The Decision (And a Mother's Day Bonus!)

We tried.

You tried.

But the consensus? It was just too close to call.

We can't tell who ate more ice cream!

Besides, it's like Theresa Milstein said in her comment on Janet's post, "How can anyone lose in a game of ice cream?"

I also agree with Andrea that NEXT TIME (because of course there will be a next time!) we will have to have a couple of those mail scales on hand so we can weigh the ice cream and decide that way. OR, as Julie suggested, we could just eat the entire pint and see who finishes first. (*groan*) Yes, next time we'll be smarter.

Either way, our lack of a decision is still GREAT news because now everyone who voted for either person will be entered in the drawing! Hurray! *throws pints of Ben & Jerry's*

We'll announce the winner Monday, so be sure to come back to find out if it was you!

As a compensating bonus today, even though it's post-Mother's-Day, I want to throw a funny video at you that my friend, Hersha, helped produce (her sister is the star & she has a cameo appearance). You probably already know (because it says so in my bio off in the side bar) that I grew up in Hong Kong. This one's set in Hong Kong, and even though there are several snippets of this video that make me want to rip my eyes out with homesickness (I know that's weird, but it's one of the downsides to being a Third Culture Kid), the mothering aspect applies to moms anywhere in the world. Even if you're not a mom, you'll enjoy it!

Happy belated Mother's Day! (And don't forget to check back on Monday to see if you won our celebratory giveaway! Yeep!)

Help Needed! Ice Cream Eating Contest in Jeopardy!

We did it.

We came.

We saw.

We got on Skype at the same time (even though my mic was broken so I had to talk to Janet on the phone).

We even had the same kind of ice cream.

And our nine-year-old boys STUFFED OUR FACES.

Here's my video evidence of the grand competition:

But we have a little problem. Janet and I are in grave disagreement about who WON. Janet says I ate the most ice cream. I say she ate the most ice cream. We need your help.

Who ate the most? Watch Janet's video here and leave a comment with your decision on one of our blogs. We'll add up the votes to see who YOU think ate more, Janet or me. Then we'll draw the name of the ULTIMATE WINNER of our blog competition and announce it next Monday (find out what the awesome prizes are here).

Please give it up again for our FANTASTIC FRIENDS who are signing left and right with literary agents and editors at big houses. We're so, so, so proud of and happy for you ... which is why we were willing to embarrass ourselves in this way.

SO. Who's the ice cream-eating champ?

Celebration Time ... with Janet and Ice Cream!

Celebration time, come on! *dances*

Why am I celebrating you may ask?  There are so many reasons!

One of our very own members of the Hacky Sack Club, Melissa Sarno, just SIGNED WITH AN AGENT!!, so head on over to her blog and read about it!

(Note: New members to the Hacky Sack Club are always welcome and we DO seem to have some good mojo going. Just saying.)

Also, my fabulous CP, Krista Van Dolzer [of Mother. Write. (Repeat.)] announced the BOOK DEAL she just signed!!

AND ... I'm a little late celebrating this news, but it's still as exciting as ever ... another one of my fabulicious CPs, Kristin Rae, has a TWO-BOOK DEAL of her very own!!

These ladies are amazing and are some of my dearest online writing buddies, so another dear writing buddy, Janet Awesome Johnson, and I couldn't go without hosting a HUGE celebration in true Hacky Sack (read: embarrassing) style.

And since all good celebrations need ice-cream, we are having an Ice-Cream Eating Celebration Contest!

Here's how it works:

Janet and I are going to battle it out to see who can eat the most ice-cream in 20 seconds. Too easy, you say? Our 9-year olds are going to be the ones stuffing the ice-cream in. Still too easy? Another child will hold our hands behind our backs to keep us from cheating.

And you'll get to see the whole thing on video!! How cool is that?!

BUT, it gets better. There will be PRIZES!!

All you have to do is guess who is going to win. Me? (if you're smart) Or Janet? (no. freakin'. way.)

Everyone who guesses right (on either blog) will be entered into a drawing for your choice of

a)       10-page critiques from BOTH Janet and me,

OR

b)      Surprise Package D (gosh I love me a surprise package). Could be a book. Or two. Or a gift card. Or, who knows? Maybe even A BRAND NEW HACKY SACK! *the crowd goes wild*

Just post your guess in a comment before the deadline on Sunday, May 12, midnight EDT, and come back next Monday, May 13^th, for the ice-cream eating event! Winners will be posted shortly thereafter.

So go on, take a guess!

I hope THIS photographic evidence helps you decide. Because I am an ice-cream eating MACHINE and Janet doesn't stand a chance.

Celebrating with Interpretive Dance!

I think this new addition to the Hacky Sack Club stable of embarrassing videos pretty much speaks for itself:


Please, please stop by Janet Johnson's and Kristin Rae's blogs to wish them huge congratulations! YAY!!!

In Which I Embarrass Myself in the Name of Hacky Sacks

First of all, please please please check out my partner in mischief Janet Johnson's Ethnic Musical Challenge video, because hers is WAY better than mine. She raises the bar on Hacky Sack video challenges by incorporating Bollywood and tying it into writing & blogs. Plus, she's an amazing dancer and actually EDITED her video. It's a MUST SEE.

And now, on to the challenge.

I have chosen to enlighten you all with my amazing Chinese opera skillz.

I'm singing a couple little snippets from the third scene of the famous Yueju opera, BUTTERFLY LOVERS.

This is a very short snippet and is in fact two different parts of a scene that I've mashed together for the sake of brevity. I'm supposed to have someone singing another part at one point, so I just hummed it.

(Many thanks to my videographer-daughter, Olivia.)

Performing in China with my teacher, Zhang Laoshi.

After the performance with my tiny kids.

And this is only for the VERY interested among you. I found scene three of an actual BUTTERFLY LOVERS performance on Youtube (Whoot!). The part I learned with my teacher was from the beginning through about the six-minute mark. Now you can see how truly bad I am by watching the professionals!


Would YOU like to join the Hacky Sack Club and make embarrassing videos of yourself? OF COURSE YOU WOULD! Join, join, join! Let Janet or me know if you want to post a video and we'll add you to our Hacky Sack Club Wall of Fame. Come on, you know you want to!

Have you ever watched Chinese opera before? Do you like it?

Hacky Sack Club is Back!

The Hacky Sack Club is back with a new (optional) challenge! And this one is even more embarrassing.

Janet Johnson and I have committed ourselves to the Hacky Sack Club's

Ethnic Musical Challenge!

We'll be posting embarrassing videos of ourselves doing something ethnically musical on Monday, August 27 (so you can all laugh at us be in awe of us on Labor Day).

If you'd like to join, let one of us know. Then when you post your video, also let us know so we can let all our followers know (so everyone can visit your blog and join in the mirth).

Remember, we're not laughing AT you, we're laughing WITH you!

No, we haven't done anything wrong that deserves punishment. We at the Hacky Sack Club simply believe that life is too short to waste being normal.

We also believe that part of a fun community is breaking down barriers and being silly every once and awhile.

If you have already joined the Hacky Sack Club, you do not need to take part in this activity, but we'd love it if you did.

That is all. No stress. No hacky sack skillz or even hacky sacking required. Visit our Hacky Sack Walls of  Shame Fame (Janet's and mine) for more details. 

More on Diversity & Hacky Sacking

Thanks for the great discussion last Thursday about ethnic diversity in Young Adult novels. A couple more thoughts:

• It's interesting that several of us felt insecure writing other ethnicities into our books because we were afraid of "getting it wrong." That's a valid fear when we consider that other ethnicities have different cultures than our family culture. But what if we're writing about, say, Americans or Canadians, or any resident of a country with a diverse population? Does that change anything? I'm Polish American. Would an Irish American feel nervous writing about a character like me? I guess it depends on how I was raised. If I were from a Polish neighborhood in Chicago and if my Polish-speaking grandmother lived with us, then yes, that Irish American writer better know something about Polish culture. But if I grew up in Suburbia, Anywhere, USA, the fact that I'm part Polish wouldn't play as big a part.
• With this said, it seems like our fear of "getting it wrong" stems from a fear of being labeled racist. If our ethnicity is different from our protagonist, we might worry that we'll be judged for any flaws we give that character. 
• And then there's the fear of stereotyping. Say we have a Chinese-American protagonist who plays tennis and gets straight A's in school and her biggest fault is that she studies too much and cares too much about her grades. Uh. No. That's a HUGE Asian-American stereotype. We fall into stereotypes when we're afraid of really getting to know our characters. Maybe we're afraid to make our Chinese-American protagonist a drug dealer because we might offend Chinese-Americans in general. Or we worry people will think we're trying to say all Chinese-American girls are drug dealers.
• These are valid concerns and it's important to be aware of these issues as we write, but I don't think they should stop us from writing with diversity.
• My challenge to myself, and maybe to all writers, is to allow myself to be color blind in that first draft. Craft your interesting, fascinating, flawed protagonist and then, later, decide on the color of her skin. Would that change your book at all? Isn't it fair to assume that a fourth generation Korean-American is just as American as a fourth generation Italian-American? If there are details to tweak, there's time to tweak, but if we're worried about stereotypes, perhaps this could be a way to combat them.

Thoughts? Am I way off with any of this? Anything you'd like to add?

Speaking of ethnically diverse novels, I'll be hosting Samuel Park on my blog next week. He'll be sharing some writing wisdom with us to celebrate the paperback release of his debut THIS BURNS MY HEART. There will also be a little giveaway involved that you writers will love, so please stop by.

And last, but certainly not least, the Hacky Sack Club is going strong with two more members! I am working on my Wall of Shame Fame, but co-founder Janet already has hers up (because she's awesome that way). I'd publicly like to welcome our new victims members:

• Leigh T. Moore who charmed us all with her fabulous juggling video (though she did not juggle the cat)
• Melissa Sarno who wowed us with her hacky-sacking-while-speaking-Hindi video

The goal of the Hacky Sack Club is to bring a little silly community to the normally solitary lives of writers. If you'd like to join, you can read all about it >>here<<. Any weird talent accepted!

Romancing the Snow

When bloggy buddy Jen Daiker asked me to read and review the short stories (hers included) in the SNOWBOUND HEARTS anthology, I agreed. Jen is so fun and awesome, of course I wanted to celebrate her first publication.

Full disclosure ... I am not a romance-genre expert. Certain friends told me I should read more romance (for educational purposes, mind you), so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to be educated in another genre AND support a bloggy friend. The problem is, writing a review about a genre you're not well-versed in ... it's a little scary.

But I'm going to do my best. Keep in mind, I'm probably one of the most naive people on the planet (despite the fact that I have five children running around). And yes, I do get sort of middle-schooly when it comes to talking about sex. Giggling. Blushing. The whole bit. 

Thankfully, all that worry was for nothing with SNOWBOUND HEARTS. The stories were mostly playful and lighthearted. One story did seem more serious than the others, but I was delighted with the character development and the setting in that story, so it was just as entertaining.

Every story was unique and I enjoyed the variety of voices. For instance, "Sophie's Snow Day" is a paranormal romance about cat shape shifters (I'd never read a paranormal romance before). Jen's story, "Snowbanked," is a sweet romance about a girl who comes home to find herself. "The White Lion" is set in England and had all the romance and intrigue of old English houses that really appealed to this Downton Abbey nut, while "Winter Twilight" has wonderfully gritty characters and a vivid downtown Seattle setting.

My biggest problem with SNOWBOUND HEARTS was that it's only available digitally. And, of course, I don't have an e-reader. So every time I sat down to read it felt an awful lot like I was working. I would have loved to curl up with these stories on my couch in front of a roaring (gas-lit) fire. Instead, I was forced to sit bolt upright at the computer. Which made it less enjoyable, for sure, because I kept accidentally putting on my editor's cap. But this is not the fault of the anthology, just my lack of gadgets.

If you have an e-reader, though, it's super easy to download SNOWBOUND HEARTS from the Still Moments Ebook store. It's only $3.99, which, when you consider how much content you're getting, is really a steal.

Congratulations, Jen, on your publication accomplishment! I know there's a lot more in store from this talented author.

**

In unrelated, silly news, Janet Johnson and I inducted our first victim member into the Hacky Sack Hall of Shame Fame. Catherine Denton put down her paintbrush and bravely went where no red-dress wearing woman has gone before and not only hula-hooped, but hacky-sacked with her hands at the same time. It's absolutely breathtaking. You have to check it out >>here.<< If you'd like to join the silliness, just email me (address in the sidebar) and I'll tell you how. No hacky sack required. Our motto is: "To embarrassment and beyond!"