Snow Days!

Hope everyone that celebrated had a wonderful Christmas! If you're celebrating Kwanza, Happy Kwanza!

NYC got hit with a major blizzard over the weekend and Husband had an extra day home from work. We spent it throwing snowballs at each other and the kids (Big A totally betrayed me and teamed up with Dad, but Little M was loyal and threw a great many powdery puffs at the both of them! Huzzah!), and chucking each other into snow banks. Much fun.

Until we had to be grown-ups and actually shovel the driveway and dig out the car.

I am back to the writing grind today and cleaning up my house in between line edits, so I will probably disappear on you again for a few days. At Sisters in Scribe we are still taking entries for our December Giveaway (international, ends Dec 31st) and over at Tangled Fiction we have our first public round table discussion, so hop over there to see wtf we were thinking when we started our tangles and to chime in with what you thought might have happened!

Happy New Year!

Hanukkah!

Hanukkah begins tonight at sundown!

The following comes from http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday7.htm

The Story


The story of Chanukkah begins in the reign of Alexander the Great. Alexander conquered Syria, Egypt and Palestine, but allowed the lands under his control to continue observing their own religions and retain a certain degree of autonomy. Under this relatively benevolent rule, many Jews assimilated much of Hellenistic culture, adopting the language, the customs and the dress of the Greeks, in much the same way that Jews in America today blend into the secular American society.


More than a century later, a successor of Alexander, Antiochus IV was in control of the region. He began to oppress the Jews severely, placing a Hellenistic priest in the Temple, massacring Jews, prohibiting the practice of the Jewish religion, and desecrating the Temple by requiring the sacrifice of pigs (a non-kosher animal) on the altar. Two groups opposed Antiochus: a basically nationalistic group led by Mattathias the Hasmonean and his son Judah Maccabee, and a religious traditionalist group known as the Chasidim, the forerunners of the Pharisees (no direct connection to the modern movement known as Chasidism). They joined forces in a revolt against both the assimilation of the Hellenistic Jews and oppression by the Seleucid Greek government. The revolution succeeded and the Temple was rededicated.


According to tradition as recorded in the Talmud, at the time of the rededication, there was very little oil left that had not been defiled by the Greeks. Oil was needed for the menorah (candelabrum) in the Temple, which was supposed to burn throughout the night every night. There was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet miraculously, it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah. An eight day festival was declared to commemorate this miracle. Note that the holiday commemorates the miracle of the oil, not the military victory: Jews do not glorify war.

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Happy Hanukkah to all those celebrating! A freilichin Chanukah! Chag Urim Sameach! And enjoy those latkes!

Happy Thanksgiving!

First, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! I hope everyone is enjoying family/friends/loved ones and good food right now, instead of reading this. But in case everyone you love is in a food coma and you're all by your lonesome, here are the top 5 writing related things I am thankful for.

1. My friends and family. My parents and siblings, my husband and my children. Even my in-laws, who are super awesome. I've been blessed with the people in my life. I could gush on about how amazing my husband is and how smart, cute, funny, well-behaved my kids are, but you don't want to hear all that. The people in my life support my writing and I think it's very important to any writer to have that support. And my mom gave me the awesome desk that I write on. :)

2. The ability to write! Like Kristi said, I am very thankful that I can write! It's what I love (read: need) to do, and I am thankful that I am able.

3. Critique partners! Without my Sisters, and writing friends, my writing would be nowhere near the level it is right now. I'm very grateful for all their time, patience, and hard work.

4. The Internet. Not only is it a fantastic marketing tool (you know, for whenever I'll actually have a book to market), but it's basically my only social outlet. Writing is a very solitary endeavor, and although my family and friends are supportive, they don't always get my obsession with pretty book covers, or the relationship I have with the people in my head. You guys do. Right?

5. The YA writing community. Writers both published and non, agented and still treading through the query trenches. You are all so helpful and supportive. Everyone believes in paying it forward. In helping each other. This kind of community is just invaluable. Many of you organize charities and events, like the season of love and hope auction that Valerie mentioned yesterday. There is the YA lit chat community. the Verla Kay blue boards. The countless blogs chock full of information for aspiring writers on everything from what books to read, to how publishing works, to who, how and when to query. You are all fantastic! Thank you all!

What are YOU thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving!

comic from http://www.inkygirl.com/

>:)

Happy Halloween!

Whether you're trick-or-treating, partying, or staying home and watching scary movies with a bowl full of popcorn with extra butter, be safe and enjoy!

I'm getting a 55 gallon fish tank (YAY!) today, but after I set that up, I will be taking my tiniest human, a ballerina, to a few of our neighbor's houses to beg for candy. Then we'll be watching scary movies (after she's in bed) and passing out candy! But not too much candy because I need leftovers. I deserve them. Yes.

What are you up to tonight?

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And don't forget, Monday, new story at Tangled Fiction, started by me. This one will be told on Mon, Wed, and Fri in three parts only.

International Women's Day!

Happy International Women's Day to all the women in the blogosphere! I hope you all enjoy your day! Be proud to be the sister, daughter, wife, mother, friend that you are!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wanted to wish everyone a happy Valentine's day, and I hope you get the chance to spend it with someone special. My husband is across the ocean on a business trip, but I've got my kids and my books, and of course you all to keep me company.

In honor of the day, I am going to share a brief story of how I met my husband.

We met when I was 16, he was 31 (yes, he's old--I know this) on the internet. Not any of those dating sites, not that I have anything against people who use them, but on a multi-player video game. Counter-strike, for the geeks out there. We belonged to "clans" that played tournaments against each other.

This is embarrassing to admit to, by the way.

Anywho, we weren't "talking" or attempting to hook-up or any of that. We were just casual friends who occasionally talked about the game. Absolutely NOTHING romantic passed between us. Four years later(I was 20 years old), some of my nerd friends threw a birthday party for me in Raleigh, NC. We all took our computers and set up and played, and partied (see, something not totally dorky)the entire weekend.

Husband was there, even though he didn't know it was my birthday, nor did he really know who I was. He came because a mutual friend of ours came. Husband drove all the way from NY to be there. I walked in the door, he shook my hand and said his name, and I was his.

We were married 3 months after that. Been insanely happy for almost 5 years.

A LOT of tiny little things contributed to our meeting and falling in love. Crazy how that works sometimes.

What's your story?

Adam Sandler's Hanukkah song!

Because who doesn't love that song? And Adam Sandler is a babe. Don't argue.

Intro: this is a song, that uh, there's a lot of xmas songs out there, but not
Too many about hanukkah, so I wrote a song for all those nice little jewish
Kids who don't get to hear any hanukkah songs--here we go...

Put on your yalmulka, here comes hanukkah
Its so much fun-akkah to celebrate hanukkah,

Hanukkah is the festival of lights,
Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights.

When you feel like the only kid in town without a x-mas tree, heres a list of
People who are jewish, just like you and me:

David lee roth lights the menorrah,
So do james caan, kirk douglas, and the late dinah shore-ah

Guess who eats together at the karnickey deli,
Bowzer from sha-na-na, and arthur fonzerrelli.

Paul newmans half jewish; goldie hawns half too,
Put them together--what a fine lookin' jew! [esus]

You don't need deck the halls or jingle bell rock
Cause you can spin the dreidl with captain kirk and mr. spock--both jewish!
[esus]

Put on your yalmulka, it's time for hanukkah,
The owner of the seattle super sonic-ahs celebrates hanukkah.

O.j. simpson-- not a jew!
But guess who is...hall of famer¡ºrod carew--(he converted!)

We got ann landers and her sister dear abby,
Harrison fords a quarter jewish--not too shabby!

Some people think that ebeneezer scrooge is,
Well, he's not, but guess who is:all three stooges. [esus]

So many jews are in show biz--
Tom cruise isn¹t, [tacit] but I heard his agent is. [esus]

Tell your friend veronica, it's time you celebrate hanukkah
I hope I get a harmonica, on this lovely, lovely hanukkah.

So drink your gin-and-tonic-ah, and smoke your mara-juanic-ah,
If you really, really wanna-kah, have a happy, happy, happy, happy
Hanukkah¡ ¡ . happy hanukka!

Gut Yontif!

*Happy Holiday!*

It's Friday, aren't we all glad for that? And this evening marks the first night of Hanukkah 2009--The Jewish Festival of Lights! I'll post a picture of our menorahs on the 8th night. Pretty when all lit up.

********Happy Hanukkah!********

I'm pressed for time (working my butt off on another draft of "FA") so I'm going to borrow from Wikipedia:

Hanukkah (Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה‎, Tiberian: Ḥănukāh, nowadays usually spelled חנוכה pronounced [ˈχanuka]in Modern Hebrew, also romanized as Chanukah), also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, and may occur from late November to late December on the Gregorian calendar.

Happy Holidays!

We are a multi-cultural family and so the holiday tree signifies a number of things for us. My husband is of Russian/Jewish heritage. In his former home country, they celebrate the New Year much like the Christian American Christmas, with a tree and gift-giving. My heritage is extremely diverse, but I grew up in Central Pennsylvania, an area heavily influenced by the German/Dutch culture and a large part of my ancestry stems from those people.

We are not religious (that does not mean we are atheist either) so I suppose our holiday celebrations are somewhat secular, but it's what we do. We celebrate Christmas (I know, how dare we partake in a celebration that we are not religiously involved in! *cough* Saturnalia *cough*) and we celebrate the New Year and we celebrate the Jewish festival of lights, Hanukkah. We leave our tree up until January 13th. It's usually falling apart by then, but we keep him, in honor of the old Russian New Year. Hanukkah starts at sundown on the 11th this year so I'll be sure to post Menorah pictures, but until then, this is our tree!

As a child, my sister, my mother and I would ride horseback out to the family Christmas tree field, and pick and cut our own tree and drag it back behind the horses. Living in NYC makes it a bit difficult to continue that tradition, so instead I take my kids down to the parking lot by the mall each year and we pick out and buy a tree there.

It's much more beautiful in person, of course, but we don't go all out with tinsel and ribbons and bows. I prefer it's more simple beauty :)