September 2010
9 posts
Adios, tumblr!
In the shadows of night I moved my blog over to Wordpress after finally saying “enough is enough” yesterday. Too many entries have been lost down the hot and humid tumblr gullet. Formatting gives me a headache and there is little to no hope for updates on the horizon.
Thanks for the good times, tumblr! Unfortunately there weren’t as many as there were bad times.
...
Meet the Peas Interview Series: Peter Landau
Pod: noun
1. An elongated vessel, as in bean or pea
2. A protective compartment
Breepod: noun
1. Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s client list, as nicknamed by said client list.
The Meet the Peas interview series is intended to give readers a closer look at the personality that makes up Bree Ogden’s Client List. And let’s be real for a second, this group is ...
The Blogosphere has Eyes
The blogosphere has been bouncing this week between aspiring authors and agents over the question of speaking publicly about your “Dream Literary Agent” List.
It’s seemingly harmless, right? I also dream of winning an Academy Award for sitting on my couch watching movies and one day discovering I can fly.
There were responses to the blog posting and all the comments that...
Meet the Peas Interview Series: HC Noel
Pod: noun
1. An elongated vessel, as in bean or pea
2. A protective compartment
Breepod: noun
1. Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s client list, as nicknamed by said client list.
The Meet the Peas interview series is intended to give readers a closer look at the personality that makes up Bree Ogden’s Client List. And let’s be real for a second, this group is ...
Meet the Peas Interview Series: Ron Rutler
Pod: noun
1. An elongated vessel, as in bean or pea
2. A protective compartment
Breepod: noun
1. Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s client list, as nicknamed by said client list.
The Meet the Peas interview series is intended to give readers a closer look at the personality that makes up Bree Ogden’s Client List. And let’s be real for a second, this group is ...
Meet the Peas Interview Series: Michael Gibney
Pod: noun
1. An elongated vessel, as in bean or pea
2. A protective compartment
Breepod: noun
1. Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s client list, as nicknamed by said client list.
The Meet the Peas interview series is intended to give readers a closer look at the personality that makes up Bree Ogden’s Client List. And let’s be real for a second, this group is bursting...
The Importance of Being Cheesiest
A fair warning, this entry will seem cheesy to some. Actually, this entry will seem cheesy to most, including those it’s about. But this evening (this early morning) I am overwhelmed with gratitude for my creative peers and the luck that has been bestowed upon me to be challenged weekly.
The persons in question? Bob Wieck, Andrew Seiler, Brian Papandrea, Erik Heilner, Matthias Schneider and...
Meet the Peas Interview Series: Renae Mercado
Pod: noun
1. An elongated vessel, as in bean or pea
2. A protective compartment
Breepod: noun
1. Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s client list, as nicknamed by said client list.
The Meet the Peas interview series is intended to give readers a closer look at the personality that makes up Bree Ogden’s Client List. And let’s be real for a second, this group is bursting...
Conversations With My Agent
Monday, August 30, 2010 - 2:00(ish) am EST
Me: “I can’t wait to write the next few. I’ve been having ideas.”
Bree: “Yeah?”
M: “Yeah… I’m stoked to develop Character X and Character Z’s relationship… it’s going to be crazy.”
B: “Nice! I Love Character Z. So hot!”
M: “I know, right?! It’s...
August 2010
17 posts
Meet The Peas Interview Series: D.M. Cunningham
Pod: noun
1. An elongated vessel, as in bean or pea
2. A protective compartment
Breepod: noun
1. Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s client list, as nicknamed by said client list.
The Meet the Peas interview series is intended to give readers a closer look at the personality that makes up Bree Ogden’s Client List. And let’s be real for a second, this group is bursting ...
A Sampling
A half page ad featuring the many faces of The PIT in New York City. The print ad campaign we launched embraced the term “pitizen” coined by members of the community.
Front of postcard for SketchProv Festival ‘08.
Back of postcard was an interactive bracket for audience members to use for the festival. Those who filled out their bracket and turned it in prior to the...
Meet the Peas Interview Series: Lisa Rivero
Pod: noun
1. An elongated vessel, as in bean or pea
2. A protective compartment
Breepod: noun
1. Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s client list, as nicknamed by said client list.
The Meet the Peas interview series is intended to give readers a closer look at the personality that makes up Bree Ogden’s Client List. And let’s be real for a second, this group is bursting at ...
From the Archives: The Beat Goes On
(Originally dated Tuesday, September 26, 2006 a week into the Journalism Master’s Program at Columbia University, a week into living in New York City, and a week into learning how to be a reporter working a “beat”.)
I’m not in Kansas anymore, and someone shot Toto. I was covering a community event in the Rockaways where teens came out to pick up garbage from the beach. ...
Meet the Peas Interview Series: Randy Staples
Pod: noun
1. An elongated vessel, as in bean or pea
2. A protective compartment
Breepod: noun
1. Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s client list, as nicknamed by said client list.
The Meet the Peas interview series is intended to give readers a closer look at the personality that makes up Bree Ogden’s Client List. And let’s be real for a second, this group is bursting at ...
Artists I Adore (And You Should Know About)...
This is the first artist within this series I’ve featured that I have not met in person, yet flipping through the images within her online portfolio I feel as if she’s known my dreams. Her use of vivid colors along with juxtaposing imagery creates a dreamlike landscape within each work. The work of illustrator Rebekah Joy Plett is rich with subconscious symbolism – the type of...
Meet the Peas Interview Series: Nikki Katz
Pod: noun
1. An elongated vessel, as in bean or pea
2. A protective compartment
Breepod: noun
1. Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s client list, as nicknamed by said client list.
The Meet the Peas interview series is intended to give readers a closer look at the personality that makes up Bree Ogden’s Client List. And let’s be real for a second, this group is bursting at ...
Meet the Peas Interview Series: Kelsey Ketch
Pod: noun
1. An elongated vessel, as in bean or pea
2. A protective compartment
Breepod: noun
1. Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s client list, as nicknamed by said client list.
The Meet the Peas interview series is intended to give readers a closer look at the personality that makes up Bree Ogden’s Client List. And let’s be real for a second, this group is bursting at the...
Meet the Peas Interview Series: Bree Ogden
Pod: noun
1. An elongated vessel, as in bean or pea
2. A protective compartment
Breepod: noun
1. Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s client list, as nicknamed by said client list.
The Meet the Peas interview series is intended to give readers a closer look at the personality that makes up Bree Ogden’s Client List. And let’s be real for a second, this group is...
Interview with Bree Ogden →
An interview with my lit agent extraordinaire, Bree Ogden, by The Middle Grade Ninja!
This has given me a fun idea, methinks. Hopefully Bree and other Peas in the BreePod (I’m looking at you guys: D.M. Cunningham, HC Noel, Peter Landau, Kelsey Ketch, Nikki Katz, Renae Mercado, Lucky Charms, and others!) are all up for it.
If they are, then the “Peas in a BreePod” series will...
My Week as Bea Arthur
It was my third day spent lying in the hospital bed, the white curtain in the white room separating me from Ms. Stuydevant. She was always quiet when a nurse or intern was in the room, more often to see me than her.
“Dammit, someone took my favorite vein!”
That was the nurse. For the whole of my life I have gotten compliments on one particular vein from anyone trying to draw...
WatchArtists I Adore (And You Should Know About) Series, #3: David C. White
This is my all-time favorite sketch ever. I saw it performed at a UCB-NY Maude night a couple years back and this video version directed by Noah Plener is awesome!
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a lot of work written (and sometimes performed) by David C. White and it’s unbelievable! Each sketch is both hilarious...
Homework, Bree/HC Noel/D.M. Cunningham Style
My doctor gave me an illustrated pamphlet years ago called “Your Reproductive Organs and You!” That’s the extent of my familiarity with graphic novels. So in other words, none.
It’s all so overwhelming and I have no idea where to begin on my own. Lucky for me I am now a member of the Bree-Pod (self-nicknamed client list of the amazing beauty and literary agent, Ms. Bree...
"Daddy Tickles Mommy, and it's AWFUL!"
I promised my friend I would start this entry with “So my two friends who live in CANADA were having relations…” in exchange for her allowing me to use her story. So here goes:
So my two friends who live in CANADA (wink, wink) were having relations a few afternoons ago while their two young daughters napped down the hall. The bedroom door was locked, or so they thought.
...
Mad for Mad Men
And totally game for a Mad Men book club! Lets read what Don Draper is reading! Who wants in?
July 2010
22 posts
Emergency Rejection Protocols
I was in sixth grade the first time I was really rejected.
It was a week long whirlwind “going steady” affair with Jonathan Keller. Like most sixth grade relationships, it was a matured game of pretend on our way to actually dating as teens. Because what’s the point of dating in the sixth grade? We never held hands. We never kissed. The biggest moment of our...
Kate vs. The Strand 80 - Ender's Game
It was a friend that recommended reading Ender’s Game through chopped statements of “…I know it’s SciFi, BUT…”. I finally caved one afternoon while taking my nieces on an Aunt Kate Date to Barnes and Noble. I felt comfortably sure my nieces (ages 7 and 4) were settled into a couple of books in the kids section and would refrain from wreaking complete...
Kate vs. The Strand 80 - Catch 22
(This is from the original blog’s archive. I’ll start shifting these over here and blog this project only on this site. This is from February ‘10)
January bitch slapped me. And yes, put me behind a bit. Although I have been reading, I have not been blogging. The writing, editing, pitching, pushing, ad nauseming of my own book rattled my brain. As did Catch 22, I’m not...
Self-Induced Hibernation (For the Good of...
I’ve been having one of those kinds of weeks. You know the sort. A week where everything you touch seems to break or go wrong. It’s seriously gotten to comedic proportions at this point. So much so that half way through the week I went into hibernation. I’ve not really left the house since Wednesday since I realized the last horrible thing left, the one thing that hasn’t...
Operation Tweet Pj
Dear readers and followers, friends and colleagues – I need your help.
We’ve all been in that place as writers or artists where finding the time or motivation to create was a chore. It seemed impossible. With responsibilities piled up like a mountain of newspapers in an episode of Hoarders, it’s difficult sometimes to justify putting that time aside for yourself as a writer to write.
...
Thanks to Kate
christinesmusings:
Kate Grace, newly signed author of YA fiction, just wrote me a fabulous poem for being her 100th follower on her blog/Twitter. You can check out the poem on her blog: abitofgrace
Kate, The poem is awesome! I love it! I must say that I’ve never been the subject of a poem before. I really enjoyed it. Congratulations on finding an agent- I look forward to reading...
Epic Christine - A Poem for my 100th Follower
Tucked away in Lancaster, PA lives our heroine Christine. A mom, a wife, a lover of life. She may even teach your teen.
But behind this veil lies the sordid trail that brought her to this place. A change of name, to win the game, for danger she did face.
A secret agent our government sent to the country of Belize. To find the prize hidden by lies and the Caribbean Sea.
For on the Sea’s...
98... 99... 100!
Whoa! I’m one follower away from 100 on Twitter. That may be small potatoes to some, but it’s definitely some stylish garlic, smashed red skins to me! For whomever my 100th follower ends up being, for you - and only you - I shall write a poem!
Just click that little ‘ol birdie to the left!
Dear Iman: We Were Nerds Once Too
*Photo by Dave Hill
I’m at Go Comedy! Improv Theater today as I am at least once or twice during the day each week. Just making the time pass by helping out answering phones and designing flyers (or more often drinking coffee and chatting it up with the incredible Pj Jacokes).
Like any other day, both Pj and I are tucked in at either end of the bar with our laptops at our fingertips....
For the Query Weary
I’ve been getting a lot of questions from fellow aspiring authors… whoa, I just realized how close I am to dropping that “aspiring” prefix and simply calling myself an author. I just blew my own mind!
But back to you, dear weary Queriers. I’ve been there. I was there just two weeks ago and had lived in Query Weary’dom for roughly seven months. It seemed I was...
Dear Michigan Drivers,
You are crazy. And here’s the thing… this diagnosis is coming from someone who has lived in both Chicago and New York City. Manhattan, no less!
It’s as if the collective opinion is that since Michigan invented the automobile, that you are all somehow immune to them. As if you all have a super power by association with the state. A super power that will render you victorious if...
Along Came Bree
I’m so excited to announce that I have officially signed with Bree Ogden, a literary agent at Martin Literary Management.
I was sprawled out on the couch watching Star Wars: Attack of the Clones on Spike TV when her email beeped through my phone. Through the course of the day I kept going back to that email, reading it over and over expecting to find a post script I missed earlier along the...
“Here’s the thing about having a stuffy nose - finally you can breathe out...”
– Kate
“Here’s the thing about being a stuffy nose – you finally get comfortable...”
– Kate’s Nose
“I think I just found my twin. Welcome to the gang. The Star Wars fangirl line...”
– – Bree Odgen, My Literary Agent welcoming me to her client list
The Mission Redone
Unemployed and bored, I launched into a personal challenge in early 2010 as a way to both better myself and keep my mind from slipping deeper into creative hibernation.
I committed myself to reading through the whole of the Strand 80, a list of 80+ novels designated as the “best” by Strand Bookstore customers. If you have never experienced Strand, dear book worm, than allow me to...