RUMORS OF MY DEMISE ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED

The wee hours of our monthly AgentQuery Connect, Speculative Fiction group chat produce the most interesting writing exercises. My collegues decided it would be fun to write a funny eulogy or death scene for fellow members (wish I hadn't gone to bed early that night). 
 
The first hint that I had "died" came in the form of an apologetic email from Michelle Hauck. The subject line read, "Sorry I took advantage of you,"  and ended with, "Don't be mad, okay?"
 
Then I read the post:

 
I’m stunned to announce the passing of Angie Sandro, beloved wife, mother, critique partner, and lately popular actress in Korean soap-opera dramas. In lieu of flowers, please follow her blog or like her Facebook page. (I’m not kidding, folks. Get someone to Like her page or Angie will seriously haunt us forever, hurling hoodoo curses at us.)

In what some are calling a bizarre accident, Angie was taking a long bike ride with her father-in-law. While pedaling, trying to watch the Lizzie Bennett Diaries on her phone, and composing the blurb for the unwritten fifteenth sequel to Juju’s Curse, she swerved off the path and into a swamp-like area to be immediately snapped up, bike and all, by a gator. Fortunately, Angie was too thick-skinned due to all the summer marathon sessions at her favorite spot, Speculative Fiction Group on AQC. The gator, believed by authorities to be released into the wild by the fringe environmental group, Make California Florida, spat her out. Unfortunately, it had great aim and launched her into a pit of quicksand.

Glub, glup, glub, that’s all she wrote.

Angie will be greatly missed by her legions of fans, living and ghost, her CP partners, family, and of course creators of Korean dramas, which she tirelessly promoted through her charity, “I Don’t Understand the Language, But I Can’t Stop Watching.” Now what are you waiting for? Like that page!
 

I've always wondered how I would pass. I just never realized how freaking dramatic it would be. Thanks to Michelle, I get a little taste of the other side. I also have a warm fuzzy (slightly terrified) feeling inside at how well she knows me.

Thanks, Michelle.

In lieu of flowers, please leave a comment. And you know, follow my blog so I won't haunt you--FOREVER, muwahaahaa (cough)haa!

SARAH GAGNON'S GOOD NEWS

A couple of wonderful and amazing things have happened. I finished my revision. YAY!

I'm very happy with how it turned out. I did have a surprising moral dilemma with regards to the story, but I'll talk about it at another time. I need to think about what it means first.

The second exciting thing that happened is my amazing critique partner, Sarah Gagnon, has some wonderful news to share with everyone. Since it's her news and I don't want to spoil it for her, I'm going to ask everyone to pop on over to Sarah's blog so she can spill the details herself.

I will say how proud and thrilled I am for her.

Sarah, Carla Rehse, Don McFatridge, and I have been critique partners since we participated in the Agent Query Connect, Speculative Fiction annual Marathon in 2010. We posted a chapter a week of our manuscripts to get critiques for  12 weeks. After the marathon we stayed together. Fast forward two and a half years and we're still partners. (I also have to give a shout out to: Masako, Joyce Alton, Jordan, Kate Evangelista, Cheree Larkins, Michelle Hauk, Jason, and Bessie my other critique partners/beta readers. Love you guys)

Oops, sorry about the critter love. It's early in the morning and I feel wonderful today. *sips coffee*

Back to Sarah's good news.

Sarah is a talented woman with an amazing story to share. I predict you'll be hearing even more exciting news from her in the near future. I'm hoping I'll be able to convince her to come on the blog with a Sharing Our Voices post so you can learn her source of inspiration. 

Speaking of SOV's, I have one for you on Monday from the original gunslinger, Peter Burton. So I hope you stop by for that to show him some love. Only watch out. He's armed, although he seems to think it's for defensive measures.

Okay, enough of my ramblings. Please, pop over to wish Sarah congrats. Here's the link.

Novel Writing- Inspiration from my Family History

I once had a conversation with the amazing Mindy McGinnis, also affectionately known as BBC, regarding where we draw our inspiration. I was thrilled to find another genealogy enthusiast. See, the thing with genealogy is most people don’t find it inspiring—at all. More like the opposite. Dry and dusty. Boring. Too much work. Who cares about someone who’s dead?

Yeah, that’s how some of the family members I contacted for their family trees responded. Others didn’t bother responding at all. A small percentage—the cool ones in my opinion—are just as enthusiastic as I am, and they pulled out their family scrapbooks for me.

It takes a special (slightly obsessive) mind to enjoy the research involved in finding those hidden family stories. It’s like an Easter egg hunt. You never know if the eggs are gonna be rotten and stinky. But other times, the stories are beautiful and amazing, like my ggg grandfather who saved a drowning boy. The story of Uncle Alonzo who was interviewed by the newspaper at the age of 102 yrs, and he told how his family traveled from Illinois to Kansas by wagon train in 1880.

Talk about inspirational. When I thought up the plot for my manuscript, Juju’s Child, I'd been researching my father’s side of the family tree. My Louisiana Creole roots branched out quite a bit. I soaked up the culture and history, and included it in this this story. My ancestors spoke to me (I'm not crazy, talking to spirits or anything) through their marriage certificates, letters, actions. I'll tell ya, after learning about these amazing people who had the strength to travel across the ocean, to survive slavery, to educate their children—well, I how can I complain about my life. How can I not follow my dreams. It would be a betrayal of their pain and hardship. Of their love and hope for a better future for their descendants.

If you’re interested in learning more about genealogy, and how clueless I was when I started (yeah, it’s pretty funny in hindsight. Not so much at the time), please check out my Family History Blog. It you begin reading at the first post it chronicles my research journey. In the beginning, I was so stuck. Now have over 4,000 members on my family tree. I discovered my ancestors came from all over the world: America (Nansamond tribe), Cameroon, England, France, Italy, Germany, and Portugal (to name a few). Cool, huh!

I also have links to genealogy help websites. If you have any questions on how to start researching your own family trees, leave a comment, and I’ll be glad to help.