[New post] My DragonCon schedule & where to find me

janinekspendlove posted: " As most of you know DragonCon is looming & I once again have a packed schedule. I'd really love to see those of you that are going, so if you can make it to one of my panels, that'd be great! If not, please stop by to say hello. I'll most often be in" New post on Ailionora My DragonCon schedule & where to find me by janinekspendlove As most of you know DragonCon is looming & I once again have a packed schedule. I'd really love to see those of you that are going, so if you can make it to one of my panels, that'd be great! If not, please stop by to say hello. I'll most often be in the Kaleidoscope Track room during the day. For those of you looking to purchase one of my books I will have some on hand for sale, and of course, if you bring your own copies I'd be happy to sign them. Oh, before I forget, most of our panels will feature a giveaway of some sort (especially my reading with Bryan Young - LOADS of giveaways there... some lucky attendee is going to walk away with all of Silence in the Library Publishing's currently published books, to include Bryan Young's Operation Montauk and my War of the Seasons novels!). Hope to see you there! MY SCHEDULE: Title: Princess, Fairies, and Pirates Time: Fri 10:00 am Location: A708 - Marriott (Length: 1) Description: A discussion of favorite Disney characters: Snow White to Merida, Prince Charming to Captain Jack Sparrow. Title: An Hour with Charlie Schlatter Time: Fri 11:30 am Location: A601 - A602 - Marriott (Length: 1) Moderator / MC for panel Description: A discussion of Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, the Emmy nominated animated TV show on Disney XD. Title: Secondary Characters in The Hunger Games Time: Fri 02:30 pm Location: Hanover C - E - Hyatt (Length: 1) Description: From other tributes to Capitol dwellers, even the minor characters are well-drawn enough to inspire strong feelings. Title: Fan Works and Beyond: Taking it to the Next Level Time: Fri 07:00 pm Location: A707 - Marriott (Length: 1) Description: A discussion of YA fan inspiration that has evolved beyond fanfic and fanart to Wizard Rock, fan musicals, Wattpad, and Kindle Worlds. Title: Reading - Janine K. Spendlove & Bryan Young Time: Sat 02:30 pm Location: Roswell - Hyatt (Length: 1) Loads of giveaways!Tell your friends - let's pack the room! Title: Come Meet Geek Girls Run Time: Sat 04:00 pm Location: A708 - Marriott (Length: 1) Description: The group fosters self-improvement, healthy living, and a community where strong women inspire and encourage each other. *There is also an associated fun run, Friday morning at 0830 in front of the Marriott. See you there!* Title: Whatcha Doing, Danville Chicks? Time: Sat 05:30 pm Location: A601 - A602 - Marriott (Length: 1) Moderator / MC for panel Description: Get the Phineas & Ferb inside scoop from two of its greatest chicks. Title: Geek Parents Unite! Time: Sun 11:30 am Location: A708 - Marriott (Length: 1) Description: Exchange ideas & stories with other parents and nerds just like you. Title: Read-a-Likes Time: Sun 02:30 pm Location: A708 - Marriott (Length: 1) Description: Turn your child's love for TV into a love of reading. Title: Phineas & Ferb, Come to Danville Time: Sun 04:00 pm Location: A601 - A602 - Marriott (Length: 1) Description: Danville has everything from Fireside Girls to secret agents to evil scientists. Discuss your favorites. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Need a copy of one of my books? As it happens you can buy them here. janinekspendlove | August 23, 2013 at 3:16 am | URL: http://wp.me/p3LiH2-hJ Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.ailionora.com/2013/08/23/my-dragoncon-schedule-where-to-find-me/

[New post] Don’t tell me what to write

janinekspendlove posted: "I recently came across a Tumblr post with tens of thousands of notes that said the following "petition to make young adult authors stop writing about girls whose lives change when they meet a boy." My initial reaction was (as I'm sure what it would be fo" New post on Ailionora Don’t tell me what to write by janinekspendlove I recently came across a Tumblr post with tens of thousands of notes that said the following "petition to make young adult authors stop writing about girls whose lives change when they meet a boy." My initial reaction was (as I'm sure what it would be for many authors): Don't tell me what to write. If you don't like what a book, that's the beauty of books - there are always MORE. Simply set it aside & try another. Hopefully that one is more to your taste. Once I got over my initial "YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME" reaction, I realized that the above post probably had more to do with certain tropes that are often found in YA Lit - specifically the whole "I can't believe a guy like you would notice me!" trope. There's also the "All women are lustful," "All girls want bad boys," "Distressed Damsel," and the "Dulcinea Effect." I'm going to stop here, because if I keep going someone will need to go into to TV Tropes in a few days and pull me out! Now, if the original post had said all that that, I probably would have just kept scrolling on Tumblr a bit irritated (because I still don't like the idea of someone telling me what to write), but not perturbed enough to say anything. But it didn't say that. It said, specifically "make young adult authors stop writing about girls whose lives change when they meet a boy." So, what I'd like to know is what is so wrong about writing about a person whose life changes when they meet another person who turns out to be significant in their life? Whether it's a boy meeting a girl, or a girl meeting a girl, etc, that's what stories essentially are about: RELATIONSHIPS. My most recently published story is all about a girl whose life changed when she met a boy. Her brother. It completely, utterly changed her life because of the love & acceptance he showed her, something she'd never had in her life before that moment. BTW, it's a superhero story. BTW, she's the one with the super powers. Ultimately it's a story about unconditional love, and in my opinion, love is what gives any story its heart. I'm not saying stories need focus on love, but I am saying I think love - whether platonic or romantic - gives a story depth and an emotional anchor. So, no, I'm not going to stop writing stories about girls whose lives change when they meet a boy, or stories where a girl's life changes when she meets a girl, or any combination you can think of. I'm not going to write the stories anyone "tells" me or tries to "make" me write. I'm going to write the stories I feel need to be told. I'm going to write the stories that speak to my heart. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Need a copy of one of my books? As it happens you can buy them here. janinekspendlove | August 14, 2013 at 12:24 pm | Tags: short story, tropes, ya lit, you are not the boss of me | URL: http://wp.me/p3LiH2-hG Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.ailionora.com/2013/08/14/dont-tell-me-what-to-write/

[New post] GeekGirlsRun, a new running club for everyone

janinekspendlove posted: " Hey all! So, because I'm not a busy enough person, I totally got involved in ANOTHER thing. And now I'm going to tell you about it. I've no idea if you guys have seen anything about a new running group called GeekGirlsRun, but it's a new running club" New post on Ailionora GeekGirlsRun, a new running club for everyone by janinekspendlove Hey all! So, because I'm not a busy enough person, I totally got involved in ANOTHER thing. And now I'm going to tell you about it. I've no idea if you guys have seen anything about a new running group called GeekGirlsRun, but it's a new running club we've (Betsy (JustBetsyCostumes), Caitlin (BrightCopperPenny), & yours truly) put together because Betsy (who is awesome) thought the world needed one, and we agreed. So for the last couple months we've been brainstorming the heck out of what it takes to start a running club, and we have, for the most part, I think put a good one together. But of course we are still learning. :) We have a logo, we have a website, we have all sorts of social media (go like our FB! https://www.facebook.com/GeekGirlsRun), and a motto: A community for geek girls who just want to run. Whether you have thousands of miles under your utility belt, or none, we're here to share, have fun, and encourage each other. Also, it's for everyone, not just runners, and not just girls. EVERYONE. :) We are all inclusive! Here's a pic of our very first convention "fun run" held last month at Origins: Also, GeekGirlsRun is teaming up with Nerd Herd and promoting their virtual race series. You guys, check it out, you run 3 races (5K, or 10K, or 1/2 marathon, YOU PICK!), you get 4 medals (that come together to form a picture), and the best part is the money goes toward fighting cancer! The series is $65 for all 3 races, BUT if you use the coupon code geekgirlsrun by JULY 27th (that's in 3 days!) you get $5 off!. I know "May the 4th" has already passed by, but you can still run the 5k (to still get the medal). I ran mine yesterday. WOOHOO! I thought my shirt was appropriate. :D At anyrate, I know I've got a bajillion things going on, but here's one more... because I believe in GeekGirlsRun. I believe very strongly in the culture of running - the inclusiveness of everyone, runner, walker, cheerer, everyone. We're all one big happy family. :) We would love to have everyone who wants to be in the club to join! :) janinekspendlove | July 24, 2013 at 3:04 am | Tags: geekgirlsrun, my friends are awesome, nerd herd, running | Categories: News and Updates | URL: http://wp.me/p3LiH2-hA Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.ailionora.com/2013/07/24/geekgirlsrun-a-new-running-club-for-everyone/

Fiver's Flamingos 2013

How does one start something like this? I guess you go back to the beginning, which in this case would be Mel, AKA Fiver, and we are her Flamingos. Back in 2007, our friend Mel ( , AKA Fiver) was diagnosed with ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Essentially, it causes all the motor neurons to shut down, gradually making the muscles unable to function. It's very rare (1 in 1 Million) for someone who was only 34 years old to come down with this, as it mainly affects people between 50 and 70. Life expectancy is 3-5 years from diagnosis. The disease progressively takes away movement and coordination. In September 2007, she marched with fellow LotR fans in the annual DragonCon parade. Six months later, she was wheelchair bound, now has a permanent feeding tube, and can no longer talk or move outside of blinking her eyes. To say that we all (Mel's friends) felt more then a bit helpless would be an understatement. How do you fix something that can't be fixed? The answer is, you can't. But what you can do is take a page out of Mel's book, slap a smile on your face, and always look on the funny side of life. So 4 of us did something spur of the moment in 2009, when we got together to run the inaugural Disney Princess Half Marathon (13.1 miles) at Disney World. I threw together some team jerseys with iron on letters & princess stickers, and we dubbed ourselves "Fiver's Flamingos" in honor of Mel, who loves both Flamingos and Disney more than anyone we know. In 2010 we teamed up with The ALS Association of Georgia (http://www.alsaga.org/) to help raise some money to find both a cure and treatments for ALS, as we ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon again that year, 2011, & 2012 with some new faces on the team. ALS Research had a major breakthrough last [...]

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THE NEXT BIG THING (yes, all caps)

A few weeks ago Tera Fulbright tagged me on her blog as part of a chain of authors (or creative people) recommendations called THE NEXT BIG THING. Given that I've been away on travel a lot & I found a free minute today, it's my turn to reciprocate and to pass on the torch. I'm going to answer questions about my new project War of the Seasons, book 3: The Hunter. Then I'm going to tag five wonderful authors who will tell you about their Next Big Thing on... whenever they get a chance.

Guest post: Finding time to write, by Bryan Young

I was absolutely thrilled when on of my oldest friends & fantastic author, Bryan Young, agreed to do a guest post here. Seriously, if you haven't read his most recent novel, Operation Montauk, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Dinosaurs, Nazis, a space ship, time travel... oh, and a monkey! 

I returned the favor and did a guest post on his blog on interacting with readers, which you can find here. Bryan's post on finding time to write can be found below. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Janine and I have been friends for a long time, and so when she asked me to do a guest post for her writing blog, I said, "Sure!" With the exclamation point and everything. And she asked me to write about finding time to write. She and I share many things in common, but chief among them is our mutual love of Star Wars and our ability to write quality work while having two of the busiest lives in the galaxy. So it seemed like a natural fit for me to write about finding time to write. We should start with the most obvious statement in the world: If writing makes you happy, you should be writing. Period. And if your writing is good, there's no reason you shouldn't be publishing. But the biggest stumbling block for people always seems to be, "I don't have time to write." I'll let you in on a secret: Me neither. I make time. I wrote and published well over 250,000 words in 2012. In 2012, I also held a full time job. I had freelance work on top of that. On top of that, I have a family that demands attention. Dates, play dates with the kids, school functions, and on and on and on. I've got a gig hosting a pub quiz every week, and that needs to be written as well. I'm as busy or [...]

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Thrifty Fashion: Modest is Hottest (and stripes!)

I've not hidden the fact that I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS, aka "Mormon"), but it's also not something I am "in your face" about. It's just a part of who I am - like curly hair, my family, sneezing in threes, and pretty much anything else that's integral to my life. And so it's natural that just like my personality, colors, patterns, and weather effect my clothing choices, so do my religious beliefs. I was raised LDS, and I remember my parents always teaching from a very young age to dress appropriately, modestly. When I turned 12 and graduated from "primary" to "Young Womens" I was given a small book "For the Strength of Youth" that further clarified the way we should dress, act, and treat others. As an adult I've tried to maintain these values and standards, though I am human, and do fail at times, especially in my treatment of others. I need to be better about that. When my husband and I were sealed to each in the temple other (a little while after we were married) we made new covenants to each other & with the lord - one of them being to dress modestly. So, unless I'm running (or participating in another physical activity, like swimming, etc), I don't wear anything sleeveless, low cut, short (I stick with knee length), etc. Essentially, like I was taught as a teen, I try to think "Would I feel comfortable with my appearance if I were in the Lord's presence?" That's a pretty good guideline. I don't find this limiting at all, and I don't think my "fashion sense" has suffered for it either. Though I'm certain my parents disagree with me & my "fashion sense." ;) ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ You might be asking yourself (because I know I'm certainly asking myself), why the heck is this author/Marine/mother/wife writing a [...]

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