It Ain't Easy Being Green!

She looks a bit green around the gills (vbg), but here's a Barbie even I can love! :)

The Post Where Liane Attempts to Reactivate her Gray Matter

I decided to take a break from my head-banging query writing attempts today to attempt a somewhat rational post.

OK, stop laughing. I know the Weird Al video was a bit off the wall, even for moi. :)

So, here goes. My redemption post.

A few months ago my tweenish daughter lamented the fact that when Barbie dumped Ken, she did nothing better with her freedom than burn her stellar resume and set about getting in touch with her inner slut.

Apparently, my daughter's anti-Barbie backlash isn't so unusual among girls her age.

Could it be that the pink tide that's swept across our world is beginning to turn, or--dare I say it--even ebb? A blog reader submitted to me today evidence that its becoming "so not" a Barbie World in Japan. Recently, Japan's answer to Barbie, Licca-chan, re-invented herself from material girl to eco-friendly environmentalist.

I only one have problem with Licca-chan's redo of her previous self. She appears, on the outside, every bit as pink-obsessed as Barbie, her American counterpart. But, to give the plastic princess credit where its due, she's at least trying to add a bit of more depth to her plastic is fantastic personna.

According to AP wire reports, Licca-chan recently used her own (pink, gak) *cloth* shopping bag instead of the standard plastic basket to shop at one of Japan's Licca-chan Eco-Friendly Doll House shows. In doing so, Licca-chan's makers hope to impart the message that the popular fashionista is doing her part to advance the Japanese government's campaign against global warming.

The eco-friendly fashion doll will be further utilized by the Japanese government to launch a nationwide campaign which supports environmentally friendly lifestyles.

Next thing you know, cloth shopping bags could debut on runways everywhere as the new *must have* handbag.

Or not.

End of rational post.

Let the utter post-Nanowrimo mayhem resume.

This is Liane's Brain on Plastic

I swear, this is not National Post Inane Crap Week.

Honest.

You see, in order for me to render my Nanowrimo book into a readable state (damn, did it ever need help), I had to breathe life into the Barbie character. During the ensuing struggle to write "believably blonde" it has become quite necessary for me to channel Malibu Barbie.

Be happy that I at least spared you another "Weird Al" clip. :)



How evil are you?

Bittersweet Serenade

Lets Get Stoned....

It wasn't enough that I wrote one fun but drafty 64000 word book during Nanowrimo. It seems that my Muse still isn't satisfied. So I rolled from my bed this morning and began another, tentatively titled "Stoner". Could be fun, though. I need something to keep me off the streets during the holidays. :)


STONER SYNOPSIS

Fate is so unfair.

Medusa's two Gorgon sisters got to be immortals. But not Medusa. Turned out she was quite mortal. Worse, every time she almost got lucky, the man of her desires didn't just get a hard on. He turned completely to stone. Then Medusa completely lost her head over Perseus. That little faux pas landed her in Hades for all Eternity. And as a virgin, too.

Hades cannot face the idea of spending an eternity listening to Medusa whine about her ill-conceived fate. So he makes a deal with Medusa that she can't refuse. Sure she can go back to earth and seek true love. She will get three chances to win a man's heart. If she can manage to do this without turning him to stone, she will not only get laid, she'll earn immortality. But if she fails, she'll spend her eternity as a mannequin in the Peoria Saks Fifth Avenue Factory Outlet, decked out in last season's seventy-five percent off designer seconds.

Either way, Hades wins.

Next thing Medusa knows she's standing buck naked in a dark alley where a group of down on their luck stoners make their homes. At the urging the troubled, but once infamous top-model/crack addict Athena Sebastian, Medusa finds herself spilling her troubles at a narc-anon meeting. "Hi. I'm Medusa. I'm a s-stoner. And I've hit rock bottom...."

Under the tutelage her new support group, Medusa turns her life over to a higher power and embarks full throttle on her twelve step program in hopes of curing herself of her stoner lifestyle once and for all. But Medusa's friend Athena has her own past life ax to grind, and Medusa is the ticket for revenge she's waited an eternity for.

My Nanowrimo 15 minutes of Fame

http://www.trashionista.com/2006/11/liane_gentry_sk.html

Good grief

Yes, Miss Snark, I can believe that I finally understand your angst.

I can't help but wonder how many Nano-books will clog your email box on Dec. 1.

The reason I can't help but wonder is because I can't believe that people are asking me if I'm going to actually going to send my newly "completed" novel out to unsuspecting agents and publishers on Dec. 1.

My answer? Not if I expect to publish in this lifetime!

Granted, I have proven my Nano-point. It is very possible to exercise my constitutional rights, and write 50,000 words of utter garbage in 30 days. In between the sixty-some thousand words of alphabet barf I regurgitated in the last twenty-two days, I have witnessed glimpes of a story that I truly want to pursue.

I have proven the Nano-point. In order to become a writer, one must write. One must risk writing badly, even.

In order to become an author, however, I'm inclined to think one must know that good writing is born in flashes of brilliance between page after nauseating page of crapola. That, and a good dose of timing and luck. Reaching this moment of enlightment requires writing, and lots of it.

Honest, I'd tell you what my book is about, but I'm too busy praying to the sacred Oracle so that she may choose to enlighten me as to the deep literary message embedded in my meaningless drivel.

I'm sure the brilliance is there.

I wrote therefore I am a writer. But before I submit it to Snarkarina, or anyone else that matter, I have to revise. I have to kill someone on page one and insert a cameo of George Clooney. Quite naked.

Then I can submit it with confidence.

Or not.

Of course the "or not" scenario requires admitting that some people should just stop writing altogether.

P.S. Do you think I can get a million dollar advance in hand before the holidays?

P.P.S Click here for an (unedited, its Nanowrimo folks) excerpt of said novel. Then you can decide for yourself whether I should go on writing or not. :)

P.P.P.S. Of course, I didn't say I'd listen to you.