Purple Streak in My Hair

Yesterday, I spent most of the morning dying a purple streak into my hair. Why? Well, sometimes you just need a change, for one. Also, the heroine in the book I'm writing has purple streaks in her hair, and I am hoping that by having this in common with her, I will someone be more connected to her. Of course, I don't know how I can expect to me more connected to a girl I created in the first place, but what the hell. Anything is worth a shot.

Being relatively new to the process of dying my own hair a bright color, I went to the Hot Topic over at the mall by us and talked to the cashier - who incidentally had multi-colored hair. She gave me some tips, like in order for a bright color to show up on my medium dark hair, I would need to bleach it out first. She also told me which of the two purple dyes in the store would last the longest. I bought RAW products - both their "White Out" 40 volume bleaching kit with toner and their Deep purple gel hair dye.

First, I set up the area in my bathroom. Gloves (the kit came with some, but they were huge, so I bought a pack of 10 gloves at Dollar General for 1.25), small plastic cups to mix the bleach in (You can use pretty much any container as long as it isn't metal), the bleaching kit, aluminum foil, and the purple dye. I also threw down an old pink sheet to catch any dye or bleach that fell onto the floor.

The bleaching part was a little bit scary. Since I was chemically altering my hair, I knew that once I started, there was no going back. Following the instructions on the bottle of bleach, I mixed the activating powder with the bleach solution in the small plastic cup. Once it was creamy, I picked up a section of hair on my left side that I wanted to eventually dye purple, then covered it in the solution. (First, I separated the hair I didn't want bleached and threw it up in a ponytail.) I tried my best to mimic the way a hairstylist "foils" my hair when they put highlights in, but somehow it just isn't as easy as they make it look. My way was much messier, but that's where the gloves came in. I used the foil to press against as I brushed the bleach solution in, then I folded the foil around my hair and then folded it up into a smaller section that I could easily blow dry.

The bleach solution I bought worked off heat activation, so I kept the blow dryer on low and pointed it at the foil section. Every ten minutes, I checked it to see if it was lightening. It pretty much was a slow, boring process. Since my hair is so dark, I ended up keeping the bleach solution on my hair for about 30 minutes. I think it might have worked better with 40 minutes, but it turned out decent, just really brassy instead of platinum blond.

When I took the foil out, I rinsed the bleach off with cold water, then patted it dry with a towel. I thenwashed just the bleached strip with shampoo and cold water, then patted it dry again. I used the toner that came with the bleaching kit and left it on for about 15 minutes, but honestly, I didn't notice that it made a difference.

The next step was to dry my hair with the blow dryer so that I could apply the purple dye. It was very gel-like and extremely prone to staining. It pretty much got everywhere! Instead of using a brush, I just squirted the gel dye into my gloved hands and massaged it into the strip of hair, then put it up in foil again. I didn't need heat this second time, so I just sat at my computer for about 30 minutes, then washed the dye out. I dont' know if I was supposed to or not, but I ended up taking a full shower and washing and conditioning my hair. I was terrified as I watched the purple dye fall off my hair and go down the drain. What if I'd just spend the last few hours dying my hair and then washing it all out?

But there was nothing to be afraid of. Once I got out of the shower and blow dried my hair, a bright purple streak became visible. It's funny because in some lighting, you can barely see it at all, but in others, it's super bright. I really like it. I'm tempted to start the whole process over and put a few more streaks in it before all is said and done.

Zombies and Hello Kitty Stickers

Just a couple of random things to share this morning.

First of all, G and I have been slowly watching all the episodes of "The Office" on Netflix. They have all of the first 5 seasons on instant play, so we watch a few episodes every night while we play EQ2. It's definitely one of the funnier shows on TV. Dwight Shrute is one of the funniest and strangest characters I've ever seen, but so incredibly well-developed and consistent. He really makes me laugh out loud, which, let's face it, doesn't happen enough in life.

Last night, we were watching an episode about half-way through season 5 (yes, we've already gotten that far) and Dwight said:

"There are several ways to kill a zombie, but the most satisfying one is to stab it in the brain with a wooden stick."

LOL! OMG, seriously? That is such a Dwight thing to say!

My second random share is that I bought some Hello Kitty keyboard stickers, and I LOVE them. In fact, I love them so much I am going to order a set for my laptop as well. I type so much throughout the day that the letters and the paint are coming off the keys anyway. Besides, for only $5, it beats buying a whole new keyboard - plus it makes me happy.

Oh, and on a side note, I'm coloring my hair today - purple streaks. It's something I've wanted to do for a while now, so there's no time like the present. Especially when it's a rainy, icky day out like today.

My Favorite Super Bowl Ads

G and I watched the Super Bowl last night. To be honest, we aren't really huge pro football fans. Or even little ones, for the most part. But I like to watch the Super Bowl. Okay, so mainly we watched it for the commercials. This year, here were my top 5 favorite ones:

My #1 Favorite was marked by Google's first push into television advertising:



#2. The Doritos Commercials were all really good last night, but this one was awesome. It had me laughing out loud, which is always a good thing:



#3. The unexpected Dodge Charger ad. I wasn't expecting it to be a car ad at all, so when it came through, it was pretty cool. Funny ad.



#4. Gaming Ads have really been getting better and better - which is no surprise since gaming itself is one of the most revenue-producing past-times these days. The new ad for Dante's Inferno really caught my attention. Made me want to run out and buy it - except for this - I really want to buy Bioshock 2 and there's no way I can afford both games in the same month.



#5. And my fifth favorite Super Bowl commercial of 2010? The Betty White Snickers commercial.

How Many Books In a Year

I was thinking about this last night - I wonder how many books I read in a year? I'm not sure, really. If you look through my house, you'd think I read hundreds a year, if you were to base it solely on how many books I currently own. But there's no way it's truly hundreds. I would have to be reading a book a day for that to happen. Last year, I read a lot simply because I was reading a lot of Silhouette Desire books in order to better write them according to their "rules". Since I've moved on from that idea and on to other types of books that I want to write, I doubt I'll hardly pick up a Harlequin novel this year unless my critique partner is writing for them again this year. I think I just got burned out on them.

I was thinking that it would be fun to keep track of the books I read this year, both craft books and fiction books. I try to always have some book about writing going at all times, just so I can keep learning from other writers and keep thinking about the different aspects of writing a great novel. But I also always have a fiction book going, too. I suppose I will also count the audiobooks I listen to, since that's technically "reading" them. I certainly can't claim to be one of the most avid readers around, since I know there are people that devour books at a rate of more than one a week, but I'd still like to keep track for once in my life, just to see how many I read in a typical year.

So, this year, here are the books I've read so far:

1. Under The Dome - by Stephen King
2. The Wedding - by Nicholas Sparks (audiobook)
3. Dear John - also Nicholas Sparks (also audiobook)
4. Catching Fire - by Suzanne Collins

Currently, I am reading book #5, which is "The Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks, as well as book #6, "The Gunslinger", book one of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Yes, I often read two books at once, don't ask me why. If I had to guess how many books I'll read over the course of the entire year, I guess I would say 35. That's just a guess though, so we'll see.

Have a good weekend all. If you're in the North East, stay safe with the blizzard heading your way. Looks like mostly rain here in NC.

Depression: Does it Ever Disappear Completely?

Lately, I feel like I have fallen back into some bad routines. I want to sleep a lot more than usual (a simple result of the fact that I feel tired all the time). I am having a hard time getting motivated. I feel generally down a lot. It doesn't really make sense that after a few years of battling depression, and, I thought, beating it, that this has come back. It's a mild case compared to the way I used to feel, but I still recognize the symptoms.

So why? Well, I have a theory on that too, but it doesn't exactly make me happy. Speaking of happy, this is really a very happy time in my life. I have goals again for the first time in a long time. My husband is amazing and our marriage is still young - not even two months yet. We're very happy together. My writing is going better than ever and everyone who reads my current WIP has nothing but good things to say about its potential. Financially, we're way more secure than we were this time last year and actually were able to come out after the wedding without having taken anything out of savings. Things are going well, so why would I be feeling symptoms of depression coming back?

The only thing I can really figure is that it's related to the original source of most of my depression issues. 10 years ago, I was assaulted, and let's just leave it at that. The man was pretty much let go and allowed to live free for the next nearly five years. During that time, I sunk down into a pretty crazy depression. Thoughts of suicide, feelings of complete self-hatred, gaining weight, even going so far as to marry someone who obvious wasn't right for me (self-sabotage perhaps?). Most of my goals disintegrated into nothingness and for a while, I was fine with just existing and never reaching for anything better. Then, he assaulted someone else and because of her pain, I was given my day in court too. Between both stories, the man was put away - sentenced to 8 years in prison.

When I was on my way home to GA a couple weeks ago for my bday, I got a call telling me that he was being released the very next day. Now, I knew this was coming. I got a notice about it in December. But they said he wouldn't get out until May and I thought I had more time to get used to the idea. The phone call was somewhat of a shock. Someone processed the papers wrong and miscalculated his days or some shit, and so, long story short, his release date was supposed to be January, not May. Now, he's living just the next state over, and after a google maps search, I realized it's only a 3 hour drive from here. That doesn't make me feel comfortable at all. I hate that he's closer to me than most of the people I love. It makes me sick to my stomach.

So what's the next plan? I thought that once I got over those feelings of depression, they would be gone forever. Apparently I was wrong. Even when I was finally feeling happier than I had in years and years, I still wasn't immune to these fears and these feelings. It makes me wonder if depression ever really goes away completely? Or if it lingers somewhere in the darkest depths of your heart and shows itself when any weakness allows it to rise up to the surface? All I know is that I can't let it drag me down again to the place where I was before.

Catching Fire - Just as Good?

I just finished reading Suzanne Collins' brilliant sequel to The Hunger Games. Catching Fire is a book I've wanted to read since the final pages of The Hunger Games, and it did not disappoint. Katniss and Peeta's victory in the games spurred a sort of revolution in the various districts, and Catching Fire is about facing the consequences of their actions - namely Katniss' decision to pull out those berries and defy the Capital during the games.

If you haven't read the Hunger Games series, you should definitely pick it up. It's one of those Young Adult series that easily crosses over to being interesting to adults as well as teens. What I love most about the series is the intense visual images that are conjured up. The dresses, the arena, the insane manipulations Capital people perform on themselves like pink tinted skin or golden jewels implanted in their cheeks. I love the pictures that go through my head, and Suzanne Collins seems to have a natural talent for making her readers see what she sees.

Everytime I read a great and truly talented author like Collins or Rowling, I wonder how they did it. How did they manage to create characters that speak to us so strongly? How did they make us care for them so completely? Where did they learn to write like that? Is it merely a natural-born talent? Or did they suck at first like the rest of us? I wonder if I'll ever be able to tell a story that reaches so many people and has such an impact.

The Hunger Games series is definitely one of those series that once I got into it, I could barely put it down. I will say that while Hunger Games pulled me into the story on the very first page, it took a little bit longer for the Catching Fire to really hook me. Sure, I already loved Katniss Everdeen and her story, but it just seemed to explain the past book a bit too much and the action wasn't quite as addictive. It was good, don't get me wrong. It just wasn't terribly hard at first to put the book down and turn out the light to go to sleep at night. However, about three or four chapters in, I was totally hooked. I couldn't put it down. I would tell myself "when I finish this chapter, I have to go to sleep!" But when the chapter was over, she would end with another hook that had me turning to the next chapter and reading on. I love that feeling. That can't-get-enough reading experience.

I will also say this, the ending to Catching Fire is much more of a lead-in to the third book than the first one was. It definitely leaves you with a sense that the story is incomplete, and it makes me want to run out and buy the third book. I'm not sure when that is supposed to come out, but you can be sure that the day it does, I will be in line to buy it. (And it will probably be read in a matter of days). Yes, it's just that good.

Contest Entry

Entering writing contests is a scary thing. First of all, you never know for sure who your judges are going to be in these things. Most of the time, for me, it's an RWA chapter holding a fund raiser contest where you pay $30 or so for some of their PRO and PAN members to read and rate your manuscript. I know there are tons of other writing contests out there, but for where I am in my writing and my writing communities right now, the RWA contests are the most beneficial and the most accessible.

So, like I said, it's usually just members of their chapter judging the first few pages or whatever, but when you enter, you never really know who will end up getting your pages. What it basically comes down to is luck of the draw. Some judges probably love almost everything, scoring high to almost every entry. Other judges are harsh and mark off for each little thing that they think could have been improved. If you're the only one in the contest who lucked out with two of the high rating judges, guess what? You win! Not necessarily on merit, but possibly on luck of the draw.

I entered one contest last year and got medium scores back. I didn't final and the comments were helpful. I look back now and realize just how weak the entry was, so I learned a lot from the contest. Towards the end of last year, I entered the mother of all unpubbed RWA contests, the Golden Heart. Also judged by random PRO and PAN RWA members, it's a crap shoot based on who you get as a judge. I like to think, however, that it is also based on skill and the quality of the manuscript to some degree. I entered for short contemporary series, and I feel that my entry is solid. We find out March 25th who the finalists are, and my fingers are crossed.

I am also going to enter a contest today. This time, for the first time, I am entering the young adult category. Why enter at all when it can be so subjective? Well, because the prizes are so totally worth it. In this particular contest, the top three young adult manuscripts get read by an editor at Berkley. For the most part, editors at Berkley don't read unagented manuscripts, so this is a rare shot at getting in front of them without an agent. With a huge publisher like that on the line, it's worth the $25 entry fee to me. There's no guarantee she'll like it or want to see more of it, but there's a chance, and that's all I'm asking for. The 25 page entry is due by midnight tonight, so I'd better get to work polishing it up and getting it ready to send in. Wish me luck!