Tuesday, May 20, 2008

2-Fer Tuesday, A Meme, & An Agent's Writing Contest

I'm going to do a meme and then post my Two Sentence Tuesday assignment for the week at the bottom.


The tag: (from Josephine Damian)

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

Various Things MeMe

What were you doing ten years ago?

Ten years ago I had been married for all of seven months. I was twenty five living in the same house I do now. I had just gotten a day job at the Post Office after nearly seven years of evenings. My wife was still working the evening shift at the P.O. at that time and I was not writing then, so I spent most of my free time fishing in the creek by my house. Something I do not get to do nearly often enough these days.


What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

1. Go to work, where I hope to avoid the bosses and anything to extraneous.
2. Go out to eat for my grandmother's 82nd birthday.
3. Crank out some more Plundered Booty.
4. Catch up on emails and odds and ends of necessary tasks.
5. Get a decent nights sleep since they have been few and far between lately.


What are some snacks you enjoy?

Nuts (except macadamia and walnuts), Sugar Babies, Fun-Yuns, and most anything else sugary or unhealthy

What would you do if you were a billionaire?

Quit work so I could enjoy my family more. Travel. Enter the world series of poker every year. Still chase my goal of publishing my novels, and no I wouldn't buy my way to that goal as I do not think it would be nearly as satisfactory, but I'd go all out in doing my research. Start a radio station in my town and maybe other places that features the Lone Star music kind of sound.

What are five places where you have lived?

I've never crawled far from the crib so I've lived in Amarillo all my life. Actually, I live south of town in the boonies, but my address is still an Amarillo one.


What are five jobs you have had?

Feedstore boy (read those blogs here if you missed them.)
High School Football referee. (Stories here)
Shopping mall Santa (if you're curious)
Fully gruntled Postal worker
Fiction Writer Extraordinaire (yeah, that's pushing it a might but wishful thinking ought to count for something)

What were the last five books you read?

Orange Mint and Honey by Carleen Brice
The Bone Pickers by Al Dewlen
Lonely Planet's travelguide to Jamaica by Michael Read
Pirate Spirit : The Adventures of Anne Bonney by Jeffery Williams
Adventure Guide Cayman Islands by Paris Permenter and John Bigley

The last three are all research for Plundered Booty and that has been the focus of my reading for a while but I urge all of you to read Carleen's fabulous novel


What are five web sites you visit daily (in no particular order)?

Facebook.com, to check my scrabulous games.
Weather.com to know if their is any danger I'll melt or float away later in the day
Huskerpedia.com to keep up on The Cornhuskers athletic program
Nola.com to read the latest news about the Saints
LoneStarMusic.com to listen to the radio and keep on my tunes



From a short story I have been tweaking this week for submission ...

The shimmering heat waves reminded him of the strippers in Vegas. Curvy, arousing to watch -- yet impossible to grab hold of.

and from something I've read this week ...

I am pleased to report that the battery of physicians and psychiatrists who monitor my well-being on a daily basis have at long last declared me fit to proceed with another contest!

That comes from blogging agent Nathan Bransford's announcement that he is doing another contest. Yeah I know I only posted one sentence, but the contest will be so large that I thought I'd cut the Tuesday two sentence rule in half. For rules and details on the contest click here, but you better hurry the deadline is 5 p.M. Pacific Time Wednesday, May, 21st.

And like every Tuesday be sure and visit the W0men of Mystery for more Two Line Tuesday participants.

14 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I like those sentences from your story in progress. Sets an interesting kind of hardboiled mood.

Snacks! Uhm, fried chicken, pork chops, steak, burgers. Do those count as snacks?

Lana Gramlich said...

"The shimmering heat waves reminded him of the strippers in Vegas. Curvy, arousing to watch -- yet impossible to grab hold of."
I like that a lot. Interesting stuff in your meme. Thanks for sharing. :)

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to your Grandma! And enjoy your much anticipated rest!

alex keto said...

I remember the short story that those two lines came from. It was very good. So a good thing you are working on it.

Josephine Damian said...

TE: Did I miss it? I thought you were gonna talk about your "procedure" - Josie's gotta havve her own procedure now - not fun.

I'm just going to follow you around and eat whatever it is you don't - lettuce, macadamias and walnuts.

Nice evocative two-liner - good luck with your submission.

Terrie Farley Moran said...

Travis, what great lines!

And thanks for the info in the meme. Always nice to know you better.

Terrie

Mr. Shife said...

Good stuff in your meme. You are an interesting dude, and I am glad you are fully gruntled. Good luck in the contest - I assume you are entering - and continued good luck with your book.

Angel said...

what interesting stuff in your meme!! mine would be very boring...and aren't fun-yuns THE BEST??! You get really stinky breath tho.. ;)

Melissa Amateis said...

Ok. You stay updated on the Cornhuskers? And you live in TEXAS? Please explain.
:-)

Carleen Brice said...

It's clear with your sense of humor that you won't need a billion dollars to sell your book!

Miladysa said...

Interesting!

Hope you enjoyed your Grandmother's birthday.

I think I shall look out for that book about Anne Bonney :-D

Anonymous said...

Jenn said:

Ahhh Vegas strippers. nice meme

Alyssa Goodnight said...

With jobs like those, it's not surprising you have no end to interesting stories!

Steph said...

Wow, Nathan Bransford is doing another contest? I haven't checked his blog this week, so thanks for the heads-up!

Speaking of writing (well, sort of), I wanted to let you know about a new e-zine that me and a few writer friends of mine are putting together.

It's called The Oddville Press. We're just getting off the ground so our website is still under construction. Check us out if you're interested--or better yet, submit something!

Your blog makes me smile, so I'll definitely be poking around here in the future. :)