1.) Piperka – Piperka is a site that tracks when many many web comics (and more are being added all of time) are updated. I read something like 150 web comics, but many are very rarely and sporadically updated, so this site rocks.

2.) HEMA – online winkelen – it’s not in English (nl – Netherlands?) but it is crazy and strangely hypnotic.

3.) 35 cool and inspirational business card designs – just what it says. I’m making cards to hand out with my site on them, and this really sparked my creativity.

4.) FlexYourRights.org – I happen to be a big proponent of police officers, but at the same time this is information everyone needs to know.

5.) Dante’s Inferno – A Virtual Tour of Hell- just what it sounds like.

The purpose of this meme is to give high-fives to 5 people, posts, blogs and/or websites you’ve admired during the week, so who are YOUR High-Fives? Post them to your blog and then Share the love.

1. I love to paint and draw, but it takes a major back seat to my writing. (There is a post in that I can tell – I’ll have to expound on that later.)

2. You can put me anywhere, and I can find a way to where I need to be. Cities are easy, and I like public transit for getting around, but cross country is easy too. Helps that a) I like maps (and can read them!), b) I do ask for directions if I need to, and c) I can trace my way backwards to where I got lost at and then take a different route. Also, getting lost and then getting unlost is a great way to learn your way around a place.

3. I dream insanely. There are nights I wake up exhausted because all I did was dream, not rest.

4. Although I wrote stories as a kid, the first time I seriously started to consider myself “a writer,” was then I wrote down was a short story I told my brothers one night when I was somewhere around 14. They liked it so much they threatened to tell my mom I had done something bad, (I have no idea what at this point lol) if I didn’t write it down. That was the first time I took my fiction seriously as something people might like to read, and where my determination to be a published author first took a strong route.

5. I’m a Pisces, although I have managed to camouflage many of the weaknesses of my sign

6. I am fanatical about body art, and have many tattoos and piercings.

7. I’d long since forgotten my geek code, but for fun I just pulled it back up just for you here:

—–BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK—–
Version: 3.1
GCS/FA/L/M/S/O d—@ s+: a C+++>++++$ U—@> P+ L>++ !E— W+++>$ N+ !o K–? ! w @ ! O ! M >++ !V PS++(+) PE+() Y+ !PGP t(+)@ !5 X+ R>++* tv– b++++$ DI++(+) D+ G e++>+++ h(-) r? x+**(++++)
——END GEEK CODE BLOCK——

1.) Booty Babe Art – Big beautiful women statues – I own “Coco.” Mildly not work safe, because not all of the statues are fully clothed

2.) Rampant Plagiarism – It’s not what you expect! I love comic books and graphic novels – and photoshopping things. I’m such a nerd! Also Garfield Minus Garfield – Garfield comics of Jon and Garfield – with Garfield removed! I always knew Jon was crazy. Both via Unshelved web comic.

3.) Don’t follow herd on the economy – very interesting article on warning signs of a crumbling economy and where we might be looking at going right now.

4.) The False Memoir – an article that talks about the issue of false memoirs I wrote about earlier in the week. I don’t really agree with her but she makes some interesting points.

5. ) Apparently the Secret Service does read some blogs, particularly when they document an extreme right-wing blogger talking about assassinating both Clinton and Obama. Yikes.

The purpose of this meme is to give high-fives to 5 people, posts, blogs and/or websites you’ve admired during the week, so who are YOUR High-Fives? Post them to your blog and then Share the love.

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

Hummmm, this is a hard one, but the first one that leaps to mind is Anne McCaffrey’s Killashandra, the protagonist of the trilogy Crystal Singer, Killashandra and Crystal Line. The first book was great, the second one fairly frustrating, and the third one, while better than the second, was not as good as the first, Crystal Singer. However, Killashandra is a strong, not always likable, but memorable protagonist all of the way through.

Killashandra starts out in the first book as an arrogant music student who refuses to accept that she won’t be a top tier singer, and therefore runs off, eventually becoming a crystal singer. Crystal singers use their voice to run special tools that cut valuable crystals out of the rock that shelters them. The catch? There is a symbiotic spore that infects everyone who comes onto the planet, rendering any infected unable to leave the planet for very long without getting sick.
Singers also develop an addiction to “singing,” or cutting, crystal.

Killashandra is a hugely flawed character. She is arrogant, assuming, stuck up, and bullheaded. However, she is also, courageous, tough and smart. Because she is such a dimensional character, the reader is drawn to wanting to interact with her, whether it be to smack her upside the head, exult with her as she finds crystal, or shiver with her in the erotic connection she has. This is one of the foremost goals of most writers, to have their character stand up from the page, live and breathe without laying dormant, and stick in the reader’s head long after the book is closed. These books succeed because of Killashandra, and she one of the most memorable protagonists I can think of.

***Edited to add***

I think the reason I didn’t like book two as much was that wasn’t set on the world Ballybran, it was removed to another planet. If the story would had featured a different singer I probably would have liked it a lot more, but I when I read it I wanted more of what the first book talked about, and the second went in a very different direction. And I also wanted to have more of Lanzecki, and she is deliberately split off from him in the second one * g *

1.) Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster – what began as a response to the Kansas school board’s plan to consider teaching the alternative theory of Intelligent Design along with creationism has taken on a life of its own.

2.) Heartless Machine – Artist Christopher Locke’s site. He does amazing sculptures out of unlikely materials, such as his scissor spiders.

3.) The Winkee – I cannot remember who I got this from, but it makes me laugh. Don’t want to be bothered wearing a tanktop under your plunging neckline? Wear a Winkie!

4.) Reading to Mom – when a parent’s memory begins to fail.

5.) Really Bad Tattoos – disclaimer: I love tattoos, I have a bunch of tattoo, but holy cow these are some bad tattoos. There are seven posts that are linked to at the bottom of the first post, check them all out. NOT work safe!

The purpose of this meme is to give high-fives to 5 people, posts, blogs and/or websites you’ve admired during the week, so who are YOUR High-Fives? Post them to your blog and then Share the love.

1.) Smokey Mountain Breakdown – she’s posting flash fiction works throughout the month of February, and I have to say, what she manages to do in under 1000 words is freaking amazing. (Also, her Grandpa Alfie’s recipe for Wiener Schnitzel looks amazing too – I am so trying it.)

2.) The Infomercantile – Couple of other High-Fivers have linked to posts on this blog. It’s old black and white photographs, which are fascinating on their own, but the author also provides as much information as they have on the photos, as well as any additional research they have done. Enough great stuff to keep my little writer’s mind spinning.

3.) The article Five Easy Ways to Build Sustainable Word-of-Mouth, which is a response to Joan’s Top 10 Tips for Free Publicity. Both have some great ideas and commentary that can be applicable for writers.

4.) Author Kelly Spitzer has an ongoing column in her blog called “Get Real” where she poses a publishing question to authors and editors and then posts some of the responses. Very interesting reading.

5.) THE DOCTOR IS IN – a humorous look at the realities of the mixed emotions that can develop when a friend has some writing success – happiness for them, but also frustration and maybe a little bit of jealousy for not being at that point yourself.

The purpose of this meme is to give high-fives to 5 people, posts, blogs and/or websites you’ve admired during the week, so who are YOUR High-Fives? Post them to your blog and then Share the love.

1.) The Gender Genie – this is both a cool toy and a useful writing tool. Fun, well because it’s neat to see what gender it thinks your own writing is, but as a writer’s tool it is great for analyzing dialogue and writing voice.

2.) Pearls Before Breakfast. What happens when a world famous violinist plays a complicated and well-known piece on a Stradivari violin – in a D.C. subway station? Not what you’d think. I keep going back to this article, because I feel like there is a lot that can be learned from it in many ways, about everyday life of course, but also about context and environment.

3.) del.icio.us. This online bookmark site is amazing. Seriously, I have 2600 links, and I can find whatever I need easily. Since this include school stuff for both my daughter and I, writing and market links, research for writing links, along with all the other things I *need* to bookmark, I use it LOT. It’s so easy, and so user friendly, I have to give them mad props.

4.) The Life Cycle of a Blog Post. Not a lot new here for me, but a great description for when you are trying to explain it to people. Moving around the map is a bit of a pain in the rear tho.

5.) One of the most adorable LOLCats I have seen – a Firefox LOLCat! I love LOLCats. Clickie to enbiggin.

The purpose of this meme is to give high-fives to 5 people, posts, blogs and/or websites you’ve admired during the week, so who are YOUR High-Fives? Post them to your blog and then Share the love.

1) Make money writing fillers! – this is something that I keep thinking about doing, but haven’t tried yet.

2.) Fantasy Writer Guy for introducing me to the film “Children Underground,” a documentary about Romanian street children. Which leads to my next link,

3) The move “Children Underground,” up on YouTube. This link is part 1 of 10, they broke it up into 10 minute chunks. Once you start with one, the link to the next is underneath the movie. Sad sad stuff.

4) Desdmona’s Sex in the Rain Contest is an erotic short story contest of 1000 words or less. I have tried a few of their contests and it it is stiff competition. Some of the winning stories are amazing however. Not work safe!!!!

5) Will Write For Chocolate, a web comic for writers that had me howling with both humor and pain, because some of them are so true. This one fits perfectly with one of my earlier posts. Clickie to enbiggin.

Who are YOUR High-Fives? Post them to your blog and then Share the love.

So The Marketing Whore has come up with a meme to help give kudos to websites that should be passed around, because they are interesting, educational, or just plain odd. Way it work is you write a post giving “high-fives to 5 people, posts, blogs and/or websites you’ve admired during the week.” Then, as with any other meme, you go to the High-Five-Fridays site, leave a comment with a link to your post, and if you feel so inclined, check out some of the sites that other commenters have high-fived. Got it? Good! Here we go.

1.) Joe.My.God Damn this man can write. Start out the with “The Readers’ Favorites” on the left hand side of the page. Those stories have both brought me to tears and dropped me to my knees laughing more than once. He also keeps a very steady finger on the pulse of GLBT rights, the state of the country, travels around NYC, and his shelter kitty, Shelley. EDITED TO ADD (because someone pointed it out LOL) The reader’s favorites that stick with me involve life, and many of them from the point of a gay man who lived through the AIDS crisis of the 80′s on. Start from the bottom and read up. There are a few though that are very funny, but do involve sexual situations. If you want to avoid those kinds of stories, skip Worst.Sex.Ever., The East Bay Mind Fuck, Tripping Over The Tubs and Gay Gayer Gayest. Couple of the others are a little raunchy but nothing major. Some of them though should be required for anyone who didn’t live through the AIDS crisis, and thinks it wasn’t a big deal, and anyone who did, he writes so sweetly about it that it will make you cry. But whatever you do, you have to read:

• Ricky Loved Madonna
• The Guy With The Bike
• Clouds and Miss America
• Sentences
• The Goodbye Song
• Membership
• Departure
• The Dance of the Sugar Plum Lesbians
• The Step Not Taken
• The Day I Helped Kill A Baby
• Little Man & The Mayor
• Diner Life -
• Guilty/Runner And Crier
• We Met On The Dance Floor

Have.To.Read.

2.) Duotrope’s Digest. I wrote about this site once before, but to sum it up it is an amazing resource for all fiction, poetry and novel writers. Up to date information on over two thousand markets, and a free submission tracker. They are amazing.

3.) The Smart Bitches, Trashy Books folk’s investigation into Cassie Edwards’s plagiarism. Start with this post and the links to the rest of the story is all right there. They did an amazing job with their research, and even though I’m not a romance reader, I feel this is an important story for all writers.

4.) Improv Everywhere’s No Pants 2k8.Almost 2000 people rode the subway pants-less. What’s not to love? Rocking photographs, videos and commentary. And no pants.

5.) WOWIO. I’m a big web comic fan, and I kept hearing about this site. I finally checked it out, and it is a great concept. You download books for free, up to three a day, (they have a whole selection of books, not just comics and graphic novels,) and the authors get paid for every download. It’s not a lot, but hey, every penny is something.

Who are YOUR High-Fives? Go give them love.

So without further ado, week 258′s Unconscious Mutterings.

I say … and you think … ?

1. Dream big :: Act bigger
2. Competition ::
3. Torn :: Between two lovers
4. Modeling :: clay (Play-Dough©!)
5. Coaster :: Hot tea
6. Slut :: Men are too
7. Spread :: Butter and Jam
8. Amanda :: Amanda, Bo Banda, Fing Fi Fo Mana, Amanda!
9. Romance :: Novelist
10. Paradise :: Lost