Lazy Saturday

Just sent off four new copies of my book and it officially went international as of Friday. My book is sitting on some coffeetable/nightside table in London. Hmm let's say nightstand table. I've gotten alot of great feedback from those who've either read the whole thing straight through or are taking it one story at it time. Interesting feeling having your work out there in the world. Need to get working on my other projects...they're callin my name. Today though...I'm in the middle of rewatching the 3rd season of the very excellent Sons of Anarchy and later I'll be checking out the new X-men movie with my sisters. I've heard very good things so far.

The mood for this lazy, beautiful Saturday:

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Mommies Day to all the ladies working it out and doing it right (Mamas, Grandmas,Aunties) Sometimes it takes a village but it starts with you. You are the first thing they know and cry for. The smiling assurance they need comes from your lips. Your wise words sometimes fall on deaf ears but when lessons are learned they know that Mom was right..."I should have listened". So sending love out to all the Mommies doing it right.


photo belongs to xdesx

In Living Color

Video from both signing and reading. Loaded to youtube. After three attempts to load the reading to yt had to go with vimeo instead. Not sure if it was because of the large file size or if yt simply felt bitchy at that moment (such a dramaqueen...not me..yt ;) )

Quick 43 sec spot:




Video from Reading. Excerpts are from "The Script" and "Skin Deep" both short stories in my collection, Population Crazytown. Wish little sis had been close but it came out well I think :)

C.A. Robinson reading from Population Crazytown from C.A. Robinson on Vimeo.

I had to listen with earphones or volume turned all the way up. Sorry but the camera did the job :)

Postcards from the Edge...no not the movie

Okay...classic overacheiver. Once I finally had the book ready to go and off to the printer, I had this other idea that I'd been playing around with. For the publication party or simply inserts for the book I didn't want to go with the usual route of bookmarks. I've loved getting them in the past but it didn't feel quite right for my crazytown folks. I've always considered my audience while putting this together as being on the road into crazytown before even skimming that first page. Postcards, I decided would be the way to go. Not simply postcards with images of my books cover. I wanted something that reflected the stories inside...perhaps a variation of images for those very different personalities and issues.

I searched out actual postcards. I took photographs but none of it felt right. Then one night after Spring Break, my fellow MFAer Rafe Posey popped up with amazing pictures of his relaxing time off in Santa Barbara. The minute I saw some of those photos things started to click and I saw the postcard that would be for Vivi...her goodbye to the child she's abandoning. With another I saw what would tie two old friends together from one story to the next. Now of course the photographs were only the beginning. I played around a bit with photoshop for the outstanding images that are posted here. Then I carefully wrote out messages from one character to another. An epilogue or prologue of sorts. I stolen moment that would mean much to the reader after slipping so briefly into this character's existence.

There are actually five different variations. All with a unique touch or twist to the stories inside.

Population Crazytown! Limited Edition Available Now

Okay many of you and my twitter/fb frans (stole that from Charisma C lol) have expressed interest in taking an extended trip into Crazytown. I'm currently getting things set up to make that happen. For now email/DM/PM me if you would like a copy of the book so that I can add you to the list. Email: jenndeve@gmail.com or follow me on twitter (jenndeve@yahoo.com).

All But Done!!

Was just looking at my bio from last year and it says "currently working on my MFA" the work is all but done. All that's left to do is walk across the stage. Last night's reading and the publication party...I kept waiting for the moment when I'd meltdown or freakout...stutter and slip up in all the wrong places. It didn't happen. I like to think of myself as a humble individual but I pretty much sure that I did the dang thing and killed it last night. Little sis had her camera at ready so hopefully I'll be able to load it to youtube shortly.

Gotta Make a Move To a Town That's Right For Me

Talk about it talk about it ooooh baby. LOL. I could not remember the lyrics to funkytown for the life of me last night. You might wonder...Courtney why the sudden fascination with disco? Well, last night was the publication party and my book is "Population Crazytown" and my lovely reading group...my amazing supportive reading group met up with me early on in the semester. They read through my collection and pulling it all together...Crazytown. The characters and all their nueroses and their self-isolation were completely crazytown. So last night signing a copy of for the amazing Rafe Posey I completely blanked....well that and the venue for our publication party/reading was apparently closing and we got the old "You ain't gotta go home, but you need to get the hell out of here." Well, they were a bit more polite than that but still. So I had the sudden urge to find the song and ended up pulling a Risky Business and shaking my thang...disco had its issues but the music certainly gets you moving.

DWTS

I actually haven't seen Dancing With the Stars in a few seasons (six...seven)...started again during this hiatus and I'm loving it. I adore Kirstie Alley and just want her to kick all kinds of butt.

Had a Feeling

I can barely keep a diary...whether it be an actual chronicle of the neverending list of crap I must do or a food diary where I manage to log my dietary sins...though I've gotten better about not cosuming things that aren't all that good for you. I still get the urge to cheat and have to give in (a few times a week)...but if I'm not forced to. I can't seem to keep this thing updated. I shall try though. In between the hundreds of things that end to be done from one day to the next.

Wanted to update this thing with the progress on my novel. Had to put together a collection instead. Long story. I wasn't happy at first and as hard as its been putting this thing together...I really love it. Strangely enough....the collection is called...."Population Crazytown". I completely forgot about this blog and the title. Totally meant to be I think.

99 Problems

Or more like 99 passwords. Took me forever to get the exact combo to get back into this thing. My laptop already brings everything up automatically because I'm lazy like that and tell it to keep me signed in and because of the fact that I have 99 different passwords for just about everything under the sun. Sometimes I think I should just keep one central password but no....that's not cool and it's not smart. Plus at work my ten main passwords I am required to change up in some insanely simple variation every three months. Some systems let you cycle through the same trinity but those annoying few remind you that you've had this password or some far too too close variation within the past billion years...okay. Rant over. Hello, World. How are ya?

Ain't It Uncool

Have this compulsion to keep updating Jilly's FB and now the stupid site keeps freezing up and giving off error messages. You have got to be kidding me. Used Picnik and Photobucket to play around with some pictures I took in NYC a few months ago...my work becoming Jillian's artwork. Now if only FB would cooperate. Going to have to call it and get ready for class soon. -_-.

Done and done

Or not quite. With the nature of my project, it's so open-ended that there's no way that I can be done. Only satisfied that I've put in enough work up to this point. For tonight at least. Can't believe the semester is almost over.

Whatchamacallit

Ever had a book or plot on the brain. Something you read forever and a day ago that twitches at the edge of memory. It drops hints, some false and others true. I really love the internet. You can find just about anything and if you don't know or can't remember what it is then somewhere out there someone knows and wants to share. :)

Promises (Work In Progress)

Created a wordpress account just for this work-in-progress and my final project. I've been working for weeks, shuttling back and forth for the three facebook accounts that I created for three of the main characters in Promises; Jillian Guthrie, Vinni Saito, & Lucinda Saito. I've spent more time working and fleshing out Jilly's with the other acting as supporting and bit players but I plan to add even more to these latter two accounts as well. Friend them all and check out my progress and the backstory of Jillian's past.

Jillian G: Begins after she leaves home for college and meets up with her best friend and roommate during freshman year at NYU.

Vinni S: Jillian's roomate. The girls form a tightknit bond that is cemented by the time Promises actually starts up, years later.

Lulu S: Vinni's BTVS/Angel obssessed grandmother who also forms her own bond with budding artist Jillian. The two eventually begin working together on children's books.

Shakepeare's Women

The Many Faces of Willa, it's a play that I created (not actually sat down and wrote) but created for the purposes of Vinni and Jilly's back and forth. Their life as students at NYU. It's a play featuring segments of Shakespearan plays but set in the present and with a modern twist. Something like 10 Things and Leo/Claire's Romeo & Juliet, but not really. Picture Hamlet's Ophelia performing in a burlesque show and you'll get close to what I was thinking of. Jillian's best friend and sidekick, Vinni lands a part in the Tisch production (as Bianca from The Taming of the Shrew). There's crossdressing and murder-for-hire. It's Shakespeare but more.


Jillian, artist that she is, was volunteered by her bestie to work with Set Design and Wardrobe for the costumes, as well as, designing posters to go up around campus. (one pictured above and a second pictured below)

Stop the Presses

Still hammering away at my final project...an exercise in meta. There's so much more to do and I don't think it'll get done by Thursday night. Of course, I have every intention of carrying onward with fleshing out the life and times of Jillian Guthrie before Promises even begins. Before Jilly meets Colin even. At some point, I'll get there. For now, I've been busily working my way through Jilly's personal dialogue with herself and her friends...surfing my way through 1999 and 2000. Wanted to get through those first few years and I will at some point. Very likely not in the next two days, though.

Happy Earth Day, Peeps!!!!

It's Earth Day. Go plant a tree and change think of your worst two habits...over consuming electricity or non-recycling of recyclables or something. Pick one and not only decide to mend your ways but actually do it ;)

Dancing....Talking to myself...

It's a bad habit and everybody does it at one point or another during the course of their day. Well, I'll taken the idea of talking to myself to another level with my final project. Still working on it and what it mostly entails is a further view into the psyche and friendships of characters from one of my novels. How is this done? Why via facebook of course. Why not twitter? There's just a different experience that you get with the network of friends you invite/allow on your FB. So there I am everyday, switching back and forth between four different FB accounts ranting, posting, replying....to myself, but then again it's not really me. It's the same as if I were typing it all into a word doc. The characters are going back and forth and spilling their darkest secrets and concerns...playing around and teasing one another. It's fun and made somewhat easier by having the apps for FB on my phone and Pod.

Aww and...okay a little disturbing

Found this this morning and gotta say it was just very adorable and a little disturbing in the....er prolonged "lovefest" between lady and beast :). Lovefest

Spring...spring...go away

Pollen. Yes, I know we need it to actually make things flourish and grow but the yellowish film of powder covering everything is insane. Bleary eyes and countless sneezes. Who could possibly get anything done. And tax day on top of it all. What a week.