Why Fandom was Important (Happy 10th Anniversary, Twilight!)

About a year ago, I made a series of 3 posts where I basically "came out" as a fan fiction author. If you want to check them out, I'll make it easy--you can read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 here.

All caught up? Okay, then.

I caught some flack for it (as I expected--the fact that people look down on fanfic authors isn't foreign to anyone who writes it) but, in honor of Twilight's 10th anniversary, I thought I'd stick my neck out again and review why the fandom was so special to me and continues to have a place in my little writer heart.

The Twilight fandom gave me the courage to write. Sure, as I mentioned in the previous posts, a good deal of my writing fanfic in the first place was because I was annoyed with the source material--hey, you've gotta start somewhere. But the encouragement from others--positive feedback via reviews and emails, trusty beta-readers to look over your work before posting (kind of like in-between-editors---many authors still utilize them), and even the occasional troll only served to make me a better writer.

My passion for editing was also born during this time. I'd edited for a few people in college, but nothing serious. I enjoyed beta-reading for other fic authors and trading proofreading services. And when I ended up reading and approving well-written stories for a Twific website, I knew I'd found a calling. Writing and editing it was.

I very grateful to have met many friends through the fandom. Some were other fic authors; others were fellow readers. A good many I still consider to be friends to this day. I got to know my critique partner. I met people who would eventually become my coworkers. The author's group I now belong to includes several people I met while we were involved in the fandom. These lovely people (mostly women, but there were a few men) were, and still are, wonderfully supportive of others' writing. It was very much a reciprocal relationship; you'd support other writers, and they'd support you. Even better, many of these same folks are best-selling authors, having hit the NY Times list, USA Today, and Amazon categories. It's amazing to see people's progress and success.

So, for me, the Twilight fandom (which would obviously not have been possible if it weren't for Stephenie Meyer and Twilight) was an overwhelmingly positive experience I'm very grateful for.

Like it or not, when Twilight came out 10 years ago, it changed the face of bookshelves everywhere. Paranormal romance, though it had existed before this but was much more of a niche market, went mainstream for both YA and adult audiences. Vampires, shifters of all varieties, were-creatures--you name it, it was written. The same thing can be said for The Hunger Games a few years later and dystopian stories. And there'll be something else soon, I'm sure, and a fandom to go with it.

Without Twilight, I wouldn't be pursuing my dream of publishing my stories. So, thank you, fandom. You rock.

xoxo Sarah

The Maryland Romance Writers' Auction Ends in 2 WEEKS! @MarylandRomance

YOU GUYS!

The Maryland Romance Writer's annual fund-raising auction ends in TWO WEEKS from today!

The clock is ticking, so get your bids in on awesome items like:

~Query, critique, and agent submissions

~Career counseling and self-publishing sessions

~Wordpress web maintenance

~Goals, motivation, and conflict tutorial

~Gift certificates to awesome places like Teavana, Cheesecake Factory, Amazon, etc.

~Ad-ready art for promotional materials!

~Gift baskets containing anything from coffee, tea, chocolate, books,

~A personalized Scrivener tutorial

~Jewelry

And MUCH more--there are 55 lots up for grabs!

If you're like me and snatch people's dreams away from them at the last possible second (seriously--I'm a horrible person when it comes to Ebay...) then put it in your calendar that the auction ends on Monday, October 26th at 11:45PM EDT so you'll know when to swoop in like a majestic eagle and put your bid on whatever you want.

Oh, and here's the direct link to my awesome (if I do say so myself) Full of Energy Gift Basket.

The winner of this basket will receive:
- 4 boxes Twinings of London tea (20 tea bags each): English Breakfast, English Breakfast (decaf), Irish Breakfast, and Darjeeling
- 1 12oz bag of New Mexico Pinon Coffee (ground) (SIDE NOTE: This coffee is amazing!)
- 1 box McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives (milk chocolate coated wheat biscuits)
- 1 box McVitie's Milk Chocolate Hob Nobs (milk chocolate coated rolled oat and whole wheat biscuits)
- Decorative basket (measures 13x9x4 inches)

Current bid is up to $25 (well below fair market value), so get your bids in!


xoxo Sarah

#FoodieFriday: Soft Batch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, I love writing.

I love editing.

I post about these things a lot (or when I have time).

I also love food and eating and feeding people.

And Pinterest. I do love me some Pinterest, even though I was kind of late to the Pinterest party.

So, I thought I'd try my hand at posting some recipes I've tried and enjoyed, or, at the very least, tried and maybe made a few modifications to.

I'm not trying to step on any "real" food blogger's toes, so I'll just link you lovely people to the recipes.

The first recipe I'm posting is for some of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. They don't last long in our house, so we don't make them often. Seriously--it's like feeding time in a shark tank, especially when they're straight out of the oven.

The cookies--not the sharks.

Anyway, I've made these a few times, and both times they came out beautifully. No modifications needed.

Even better, because you have to chill the dough, you can leave some in the fridge and make what you want--if you want to make 10 cookies now and save the rest, you can do that. I think it keeps about a week. Not that we've tested this--we made the whole thing each time.

Click HERE for the recipe from Averie Cooks.

Let me know if you try them and how they came out!

Have a lovely weekend!

xoxo Sarah

Awesome Writing in Media: Mean Girls

Continuing on with the Tina Fey love-fest (Tina, if you're reading this, I swear I'm not stalking you), I couldn't resist posting a bit about one of my all-time favorite movies: Mean Girls.

This is one of those movies I'll happily sit through again and again, and it was actually everywhere this past weekend because October 3rd is, unofficially, "Mean Girls Day". It's from a line in the movie. The voice-over (done by Lindsay Lohan who plays Cady) is talking about a boy she has a crush on who is in her math class. I'll let the picture explain it:

That's it in a nutshell. So, of course, the movie was on, and we watched it. For the record, my husband loves it too. Mean Girls is for everyone.

Quick summary: Cady Heron is the new girl at school after years of home-schooling and living in Africa with her academic parents. Unsure how to navigate teenage social norms, she befriends the "Plastics"--the queen bee clique--and a few misfit students who hate the Plastics and get Cady to spy on them. All goes well until Cady falls for the ex-boyfriend of Regina George, the Plastic's leader. But can she keep from becoming the kind of person she hates before it's too late?

One of the most quotable movies of all-time (no statistics; just because I said so), the writing (Fey did the screenplay, which is based on a book by Rosalind Wiseman) is sharp and on-point. It's a rare movie that can make you sympathize with the characters so much without becoming overly sentimental and mushy. Quite the opposite; Mean Girls is scathingly funny and clever. It's more than a collection of quotable one-liners; it's the writing in general that makes the movie so memorable.

It captures what it's like to be a teenage girl without jumping the shark (too much). We tag along with Cady as she tries to fit in at her new school, cringe when she makes social faux pas, and smile when she figures out how she fits in in her new life, for better or worse. Part of why it's so engaging is that we've all known people who remind us of the character archetypes: the new kid, the misfits, the queen bees, the put-upon teacher who believes in the students, the mom who goes to great lengths to be her kid's friend and not a parent, etc. We can revisit our own teenage years without actually having to suffer through them again.

And, despite coming out in 2004, the movie even ages well.

As a side-note, if someone tells you they don't want to watch it because Lindsay Lohan stars, they're missing out. Whatever her personal troubles, she's a good actress and shines in her role.

Are you a Mean Girls fan? What's your favorite line? C'mon, you know you have one. Share it in the comments!

xoxo Sarah


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Other posts in this series:

Joss Whedon

Quentin Tarantino

Horrible Bosses

Book of Mormon

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Mad Max: Fury Road

30 Rock

Awesome Writing in Media: 30 Rock

Okay, so I've given up with the "Part 7" or whatever in this series. It was too much to keep track of. But don't worry; I'll post the links to the other entries in this series at the end so you can check them out, and will continue to do so when I write each new Awesome Writing in Media post.


This post is about what I'm now pretty sure is my favoritist show EVER. I see you making that "Oh, really? EVER in shouty-caps, you say, Sarah?" face.

Yup. And I'm preemptively apologizing for the love letter that follows.

30 Rock was created by (former) head-writer and occasional cast member of Saturday Night Live (and occasional Sarah Palin impersonator) Tina Fey. It's a satiric comedy loosely based on her time on SNL--30 Rock revolves around a fictionalized live sketch comedy show that airs on NBC. Fey also stars in the series as Liz Lemon. Alec Baldwin plays her arrogant conservative boss and mentor, Jack Donaghy, and Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski are featured as Tracy Jordan and Jenna Maroney, two of the actors on the show TGS with Tracy Jordan. Liz Lemon has to juggle them, TGS, and her personal life.

Anyway, I seriously don't know what was wrong with me but up until this summer I'd never seen more than a handful of episodes of 30 Rock, and those were by accident. I'd enjoyed the ones I had seen, and since hubs and I needed something to break up the wall of concurrent episodes of Buffy and Angel we were watching, the timing was ideal.

Netflix came to the rescue, and soon we were partaking in 22ish minutes times 7 seasons of comedy gold.

The show, when it aired, was a hit with critics though it didn't garner huge ratings, but it was consistent and was renewed through seven seasons. Fans were hooked, and we were too.

The writing is superb--there were very few episodes that fell flat, if at all. 30 Rock is a satire as I mentioned above, with its off-the-wall characters (a ridiculous in-house doctor with a just-as-ridiculous name, and a quite-possibly-immortal NBC page--seriously, go look up Kenneth fan theories...) and out-there concepts for episodes.

A few memorable episodes and/or story arcs:

Jenna is in a movie and no one can understand what she's saying when she says the title.

Liz has to travel, takes cold medicine, and hallucinates Oprah.

Jack finds out who his biological father is--and he happens to be a super-liberal professor from New Hampshire who also needs a kidney.

Liz keeps running into a man she can't stand and they end up dating because they can't get away from each other.

Jack insists there needs to be a new cast member for TGS, so he and Liz go to Georgia to connect with "real" America and scout talent.

Tracy finds out he's a descendant of Thomas Jefferson.

Jack's enormous cookie jar collection might cost him a chance at being the GE chairman.

Jenna is shooting a torture-horror movie in Connecticut, and the state says they have to make the movie more tourism-friendly.

Liz is busy on Sandwich Day (a day when the Teamsters get sandwiches from a special super-secret deli for everyone), and someone eats her sandwich. The writing team tries to get her another one.

Jack gets married to a hot Fox News anchor who gets kidnapped by Kim Jong Il.

Tracy's wife gets a reality show.

Jack has to make an important decision, and meets future-Jack and past-Jack.

Jenna tries to get the lead in a Janis Joplin movie, but they don't have the rights to her life or any of her songs.

Liz's sketch, Dealbreakers, takes off, and she's offered a Dealbreakers talk show.

Jack has a perfect 24 hour period of solving problems, and Liz threatens his winning streak.

And many, many more.

I also discovered that Liz Lemon is my spirit animal. She's a writer, loves to eat, is delightfully nerdy,
and, best of all, my husband turned to me after watching an episode (I don't remember which one), and whispered, "She's YOU."

I almost forgot to mention that there are actually two live episodes (yes, they're also on Netflix).

The show is snarky and funny, entertaining, and absolutely worth bingeing in if you can.

Have you seen 30 Rock? Were you a fan? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo Sarah


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Other posts in this series:

Joss Whedon

Quentin Tarantino

Horrible Bosses

Book of Mormon

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Maryland Romance Writers' Auction is LIVE! @MarylandRomance

You guys! The Maryland Romance Writers' fundraising auction is LIVE!  It'll run from September 21st through October 26th.

Click HERE to go directly to the auction site!

Go check it out--this is the only fundraiser this great writers' group does for the year, and there are some sweet items up for grabs.

Some of the awesomeness:

-- Career consulting and self-publishing sessions

-- Gift baskets with many different items: chocolate, coffee, tea, books, etc.

-- Critiques on the first few chapters, certain numbers of pages, query letters, etc.

-- Signed books

-- Jewelry

-- Personalized sessions, like for tutorials in writing software (Scrivener), social media, web design, etc.

-- And many more!

Anyone can bid, so come on by!

Shameless plug:  I have a gift basket up for grabs, and I'd love for it to go to a good home.

xoxo Sarah

The Maryland Romance Writer's Annual Auction is Coming Up! @MarylandRomance

Ladies and gents, it's that time of year again! The writer's group I belong to, Maryland Romance Writers (the Maryland chapter of Romance Writers of America) is setting up its annual fundraising auction.

The auction is our only fundraiser for the year, so it promises to be spectacular! Among the items will be signed books, gift baskets, and skills (web design, editing, career counseling, etc.) up for grabs. You may even get one of these for far below retail/real-world prices!

The auction runs from September 21st through October 26th, and I'll post the link when it goes live. Get your wallets ready!

xoxo Sarah