auria “Hussein” cortes

Right now. And I’m bored and scared at the same time. How is that possible?

Livin’ tagged me. Here are the rules: 1) Link back to the person who tagged you. 2) Post the rules on your blog. 3) Write six things about yourself. 4) Tag six people at the end of your post by posting links to their blogs. 5) Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. 6) And let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Scooby-Doo And A Mummy Part 1

Scooby-Doo And A Mummy Part 2

1. I’m a vegetarian, but I ate a turkey burger about two months ago. Good news is that I didn’t find it satisfying, but the steak fries were terrific.
2. People annoy me.
3. I’m considering dating again so that I’ll have a man who can fix things around the house. Yes, I can probably fix things myself but I don’t want to.
4. I’m allegoric to the sun.
5. If there is a food shortage, I won’t stock up on food. I’ll go down with the starved. Who wants to live when everyone around is dying?
6. I want to go to Eygpt because I want to be a mummy when I do (for real).

I’m not tagging cuz I got no one.

This weekend I’ll watch Zodiac while I’ll painting. I’ll let you know my thoughts. Have any of you seen it?

Appetizer
Name something you would categorize as weird.
People who lie over small things. If you are going to lie, LIE BIG.

Soup
What is the color of the last food you ate?
Light brown. I had a granolo bar.

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 how much do you like being alone.
10+

Main Course
Fill in the blank: I will  _______ vote for ________ in _____.
I will not vote for a candidate who is not pro choice in the 2008 election.

Dessert
Describe your sleeping habits.
I rarely sleep.

A Puerto Rican who is born in New York is called a Nuyorican. According to Wiki, Nuyorican itself dates at least from 1975, the date of the first public sessions of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe was a place I freqented in my my teens and twenties. The Cafe is where poets gather and slam. Though I never had the courage to perform, I enjoyed the ambiance and watching the performances of others.

Since April is poetry month, I decided to devote this week’s TT to poetry quotes.

• Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. ~Leonard Cohen
• Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary. ~Kahlil Gibran
• Ink runs from the corners of my mouth
  There is no happiness like mine.
  I have been eating poetry.
  ~Mark Strand, “Eating Poetry,” Reasons for Moving, 1968
• There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money, either. ~Robert Graves, 1962 interview on BBC-TV, based on a very similar statement he overheard around 1955
• Poetry is what gets lost in translation. ~Robert Frost
• Imaginary gardens with real toads in them. ~Marianne Moore’s definition of poetry, “Poetry,” Collected Poems, 1951
• A poem is never finished, only abandoned. ~Paul Valéry
• He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life. ~George Sand, 1851
• Always be a poet, even in prose. ~Charles Baudelaire, “My Heart Laid Bare,” Intimate Journals, 1864
• Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition. ~Eli Khamarov, The Shadow Zone
• Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away. ~Carl Sandburg, Poetry Considered
• Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted. ~Percy Shelley, A Defence of Poetry, 1821
• Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. ~Plato, Ion

You’ve got that blessed first draft completed and now it is time to jump from the frying pan into the fire. You’ve got to clean it up and get it ready for submission. The first thing you need to do is to set it aside and give your mind some space from it so you can go back to it with fresh eyes. Don’t go back to it with the mistaken idea that it will just need a little tweaking. You are going to need to do some serious overhauling on that baby and the more comfortable you are with the idea, the more productive your edits and revisions will be.

Okay, you’ve taken some time and now you are ready to rip that mother up! Make sure you have all the tools you need.

A back-up ink cartridge or toner.
A fresh ream of paper for printing out your chapters.
A highlighter or two.
A notepad.
A dictionary.
A Thesaurus.
A Tape recorder with a couple blank tapes.

Now that you are prepared, make sure that you have a couple of hours each day where you can go off alone with no interruptions. Build yourself a comfortable little nook and settle in.

Step one: Use your search and replace function to highlight the weak verbs. Use a different color for each word (was, were, knew, felt, seemed). Generally, these words are overused and can be replaced with stronger and more active verbs to make your work flow with ease.

Step two: Print out your first chapter. You want to work one chapter at a time. Take out your tape recorder and read your first chapter aloud. Follow along on your hard copy.

Step three: Once you have it recorded, play it back. Listen to your voice and the flow and cadence. Use your highlighter to accent anything that you stumbled over in your reading.

Step four: Get out your notepad now. Rewind your tape and listen again. This time, make notes of any words that sound awkward or out of place. If anything stands out or might make the average reader stumble, make a note of it. Listen for any words that you might use repeatedly in a short amount of space.

Step five: Set your recorder aside and focus on your hard copy now. Using your Word Grammar Check is fine, but do NOT rely on it for total accuracy. If you are unsure of the validity of a comma or the proper usage of a dash, ellipsis, semi-colon, etc. Check the spelling of those words commonly misspelled (their, there, they’re, piqued, peeked, peaked, etc.) Take nothing for granted.

Step six: Go back to step one and repeat until the chapter is perfect. Once you cannot find any additional errors or necessary (learn the difference between needed and wanted) edits, move onto the next chapter.

About The Author Karen Syed is the proud owner of Echelon Press, LLC. Every day is a new success story for her as she continues to grow herself and her business. She has seen seven novels published, along with numerous articles and short stories. As a former bookstore owner, she garnered a nomination from Publishers Weekly for their Bookseller of the Year award. You can learn more about Karen Syed at http://www.hartofthematter.com.