He was very disappointed...we really need to get rid of the ants in our kitchen.) Going to school district where high school located. Joey: "I don't

In yesterday's post, I asked for advice on my current wip. I've been trying to decide if I should write it in first person of all three main characters, or if I should just tell it through the main girl, Jessica's pov. Before I fell asleep last night I did that thing where you ask your dreams for answers. (I've read about it in two YA books recently and thought I'd give it a whirl).  I asked, "Show me which way I should write my story. Should I use all three characters as mc's, or just Jessica?" I asked this over and over til I fell asleep. When I woke up this morning, I immediately recalled the dreams I had. The last one was sort of scary and really stuck out. I couldn't think of anything that would tie them into my book, until I realized the girl I dreamt about is an actor I know named... Jessica . Then later today I was cleaning a house  reading People magazine while my husband cleaned a house. I came across an article called Beautiful Jes

So, a while ago I decided to take a break from screenwriting and work on this YA idea that wouldn't leave my head. For the first time in my life, I did a detailed outline of characters, some dialogue, and few plot points. I have three main teenage girl characters. Each one has a big problem.I was planning on writing the 1st and 3rd girl in first person and the 2nd girl through a video she takes. I want them all to become friends, but it's harder than I thought switching between the girls' stories. I'm just thinking out loud here, but wondering if I should just do the story through the first girl's eyes only. I'm just not sure if the other two girls' stories are too big to be side characters. Or maybe I should just write each girls story then put them together. See why I'm so stuck? Any suggestions, support, advice or chocolate from other writers would be greatly appreciated.