My Weekly Update – Blog Hop’s a Plenty

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle5 Comments

I am participating in some fun blog hops over the next two weeks.  Join me!

October 15, 2012 – The Nineties Blogfest!

Dave invites us to post about our favorites things from the nineties.  Choose a favorite song, show, episode, movies, dance, etc for each year. I’ve been working on this post already and have some surprises.

October 17, 2012 – Did I Notice Your Book Blogfest

The Ninja and Knight have joined forced to host this great blogfest to support/promote other writers. I will be posting about a book I noticed recently.  I don’t do book reviews, so I am going to tell you about what happen to me when I read this book.  Can’t wait to share it with you.

October 26 – 29, 2012 – Spooktoberfest

 

Jackie and Dani have prompted me to write a 300 word Flash Fiction piece using the following words:  cobweb(s), cauldron(s),  jack-o-lantern(s), ghost(s), razor(s).  The story can be scary, comical, romantic, whatever I choose. Just be creative!  They will pick a winner on October 31, 2012.

October 29, 2012 – Monstrous Monday Bloghop

What kind of Monster?  Tim invites us to write about a monster we like/love/hate.  Well, I am going to tell you about a monster I hate.  And, this is going to be tricky because I am going to attempt to post a clip of this monster without me actually having to look at it myself because he/it creeps me out.

*Click on the badges for more information and to sign up. 

Post to Ponder
If It Makes You Happy – This post was so imaginative and I am happy I am not the only one who talks to her characters.
Scott Morrow’s Boost Blog Traffic Blog posted a great post by Chris Lappin 12 Blogging Mistakes That Make You Look Like a World Class Idiot. 
Kevin Hanrahan wrote How do our Troops Live Deployed? It got me into doing research on my new WIP.  A few of my characters are Marines.
New Followers
The Better Man Project – I linked his about page because it is pretty cool.  You need to check it out. 
Elicia M. Seawell
 
Next Week’s Schedule
Monday – Blogfest
Wednesday – Blogfest
Friday – Write Practice
Sunday – My Weekly Update

Sydney Aaliyah Writes – Write Practice – Onomatopoeia

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Write Practice #2 – Onomatopoeia and Other Fun Words to Spell

Write for fifteen minutes about a group of friends experiencing the last few days of summer. Incorporate as many onomatopoeias as you can. Post your practice in the comments, and don’t forget to leave notes for your fellow writers.
“Splash” The water crashed into the the side of the boat as we enjoy our last trip down the river. I look around to see all of my favorite people in the world in one spot. A morbid thought enters my mind that if we all die on this trip, we would be ok, because the people who would real be effected by our deaths are all right here in this boat.
“Sraabbb” The boat hit a rock and we are all thrown to the left side. It was a big rock and Mike, the most unreliable of our crew was put in the position of watching out for those type of things. In the boat anyway.  Perhaps we choose wrong.
“Frap, frap, frap” His wife, Helen, was hitting him on the back.  To bad he was wearing his life jacket, her slaps were not giving the desired effect.
“Pay attention.” I yell. Hoping my subconscious thought wasn’t going to come true.  At least I think it was subconscious.
My husband, Jeff was setting next to me and I could her the “click, click click” of his tongue as he gives me that knowing look.
Bill and Julie sitting in the back steared us to the edge at the end of our trip down river. We were going to have a bit of lunch and then each couple would head back to their prospected cities marking the end of our annual summer trip.
As the men start the fire to grill the fish we caught earlier, the women were at the back of one of our trucks making a salad.  “Chop, chop, chop, chop.”
All of a sudden, “kaboom” the grill blew up.
Fortunately, the guys were all over by the river cleaning the fish.  We all walked over to the fire to see what had happen.  “klick klick klick klick” was the sound under our feet as we got closer. A glass had fallen into the fire and exploded.  Thankfully the fire was pretty small.
I reached down to start picking up the mess and in front of me, I hear, “rattle, rattle, rattle”.
“Babe, don’ t move, there is a snake in front of you.” The snake looked at me and hissed and then turned around and slithered away. “Boom, boom, boom, boom” I was sure they could hear my heart beat in the whole park.
“What is going on here?” Julie said. I think about my though in the boat and started to feel very uncomfortable.  I don’t want to say anything and freak everyone out, but I wanted us to be careful, too.
“Squak” a huge bird swooped down and we all ducked.  “Kakaw” it came in for another pass and then flew away.
We all stood up and looking around for more incoming. We had all been together for so long, we knew what each other were thinking, we gathered our stuff and jumped into our separate cars and left.  We would say our goodbyes by text messages and pray that everyone made it home safe.
While driving home, Jeff turned to me, “I thought you said it didn’t work outside of the city.”

Sydney Quotes the Movies – Ridley Scott Goes All In Every Time

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle2 Comments

Ridley Scott is one of my favorite movie makers. He has this amazing ability to create ‘all in’ movies.  By ‘all in’ I mean he completely commits to showcasing not only amazing characters, but amazing scenes and amazing worlds.  There are no breaks, no waisted scenes and no unnecessary moments.  He goes all in.   No matter when it was made or what genre the movie is. Whether it is a CGI epic or beautifully choreographed action, his scenes never cease to draw me in completely.  Here are just a few of my favorite examples with my favorite quotes:

Alien Movies:
Alien (1979) – the quintessential alien movie. “You still don’t understand what you’re dealing with, do you? Perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.
Prometheus (2012) –  alien planets aren’t clean, slick and mechanical , they are messy and dirty. “At this moment of our civilization, we can create cybernetic individuals, who in just a few short years will be completely indistinguishable from us. Which leads to an obvious conclusion: WE are the gods now.”
 
 
Military Movies:
G.I. Jane (1997) – military training, not for the faint of heart. “Pain is your friend, your ally, it will tell you when you are seriously injured, it will keep you awake and angry, and remind you to finish the job and get the hell home. But you know the best thing about pain? It let’s you know your not dead yet.”
Black Hawk Down (2001) –  The complexity of the battle at Mogadishu. “No one gets left behind, you know that.’
 
 
 
Historical Epics:
Kingdom of Heaven (2005) – “You are not what you were born, but
what you have it in yourself to be.”
Gladiator (2000) – I know this quote by heart. – “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”
 
 
 
Mystery, Suspense, Thriller Movies:
American Gangster (2007) – “The man I worked for had one of the biggest companies in New York City. He didn’t own his own company. White man owned it, so they owned him. Nobody owns me, though.”
Body of Lies (2008) – where as Denzel was his brother favorite, Russell is Ridley’s favorite actor. – “Nobody’s innocent in this shit.”
 
 
 
 
What is your favorite Ridley Scott movie. Do you get that ‘all in’ feeling when you watch his movies?  

Related post:  Sydney Quotes the Movies – RIP Tony Scott

Tattoo Tuesday – My Friend Convinced me to Get a Tattoo

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle10 Comments
Marvin by Tom Armstrong – How cute does Marvin look with that bone on his back? haha

No one had to convince me to get a tattoo because, well, I have wanted one for as long as I can remember. But, over the years, I have convinced two friends to get tattoos.  So, I asked them recently, how did you let me talk you into getting a tattoo?

Friend #1 – The week I returned home after law school, I wanted to get a tattoo to commemorate the occasion. This was tattoo #2 and I had such a great experience with tattoo #1, I wanted to share this one with someone.  Cue my work friend that had turned into one of my closest friends.  It really didn’t take much convincing, but I recall before this occasion we had never had one conversation about tattoos prior to this day.  So, how did I convince her?  She said I was so excited about sharing the experience with her she didn’t have the heart to say no she didn’t want one.  Now, how is that for friendship. She ended up getting a connected female/male symbol on her lower stomach.  She didn’t regret it and we have this great memory to share.

Friend #2 – Tattoo #3 is my favorite and I got it from Gabe Shum at Ace Dragon Tattoo in Hong Kong. Brilliant tattoo artist by the way. If you want a dragon, he is the go to guy. My friend’s boyfriend and I were going to get tattoos.  He had one already and wanted to get a dragon on her upper arm. Now, my friend is the type of person I though would never get a tattoo. I realize now that you can’t assume that about anyone.  She sat and watch her boyfriend and I talk about and plan and schedule our tattoos for months.  (Gabe usually has a waiting list). She went with us to the tattoo shop.  Her boyfriend gets his tattoo and then I get mine.  The entire time, I am telling her to go ahead get one.  And telling her what a bad ass she would be if she had a tattoo. As we were wrapping my tattoo up, she decides to get one. A small dragon on her lower stomach.  Seems to be the place for spur of the moment tattoos. She said, she saw how excited we were about our tattoos, she wanted to experience it herself. Now, she wants to get an entire back piece.  We created a monster.

One of my favorite episodes of Friends is when Phoebe convinces Rachel to get a tattoo with her.  Phoebe decided to get a Lily, “For my mom because her name is Lily.” Later at the shop, Rachel get her heart shape tattoo on her hip.  Then, when Rachel asked to see Phoebe’s tattoo, she didn’t get it.  “The guy came in with needles and did you know they do this with needles.” and  then Rachel replies, “Really, you don’t say because mine was licked on by kittens.”

After getting her back in the chair, the artist touched Phoebe once and she jump out of the chair and left.  In sharing the story with the “friends” later, she says “For your information, this is exactly what I wanted. This is a tattoo of the earth as seen from a great great distance.  It’s the way my mother sees me from heaven.” Cue the aahh track.

Needless to say, you should get a tattoo for yourself, but getting a tattoo with friends can be a great  bonding experience.  But, please make sure you want one the tattoo in the first place. As you know, they are permanent.

I am still taking submissions for tattoo stories.  If you would like to be a part of Tattoo Tuesday, let me know in the comments. 

My Weekly Update – My Life is About to Change

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle21 Comments
Bigger then this climb.

I know that it a bit cryptic considering I am not going to go into to much detail. At least not yet.  All I will say is that my life is about to change dramatically. I have a climb ahead of me and I am excited and scared, but it all for the best.

I wanted to just take this time to say thank you to all the people online who have been so supportive since I started this blog.  Everyone has been overwhelmingly kind and I appreciate it more then you know.  It is because of this support I have decided to make this change.  Don’t worry, I am not going anywhere, just feeling the urge to show some love.

How’s that for a cliff hanger?  On to the update . . .

The Healthy Writers Club

Shallee McArthur started The Healthy Writers Club; How to Push Your Writing (and Exercise) to the Next Level. I am sure my butt has expanded since I’ve been spending so much additional time sitting in front of a computer this year.  And, given the option of writing early in the morning or exercising early in the morning, I have been picking sleep every time.  (Yeah, you knew that was coming)  I thought I was a great idea to  record my workouts and find some like minded bloggers as well.

October 1 – 7, 2012:

Cardio:  3x – 60 min sessions
Strength Training:  2x – 20 min sessions
Stretching:  3x – 15 min sessions
Not a bad week.  

 

Posts to View

Two weeks ago I wrote a post about using character profiles as a marketing tool.  Dan O’Brien takes this concept a step further with his guest post on  Armand Rosamilia’s site.   He conducts an interview of his characters and the exchange between the author and the characters in this setting is fascinating.  Now I can’t wait to read The Path of the Fallen.
I, along with 300,000 other people are in the midst of pre Nanowrimo anxiety and I hope everyone is preparing and ready to go on November 1st.  I have been back and forth about whether or not I was going to do Nano.  I love the concept, but not as happy with the quality of work I put out during these challenges.  I will write more about this later, but it was one of my goals at the beginning of the year to participate in Junowrimo, August Campnano and Nanowrimio.  So, I am going to do it because it has been a pretty awesome goal achieving year for me and I don’t want to stop now.
To assist my fellow writer, here are a few post that might help with your prep:
From one of my new followers, Kim Cox provided help on  Outlining: The beginning, middle and end.
Felicia at The Peasant Revolt shared how she is Armed for Wrimo by introducing @wrimo: A 30 day Survival Guide for Writers by Kevin S. Kaiser. I bought it and am reading it now.
And, Amanda Fanger penned a motivational post on how to maintain Writer’s Momentum.    It’s about pushing on towards your dreams.
New Followers
Brenden Dunne
Julie at Julieschicklit
CDworks
Javedbabar at A Story a Day
KC Storm
Citizen Plain
Chris Humpherys at My Mind on a Plate
Editor Etc LLC
J Spencer Goff
 
 Next Weeks Schedule
Tuesday – Tattoo Tuesday (I promise not to miss it this week)
Wednesday – Sydney Quotes the Movies – Ridley Scott Goes All In
Friday – Write Practice – “Kaboom” Onomonopedia 
Sunday – My Weekly Update