Thank you, Kiss Chronicles
Approximately five years ago, I began writing the Kiss Chronicles book. The book started as an idea for a short story to generate interest in a project I was struggling to keep afloat. Then I gradually came to the realization that the original project had no fuel left to get it across the finish line With that realization, I reached my lowest point. I found myself smothered by a blanket of regret that I had failed, disappointment that I wasn’t as strong as I thought I was, and embarrassment that I had made such a publicly visible miscalculation. And even with all of those negative feelings, I couldn’t let go of my determination that I had to complete the project one way or another.
I couldn’t be satisfied if I didn’t bring the project to some sort of conclusion. So I asked myself, what can I do? The instant, obvious answer was, “Write.”
I pivoted and decided that I could make the writing into the project. I refocused the negative energy into positive action. The exhaustion I felt no longer mattered because I had a vision for how I could complete Kiss Chronicles. I worked through.
Several months went into the first draft. Even more months went into editing and refining to get to the completed book, as well as work collecting and critiquing short stories written by friends. I continued to try to maintain the Kiss Chronicles social media efforts. Then, at last I finished the book, formatted it, and packaged it for public consumption. In March of 2013, more than a year after I began writing, I published the Kiss Chronicles book. For about half a year following publication, I put time and energy into trying to spread the word and share the book.
And then the exhaustion caught up to me. Everything slowed down . . .
And. I. Stopped.
I stopped trying to find an audience for the book. I stopped paying attention to the social media work.
But I took it further than that: I stopped writing at all.
I decided to let myself rest, to let myself recoup my energy. I had a vague idea that if I let myself recharge, I could re-address Kiss Chronicles and bring it some sort of satisfying peak of achievement.
The more I rested, though, the more reluctant I felt to ever return to Kiss Chronicles. Though I had pushed it across the finish line with nothing but determination, it still felt unfinished in some ways. So I lived on in a state of uncomfortable balance between the desire to move on and the desire to give the project a more fitting climactic ending.
Recently, I committed time to some soul searching, and I’ve decided that I’m ready to declare it done and move forward. Kiss Chronicles is a dream that I am putting to bed so that other dreams can flourish and receive my full focus.
Although the project had its struggles, I want to wrap up by focusing on the gifts I received that I will treasure:
- I self-published a book for the first time — definitely a personal milestone.
- I had the pleasure to meet so many new people through Kiss Chronicles, many of whom have become friends for life.
- I think by the end of it all, I gained a little perspective and maybe a smidgen of wisdom.
- I chased my dream. I learned more about just what it takes to chase a dream. Next time I will chase it and lay out booby traps to capture it.
Thank you, Kiss Chronicles, for all that you gave me.
The book, blog, donation site, and other social media for Kiss Chronicles will remain online. There may be future updates . . . to point to whatever my next project may be!
A birthday blog
Today I turn 33. There will be no fanfare, no fuss, no dramatic wailing at the injustice of a higher number attached to my life, no celebratory party with alcohol-saturated friends. There will be a slew of posts on Facebook from people. There will be cake, most likely some decadent, single-serving treat picked up from The Flying Cupcake. (I love you, The Flying Cupcake. I love you so much.) The best part of the day will be opening gifts from my mom.
Real!Cupcakes: I couldn’t decide between S’more and Tagalong, so I did the only logical thing. I got both.
Today I turn 33. And, nope, still no first kiss. The thing is that, although getting that first kiss became my #1 goal for a while there, in the past year it’s been knocked down lower and lower on the priority list. When this month ends, my employment as a copy editor ends, nearly 11 years after it started. The thing that matters most in my life right now is finding my next job, followed immediately by managing all the details of survival in the meantime.
I’d still like to get that kiss. But what felt painfully urgent before no longer does. I had an idea, the Kiss Chronicles project, and I put every last bit of my energy into it. Eventually, it spawned a book, and that book has raised over $500 for cancer charity to date. Yay! *Kermit flail* (If you haven’t read my book yet, you can find it on Smashwords, Amazon, B&N, and other sites. And you can donate to the project’s charity page to fight cancer on Razoo.)
Today I embrace the fact that I’m growing and going in a different direction from where I was headed when I began Kiss Chronicles. I’m not abandoning the work that I’ve done, but I also don’t want to feel tied down by it in any way at this point. To that end…
…today I reclaim and repurpose my blog. I’ve been thinking about making this change for the past several months — y’know, those months where I haven’t been posting at all, pfft.
When this blog began, I had specific purposes for it: It was meant to tell the progress of the Kiss Chronicles project and also to share real-life stories about kissing and how people relate to kissing, as submitted by readers. Well, I have little to share about the ongoing project anymore because it’s pretty much wrapped up. And the idea of sharing stories from readers foundered a long time ago because I only ever received a few stories. Sharing cool images and photos of kissing kept me going for a while, but I couldn’t sustain it because I felt frustrated, like I was holding myself back.
Now I just want to use the blog to have fun.
So, all of this is to say that my birthday gift to me this year is…proper ownership of my own blog. Heh. Just what I always wanted.
What all this means:
- Kiss Chronicles is now a personal blog, essentially.
- Posts could be about anything. Maybe I’ll start drawing again and share some pictures. I’ll definitely share some jewelry-making projects. I’ll talk about life, stories, writing, anime, gaming. My cats will show up. Lots of normal bloggy stuff.
- I’d still be delighted to post kiss stories from other people if/when I can get my hands on them. Also, I enjoyed harassing artists to get permission to show their kiss-related artwork, so I may pick up that practice again.
- Who knows where this will go? I’m making everything up as I go along. Like usual.
Today I turn 33. Happy birthday to me. 🙂 For last-minute gift ideas, please consider reviewing my book (various links earlier in post) or donating to the project’s charity page.
Volunteering for the St. Vincent Cancer Walk of Hope (3 years running, er, walking!)
The St. Vincent Cancer Walk of Hope rolled around again on a beautiful day, September 21st, 2013. (Yes, I realize that was weeks ago now. I’m slow.) I arrived, as usual, well before the rays of the rising sun. The tables and grass were wet, but the rain from the day before had ended.
I worked, also as usual, to help with last-minute setup for the event. I helped put colorful skirts around tables, raise the large metal archway, and other small miscellaneous tasks. Things were very well in hand this year, so much so that I didn’t have a whole lot to do.
This year I got to spend more time talking with people. First of all, I met Beth, a fellow volunteer, shown on the right. Beth and I got along instantly, and I appointed myself as her minion for the morning. She also seemed to have a fairly good sense of what she was doing and where everything was, so I figured if I tailed her I could be particularly helpful.
When we ran out of work, I noticed Beth talking to a woman who had come to the event as a vendor. They were talking animatedly, so I sidled up and joined the conversation.
The vendor, I discovered, was Mary, and Mary is definitely my kind of people — she likes to tell stories as well as listen to them. We chattered together at length, shared our personal reasons for wanting to be a part of the Cancer Walk of Hope. She also told me about her comfort kit project, affectionately called LUCY (Let Us Comfort You). She also told me about her family, and I told her about Kiss Chronicles. And geez, what’s wrong with me that I still get embarrassed when I explain my Kiss Chronicles story to people directly? Shouldn’t I be over that by now? I nearly crawled under her vendor table to hide.
Time went by, and the walkers for the 10-mile walk showed up for their opening ceremony, which included an opening prayer and some Zumba to warm up.
Everybody ready to walk?
About an hour after the 10-mile walkers went on their way, the next batch of walkers showed up for the 3-mile walk. They had an opening ceremony as well, and then we cheered them on their way.
GO, GO, GO!
I ended up staying much longer than I intended. That seems to happen every year.
BONUS! I ran into someone I knew. However, I didn’t recognize him. He looked much fuzzier, and more blue, than he used to.
At first, he didn’t tell me who he was. I had a good laugh later when he confessed.
It was another successful year, with over $300,000 raised to aid those patients dealing with the struggles of cancer. I plan to volunteer again in 2014. Keep up the good work, St. Vincent!
WAKE UP, BLOG! Wake up to the sound of kisses!
NOISE! LOUD RAUCOUS NOISE! BANG, ZAP, POW, KERPLOP! My blog grew unexpectedly quiet. I feel like I need to bang some pots and pans together to wake it up again. WAKE UP, BLOG!
I’ve been, well, obviously absent from the blog and even a bit shy of my social networks in general. The rush of an exciting summer season came to a head, and I was left in a quiet, contemplative space. I felt a need for calm. I needed to find some peace, even do some meditating. Maybe I should still throw in some prayers for good measure if I’m feeling frisky.
Have I gotten what I needed while I’ve been away and (gasp) not blogging? A bit. It’s a work in progress.
My melodramatic spirit may be getting the better of me, but I feel as though I’m at a crossroads. Things are going to change, and I’ve been gathering my energy to make that change as positive as I can.
Blah blah, cryptic statement, blah blah, vague sentiments, blah blah. See, this is why I haven’t been blogging. My head is a light and airy mess because I still haven’t finished getting my thoughts in order.
However, one thing I’ve discovered is that I’ve missed talking about kissing. I’ve missed my blog! So, even as I continue on my quest for calm, I need to start introducing some noise back into my life. Noise such as, oh, the sound of kisses.
Please make sure your volume is turned up so you can enjoy the extreme cute in this “Kissy Sounds” video:
How have you been? Are you recovering from a busy summer? Got any got any summer kiss stories for me?
The things I carried home from BlogHer ’13
I over-packed for BlogHer ’13. It was my first time attending the mega blogging conference, and I had the luxury of driving rather than flying, so I felt free to bring excessive amounts of stuff.
I left my car in the suburbs, and my aunt kindly drove me to the Sheraton. When I walked into the lobby, dragging my heavy luggage, I felt a rush of nerves. New setting. No familiar faces. Free cupcakes. I didn’t touch the cupcakes, which is a testament to how displaced I felt. I have a sweet tooth that frequently overrides my common sense. However, I didn’t feel as though I’d done anything to earn a cupcake yet, so I passed them by and sat to await my roommates, the fashionable SEO queen Elaine Griffin and the ever-lovely duchess of doodles Melissa Aiello.
Ten minutes later, I realized I had left my hanging dress clothes in the back of my aunt’s car as I cheerfully waved farewell to her. Well, at least I got my first mistake done with early. My aunt came back with my nice clothes so I wouldn’t have to wear pajamas to the expo.
Then I promptly went up the wrong set of elevators to try to get to my room. I just wanted to be thorough and get my second mistake out of the way.
The next two and a half days passed quickly, and it seemed as though between one heartbeat and the next I found myself at the end of the trip. As I walked out of my hotel room and heard the door thunk behind me, I carried home much more than I had brought.
Photo and captioning by Stacy Calvert. I’m still trying to decide whether Stacy was being sincere or sarcastic.
I took home the expected Bag o’ Swag, full and only semi-sorted. My favorite acquisitions were an Eggland’s Best spatula won from an eggy slot machine and a pink Nerd from the Chuck E. Cheese booth. I earned my Nerd toy in classic Awkward!Blogger fashion: I went into a wind tunnel machine to try to win it. However, only after having tickets blown through my hair and into my cleavage did I find out that the sponsor was giving the nerd toys away, no win required. Oh well. At least I amused Melissa and my darling friend Linda Anselmi.
I also carried home, tucked safely away in my luggage, a steampunk coloring book and a pad of paper with kisses all over it, given to me as gifts by the sweet and cuddly Karen Sandoval.
Karen knows what I like! Steampunk and kisses are all I could ever ask for. 🙂
Tucked between sandals and shirts, I brought home Joey, my kangaroo. Joey came to me all the way from Australia via Michelle Burke.
This is Joey. Joey came from Australia. I love Joey and Michelle! Also, my fedora.
I was able to spend time with Michelle because she tweeted me and asked me whether I’d be at the Gale Ann Hurd keynote. I had planned to crash on my bed for an hour, but Michelle and Gale were both well worth sacrificing a nap. (In fact, I even wrote up Gale’s keynote on the BlogHer site.)
I carried home the knowledge of how impressive Jasmine Banks is. I first spotted her on a Serta bed, melting into it as she lay next to a friend, with Neil Kramer smiling down at her as he stood by her side. I’ll always remember how much strength it took for her to come to BlogHer after a deep personal loss occurred only the day before.
I took home some personal sadness that I didn’t get to spend more time with Abbie Gale and Michelle Lewsen and Georgia Johnson and so very, very many others. I wanted more time to find people and more time to spend with them.
I brought home forty-eight business cards — fifty if I include two accidental duplicates. Actually, the number is closer to fifty-five if I count some hand-written contact notes. I did not acquire business cards from everyone I encountered. For instance, I spent some time with Delfin, but we were so busy chatting that I never got his card. (S’all good, though, ‘cause I know where he blogs.) In many cases, I had only a few brief seconds to exchange a hug or handshake. I estimate that I met or encountered about eighty people.
I was unable to take any of my new people home with me. They all refused to climb into my luggage. And I really don’t understand what JC Little’s objection was because I’m sure she would have fit. Still, even though I couldn’t keep the artist, I did take home a flattering piece of toonswag, but only after spending a hilarious evening with her and Aliza Worthington and Linda Anselmi.
My toonswag drawn by the indomitable (abominable? indubitable?) JC Little!
I’m still carrying with me the hug I received from Tyrone Farley after delivering my BuskHer ’13 performance, where I stood in the hallway outside of the Fashion Show Reception and delivered some poetry and a section of my book that I’d memorized. The busking was the thing I’d been working on, what I’d been gearing myself up to accomplish at the conference for over a month. And I almost chickened out. I actually almost didn’t do it despite the fact that I’d poured hours and hours into the preparation. I never had a proper rehearsal, and the conditions were never quite right. I meant to do it Friday, but that plan fell through. On Saturday, I had to accept that I wouldn’t get perfect conditions, and I dove into the performance regardless. I performed in front of my friends. My sense of self faded away, leaving only the words to be shared. As I spoke and dredged up all my theatre energy from the past, a few people stopped briefly to watch and then moved on. Tyrone, though, Tyrone stopped to watch and stayed. And at the end, he came forward and embraced me, and I cried just a little with relief and gratitude, and he told me about his love of theatre in his soothing voice, which I think would be GREAT for Shakespeare.
Thank you, Tyrone. Thank you. You helped remind me that my book and story are worth all the effort to reach out to even just one more person.
I brought home a desire and an idea to start a new project, a vlog. Between the Video 101 session by Stacy Calvert and Julie Yamamoto and my own theatrical antics, I know I have more to learn and share, new opportunities for growth.
These are just a few of the things I carried home with me. They are the weight of dreams and purpose. I’ll take that cupcake now.
Actually, no, hold the cupcake a little longer. I have more work to do.
(Note: I couldn’t call out absolutely everybody that I love and adore and met in this post, but that don’t mean I don’t love you! MUAH!)
Going off topic: Old school blogging meme
I’ve been tagged! Okay, I don’t go off topic on this blog very much — I typically stick to the kissing and charity themes — but my bloggy buddy Stevie tagged me, so I’m making a special exception.
Meme time! This is for an Old School Blogging linkup hosted by Alison and Elaine. (Remember, blame Stevie.)
Five Things I Have a Passion For:
- Dream chasing
- Fairy tales
- Anime (from popular to obscure, I have to keep a spreadsheet of all the shows I’ve watched)
- Words/literature
- Steampunk
Five Things I Would Like to Do before I Die:
Hold on, lemme just check my bucket list….which has 100 items on it because, darn it, it’s okay to want stuff.
- Raise $10k to fight cancer. There, I said it. I dream of getting the Kiss Chronicles Razoo page to $10k raised toward the cure.
- Create a web comic (probably partnering with an artist)
- Visit Australia
- Learn to play chess
- Paint a wall full of doodles (or an entire room, perhaps?)
Five Things I Say a Lot:
- “Oh my gosh!”
- “Frickity.”
- “Stop it, cat.”
- “Where did I put that? I had it a second ago.”
- “Pumpernickel, away!” Oh, wait, no, I never say that.
Five Books and/or Magazines I Have Read Lately:
- Does manga count? If so, the latest chapters of Bleach and Skip Beat.
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (currently in progress)
- Business in Blue Jeans by Susan Baroncini-Moe
- Slashback by Rob Thurman
- Isis Wept by Stephan Loy
Wow, talk about a hodgepodge.
Five Favorite Movies:
- The Princess Bride
- Princess Mononoke
- The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen
- The Avengers
- The Labyrinth
My above choices are based strongly on rewatchability.
Five People I Invite to Do This Meme:
I’m a bad sport. Here’s what I say: If you’re a blogger and this interests you, do eeet! If you’re a blogger and it doesn’t interest you, don’t do eeet, and link me to some other post about yourself so I can get to know you. (But, you know, it’d be really cool if Melissa my Favorite Alien and Karen the Fairy Queen and Elaine the Derby Girl did it.)
Kiss Chronicles ebook is now FREE on Amazon!
Two weeks ago, I posted the Kiss Chronicles ebook on Amazon for $0.99. I kept it quiet and didn’t announce it widely because I was hoping desperately that if I gave it a little time, Amazon would adjust the price to free, like it should be. I struggled with the decision to post on Amazon because of the risks involved. I realized that the adjustment might never come, but after I posted the book, I asked friends and strangers to notify Amazon that the ebook is free on other sites, and I notified Amazon myself, and I waited.
You know what happened? SUCCESS! The book is now FREE on Amazon! Click the cover below to go to the Amazon page and get it for yourself, because my bloggy buddy Denise says you should:
Now available on Amazon!
This morning, when I looked at the Amazon and saw the $0.00 price tag, I had to stare at it for a minute before the reality set in. I’m so used to dealing with setbacks on the Kiss Chronicles project that it’s shocking to run into such a success — and this took only two weeks.
As always, the reason that I’m so intent on making the book free is because I want to invite readers to make a donation to a cancer charity (at my Razoo page or to another cancer charity of their choosing).
I’m so, so glad things worked out. This increases convenience for readers and for me. Days and weeks and months go by where nothing seems to work out well for the Kiss Chronicles project, but then something like this happens, and my heart soars. This is precisely the happy thing I’ve been wishing for, and I can ride this wave straight into the BlogHer ’13 conference, which I’ll be attending next week to promote blog and book.
Haha, oh crud, there’s a big honking paragraph that I added as a special note to Amazon readers in Chapter 12, apologizing about the $0.99 Inconvenience Fee. I guess that doesn’t make sense any more, does it? I’ll see about editing that out.
Kiss Photo: An East Coast Wedding
This featured kiss photo is so hot that it requires police caution tape!
An East Coast Wedding
This brilliant shot is © Danielle Hughson, used courtesy of the artist (and you can find more from her on her Flickr page). I can’t find anything about this shot I don’t like. Her dress is gorgeous, as are her shoes. The guy is performing a perfect dip, and his tie matches her dress. And all the dynamic lines point to the couple. Beautiful! \o/
Kiss Photos: A grayscale kind of day
I’m feeling mellow at the moment, and I think some classy black-and-white photography would suit my mood.
Kissing at the Courts
That’s a feather stuck in her scarf, by the way, just in case you’re curious. I was, so I asked the photographer. Because I can’t turn off my inner editor, ever, which means small details fascinate me.
Two-for-one deal, have another shot, and I have a question for you about this one:
Bus Station
Ahh, just what I needed. These suit my mood perfectly. These photos are both © John St. John, and you can find more of his photography at his website.
Here’s the part that I want you to help me with: This second photo is titled “Bus Station,” which in my mind means that this is either a kiss hello or a kiss goodbye. Based JUST on what you see in the picture, which do you think it is, a hello or goodbye?
It’s been over a week since the downfall of DOMA, and the country is still going strong. Woohoo! The country even celebrated its 237th birthday yesterday. I hope you had fun celebrating and didn’t burn any fingers.
Last week, there were many, many happy kisses to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision about DOMA and Prop 8. Here’s one of them!
Celebratory kisses!
This photo is © David Sweet (used courtesy of the artist), and you can find more of his photography on Flickr.
Here at Kiss Chronicles, the policy is Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Smooch. I mean, really, I blog about kissing. I’m very pro-kissing. Kiss your hearts out, people! Straight, gay, interracial, platonic, romantic, whatever, just enjoy.
Also, I bring you a bonus kiss story. My bloggy buddy Abbie, over at All That Makes You, has posted a kiss story. More kiss stories. I need more! If you have one you want to share, please send it my way.
This kiss art is especially for old-school sci-fi lovers:
Giant kissers and itty bitty astronauts!
The work is © Michelle, used courtesy of the artist. Michelle makes clever paper collages with old art. The original of this piece, Moon Kiss, is available in her Etsy Store, as are many more of her fun creations.
I’m pretty sure the astronauts are on a rescue mission. Looks like one of them is about to get lost in a moon volcano. Or is that an exploratory mission into a crater?
The Amazon issue and the Kiss Chronicles ebook
I’ve been putting this off for a few months, but I’ve run out of fight on this subject: I’m going to make the Kiss Chronicles ebook available on Amazon.
The catch? I can’t post it for free. I have to post it for the minimum price, which is $0.99, and that’s the reason I’ve refused to put the book on Amazon before now.
This book is supposed to be free. Hell, it’s built into the story that the book is free — I’m going to have to add a special note to the Amazon edition to acknowledge the issue. I want the money going to charity, not into Amazon’s pocket or mine. But by not having the ebook on Amazon, I’m encountering headaches:
- The biggest nightmare, limited accessibility: Several people I know have had horrible trouble getting the .mobi file (the Kindle format) that they download from Smashwords to work right on their Kindle devices. If people can’t access the book, they can’t read it. I want people to read it.
- Lack of visibility: By not being on Amazon, the ebook has decreased opportunities for visibility and searchability. That’s just one more handicap that my book doesn’t need.
- Reduced reviewability (not a word): Many review sites don’t accept submissions or requests for reviewing unless the book is available on Amazon.
- Apologibility (really, really not a word): Time after time, people ask me whether it’s available on Amazon. And I have to keep saying, “no, I’m sorry.” I don’t want to have to apologize for that any more.
So I’m going to do this because Amazon is a Goliath, and I have to play its game. BUT. But but but. Butt. See, the thing is, Amazon strives to be competitive about pricing, so there’s a chance that, sometime after I post my book, it could bump my listing down to free because the book is available for free on other ebook retailer sites — especially if users complain (directly to Amazon, and I sincerely hope not in the book reviews). And I can encourage my readers to go to Amazon only if they can’t get get the Smashwords .mobi download to work.
So, what does that mean for the money? Well, until the book becomes available for free (if I can even get that to happen), I’m going to consider the $0.99 charge the Amazon Inconvenience Fee™ for readers with Kindles. I’d still like the readers to donate money or time to a cancer charity in exchange for the read. For my part, I don’t expect to make any significant, appreciable profit via Amazon purchases. If I were to make a few bucks, some pocket change, that would cover a small portion of my blog upkeep. On the off chance that I were to make some sort of significant profit, after Uncle Sam takes a cut for taxes, one of the first things I would do is finally give my cover artist a fair, flat price for her work, ’cause she originally donated her time with the understanding that the book would be for charity. After that, if more money continued to come in, I’d split the money 50-50 between blog upkeep and book-support expenses and cancer charity.
*sigh* Anyway, I’ll let you know when I get the ebook onto Amazon.
In much happier news, I’m delighted that I’ve had a guest post featured over on Dangled Carat (a blog on relationships, hosted by Hilary), with five fun facts about kissing: Your kiss, your kiss is on my lips…
Kiss Art: kisses by Jennifer Boychuk-Pinratana
A haiku:
May your life be filled
With mountains of great kisses
And oceans of love
Mountains of kisses currently in progress.
This photo is © Jennifer Boychuk-Pinratana, used courtesy of the artist. At her website, Divining the Hidden, Jennifer does fun mixed media art featuring nature and portrait photography, seeking to reveal the nature inside of people.
My questionable haiku-writing skills aside, I love this picture. D’awwww!
Kimmi Smiles’ cover song and first kiss caught on film
I’m a Twitter scavenger, and I like to go searching for tweets about “kiss” or “first kiss” just to see what I can find. Sometimes I retweet funny or cool things I discover. This discovery is worth blogging about.
A few days ago, I noticed this particular tweet:
Notice the #gross hashtag.
The tweet cracked me up, so I had to check out the video to see what the rest of the story was. I thought I’d find a fairly ordinary video. I discovered it’s a pop-rock song cover of “Heartbreak Girl” (originally by 5 Days of Summer), and Kimmi Smiles* is a bubbly sweetheart of an Aussie.
This girl is so freaking cute she’s like a human Pokémon. I CHOOSE YOU, KIMMI SMILES! If you like the video, please give Kimmi some comment love. And maybe sympathize with her that she had to kiss a germy boy.
And here’s why I feel guilty for not blogging about this video right away: Kimmi was giving the song away for free on Bandcamp, but it reached max downloads, so no more freebies. According to her YouTube channel, she’s looking for another source to make the song available for free. So, if you liked her cover, keep an eye on her channel to see whether it becomes available for free on another site, or you can get it for $1 on Bandcamp.
* Generally I have a no celebs policy on this blog. I’d say Kimmi, with over 180k followers, is perhaps demi-YouTube-celeb. I’m slightly cheating on my rule here, and I’m okay with that because this is the first time I’d heard of her. She’s a new-to-you demi-celeb. Unless you’ve heard of her before, in which case my rationalization is borked.
Kiss Art: kiss, by Alessandro Pautasso
When I look at a piece of art, I want to see a story, one that’s full and rich with detail, all captured in that single image.
I see that in kiss, by Alessandro Pautasso. (Image used courtesy of the artist.)
What is the story behind this kiss art?
Okay, first, let me mention that I’m always a big fan of swirls. But looking past the swirls, it feels like something powerful is going on here. Who is this woman? Is this one woman torn between two different men? Or is this woman trying to understand her feelings for a particular man, searching for reality? The two sides are not, in fact, mirror images — the swirls don’t line up. Oh wow, and I just now noticed that in one direction, the woman’s mouth is quirked up in a smile, and in the other direction it isn’t.
Love it. I could look at it over and over and keep coming up with something new. What do you see in this piece?
If you like, you can check out Alessandro’s website — he has more gorgeous work showing there, as well as posters for sale.
Kiss Video: Principal kissing a pig
A note to all principals: If you make a promise to your students that you’ll kiss a pig (or frog or other such animal) in exchange for meeting a goal, those kids are going to meet that goal.
Make sure to set the goal high. Make ’em work for that kiss.
Kudos to the kids for their reading dedication, and even more kudos to Principal Fuesner for keeping her pucker promise.
Why does this video have only 400+ views and 2 Likes (one of them mine)? That seems like a shame. I think Principal Fuesner and Buffalo Hills Elementary deserve more love than that. Share that vid, folks!
Oink.
Kiss Art: Angel Kissing on a Sinner (beardburn!)
Do you see how her lips are making a reverse K, like the Kiss Chronicles logo? DO YOU SEE IT?!
Photo used with permission of the fantabulous artist, Kelly Alysia Barrett.
So, as I lack in kiss experience, I’m seeking some enlightenment. I hear about this beardburn thing a lot. Some women seem to love facial hair and some hate it. Tell me — what’s to love and what’s to hate?
That kiss right there in the photo, well, that looks pretty darn nice, even with the scratchy beard. Or maybe especially because of the scratchy beard.
So much good stuff I might explode!
First things first, I’ve had my first interview as a first-time author! Christina Hamlett (no relation to the guy from Denmark) interviewed me over at You Read It Here First.
My second interview has followed quickly on the heels of the first. My blogging tribe mate Darcie interviewed me on her blog, Belle of the Carnival.
You know, for my first interview, I was very nervous. I put off opening the questions for a couple of days because I was convinced I’d have no idea what to say. Then I opened them and had a BLAST responding. Getting over my nervousness the first time made me eager to do the second interview. And it was so interesting to see how the interviewers chose such different questions to ask. It was a pleasure to work with both Christina and Darcie.
Then, out of the blue, I also have received a SURPRISE BLOG REVIEW™. Leslie Annis, also known as Lannis, gave Kiss Chronicles a review that’s both positive and constructive on her blog, Chez Lannis.
The icing on all of this delicious cake? I’ve made a custom T-shirt for Kiss Chronicles. To the lovely ladies of my BlogHer tribe: You are going to be able to recognize me instantly on the first day of the BlogHer ’13 conference.
Showing off my logo and cover art!
I AM MY OWN BILLBOARD!
*quietly explodes*
Kiss Art: Kissing in fake rain
Sometimes when the rain pours down, all you can do is kiss.
Then again…
…you can always make your own rain as a great excuse to kiss!
Art used courtesy of the artist, Robin Alysha Clemens. These featured photographs are from 2008. Robin was just 16 at the time. To see how Robin has been growing as an artist, check out her website. And I highly recommend her short film, Ongezien. I haven’t watched the short film Ufok yet, but that’s next!
“Why Do We Kiss?” Misnamed video
Regarding the “Why Do We Kiss Video?” by Vsauce, it’s my duty as a kiss blogger to review it.
*grumble*
I admit, I noticed this video over a week ago when it was first released. It’s supposed to be a scientific take on kissing, and I had high hopes for it. I started watching it, thinking I’d review it, but then I stopped, rubbed my eyes, and walked away. I got frustrated when the video went on its first tangent about pizza, Pac-Man, and Chinese characters. I finally watched the rest, and it says very little about why we kiss for romantic reasons.
My problem is that this video ought to be called “How Does Attachment Work?” I’m pretty sure the video was named “Why Do We Kiss?” in order to be more catchy and SEO-friendly, which worked out well because it has 2.7+ million views and counting. Even at the start, Michael, a.k.a. Vsauce, says “Attachment” as the thought opener, and then he adds “…of two people kissing” as an afterthought. This video doesn’t answer the question “Why do we kiss?” It barely scratches the surface. If you want to know more about why we kiss, I recommend you (and Vsauce) pick up and read The Science of Kissing by Sheril Kirshenbaum. (No matter how many times I type it, I spell her name wrong every time.)
I’ll keep hoping Sheril Kisshenbomb (see, I did it again) eventually makes a scientific kissing video series. Meanwhile, here’s the real gem from the video: If you want to see something funny and horrifying, go straight to minute marker 3:40. EEEEAUUUGGHH! KILL IT WITH FIRE!
In other Kiss Chronicles news:
Linda Anselmi has posted a review of the Kiss Chronicles ebook over at Below the Salt News. It’s the very first blog review! Thank you, Linda, for being the ice breaker.
Also, the donations at the Razoo fundraising page are at $160 now. And I haven’t made my donation yet. I’m actually holding out a bit longer, and when it gets closer to $200, I’ll chip in and push the total over that next cliff.
BUT! I’m always going to keep in mind that the Razoo donation total doesn’t show every donation that gets made in the name of this project. A friend of mine who read the book told me that she’s making a $30 donation to her local chapter of the American Cancer Society. 🙂 She’s a kissing angel. MWAH to you, J!
Don’t forget to kiss your mom for Mother’s Day, mother puckers.
Birthday post! Red pandas french kissing
My birthday came back again like a boomerang. I’m 32 today! Happy things for my birthday:
- Just ten more years until I am the meaning of life.
- I had chocolate for dinner.
- The Kiss Chronicles fundraising page for kicking cancer’s ass has reached triple digits. WOOHOO! First mile marker! Thank you to those who have donated so far! (Fundraising on Razoo)
- My ebook is available. Long live the ebook! (The Kiss Chronicles book on Smashwords)
- Three of the best things in the world are all in the same video: red pandas, the word “snogging,” and the Japanese language.
I need to write a post dedicated to the word “snogging” in the near future. Meanwhile, here are two red pandas snogging:
Kiss Chronicles book LAUNCHED!
It’s a book. IT IS ACTUALLY A BOOK. Okay, ebook, but that counts. That counts SO VERY MUCH.
And just a little more CAPS LOCK BECAUSE I CAN!
Today it is my privilege and my pleasure to announce that the Kiss Chronicles ebook is available for purchase download. No purchase required, actually. The ebook is free. There’s only a slight catch — a donation to a cancer-related charity is suggested. The full details on the suggested donation are inside the story, but if you want to take a shortcut to more information regarding the charity, here’s the right rabbit hole to fall through: the Kiss Chronicles project donation page on Razoo.
I ought to be serious and explain just how much it means to me to be publishing this book. That’ll happen. Just not tonight. Tonight, I’m going to relax, sigh in relief, and enjoy the fact that nearly two years later, the Kiss Chronicles project is finally GO! I’ve just completed one of the biggest risks I’d ever taken in my life by taking the NEXT enormous risk of my life. I’ve been on edge waiting to do this for so long, and now that it’s done, I am experiencing some serious bliss. And maybe a bit of exhaustion.
Not only that, but now, I’m an author. I’m an author. Wow, there’s that bliss sensation again.
Click the image below to head to Smashwords and download your copy:
Available at Smashwords!
At the moment, the book is available only at Smashwords, in various file formats, but in the coming days, it will get distributed to other online retailers.
In the coming days, I also have a lot of work to do. Publishing is just the start, just the start.
What am I thinking? I can’t relax now. So VERY much to do! CAPS LOCK! IT IS A BOOK! (By the way, I swear I’m not high. Just…adrenaline. Lots and lots of adrenaline.)
A new way to think about charity (TED talk by Dan Pallotta)
Sometimes it’s necessary to come up for air between kisses, so this week, instead of a kissing video, I want to share a TED video that I just watched. It’s about charity — because when I’m not talking about kissing on this blog, I’m most often talking about charity.
Between the amazing Amanda F. Palmer TED talk I saw last week and now this one, I think I’m about to develop a TED talk addiction. This particular talk, by Dan Pallotta, opened my eyes to some fundamental problems with the way we view charities and how that affects giving. Basically, I watched this and faced the fact that some of my own misguided thinking needed correction. I needed to see this. Maybe you do, too.
Okay, why not? That was pretty serious, so a little fluff wouldn’t hurt. I’ll throw in a video of a patient dog kissing an adorable giggling baby:
Speaking of charities, I’m still in touch with the one I want to benefit. I made a phone call today to check in, but they don’t have a resolution to the problem yet. Just…hanging tight at the moment and keeping fingers crossed.
Okay, so I have to admit, I feel kind of bad that I haven’t done the weekly kiss video for a while. Last week I skipped the video and revealed my book’s cover art instead. And the week before that, I skipped it entirely. (Bad blogger, BAD! No subscribers for you.) So I want to make up for being a slacker. This week I found two great kiss videos, a long one and a short one. Because short can be quick and satisfying, but sometimes you just need something a bit…longer.
The first video is a Spider-Man kissing prank. The second features two ADORABLE prairie dogs getting hot and heavy in front of a zoo audience.
The long of it:
The short of it:
I still don’t have a release date for the book. I am, however, hoping that I’ll look good bald, because I’m tearing my hair out trying to get this one last problem resolved.
Cover art reveal for the Kiss Chronicles book!
No Thursday video this week (or last week for that matter; woops) — I have something more exciting to share that just can’t wait. I’ve been a jittery mess all day waiting to get home and blog this. I’m proud to announce that I’m well and truly in love for the first time in my life. I’d like to introduce you to my darling, my beloved…my cover art.
The finished book cover! Tada!
After seeing it completed for the first time last night, I promptly offered the artist my first born child. She declined, which is probably best for both of us. The artist, Hamsterfest, is such a sweetheart, and she met every single one of my detail-obsessive requests. She also added all sorts of her own flair into the image. She was a friend when we began working together, and she’s become a precious friend in the process. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Hamster!
The cover art is a big step forward toward completion. However, true to form, I also had to take a big step back this week: On Tuesday evening, I hit a fundraising snag that might tangle me up and delay the book release at least a bit. (The problem: The charity I hope to benefit isn’t listed on the third-party fundraising site that I want to use.) Because, honestly, Murphy’s Law kicks my ass and steals my wallet whenever it gets the chance. I’m going to try to get the problem resolved so I can get this book OUT and into your hands. My patience for delays has run thin, so I’ll flip whatever tables need to be flipped in order to get past this ONE. LAST. ROADBLOCK.
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Happy Valentine’s Day! Here, have some kissing Canadian flash mobbers
What wonderful timing is this? It’s St. Valentine’s Day on my weekly kiss video day!
- Recommendation 1: Skip right in to the 00:30 second mark. There’s nothing going on at the very start of the vid.
- Recommendation 2: Don’t miss minute marker 02:40! The little old lady…well, you’d think she’d never seen a gay couple before, pfft.
- Recommendation 3: Boo at the grumpy business guys trying to shut down all the happy kissers. Booo! Refuse! Putrescence! Boooo! (You get 10 non-redeemable life points if you catch that movie reference.)
If you just can’t get enough of love, you should check out my post over on BlogHer, Valentine’s Love Letter Challenge for Singles or Couples. The post was featured two days ago, and I’m overwhelmed and delighted with the number of links to love letters that other bloggers have left in the comments!
In recent book news: My cover artist, Hamster, is healing well from her injury and has begun working on the cover again. My final test reader has, this week, finished reading the latest draft of the book. I can’t say exactly what day I’ll be able to release the book, but the date is fast approaching. Is the world ready for this? Oh, sure. Am I ready for this? Hell no, but I’m going to do it anyway.
Supernova kiss on New Girl
According to the Internet buzz, in a recent episode of New Girl, there was a ZOMG SO HOT SUPER KISS. I, diligent kiss reporter that I am, looked up this kiss to review it. (No, this doesn’t count as being against my self-imposed rule to avoid covering celebrity kisses. This is an in-character kiss, which makes it fair game for blog fodder.)
That? That is a very, very good kiss. However, it didn’t make my head explode — okay, well, the little tiny follow-up smooch at 00:31 did, but I’m a sucker for follow-up pecks after big kisses. It’s a weakness.
The reason that the kiss as a whole didn’t entirely make my head explode is simple: I haven’t been watching the show, so I don’t have any attachment to Nick and Jess’s storyline.
In storytelling, there’s this lovely little tool called UST, or unresolved sexual tension. The trick for writers is to bring the UST to a full boiling point, make the audience absolutely hurt for the resolution, and then satisfy the audience. From what I understand, that’s what happened here with the Nick and Jess characters, and the audience’s collective head went supernova, scorching all over social media.
Now I really wish I’d been watching the show.
Are you a New Girl fan? How did you react to the kiss when you first watched it? And regardless of whether you’ve seen the show, what do you think of this kiss?
Paperman (Animated short)
I went to see Wreck-It Ralph this past fall, and the animated short Paperman came before it. I was blown away. I liked the short even more than the full-length feature film.
This is a perfect example of why 2D cell animation should never completely go away. It’s also a fantastic example of storytelling without dialog. And, considering the fact that a kiss mark is a main feature of the story, I think I can get away with sharing it here as my kiss video of the week. Enjoy!
Proposal kisses and mascots
I’m a big sap. I absolutely love watching proposal videos, and if it’s a proposal video and there’s a “yes,” there’s going to be a kiss.
This is an old video (because anything that’s been around for more than a week on the Internet is old). This video has already gotten plenty of hits. However, if you missed it the first time around, you shouldn’t pass it up now. The guy, an assistant basketball coach, dresses up in what’s probably a very stinky, hot mascot costume; challenges his girlfriend to a public dance-off; and tricks said girlfriend by feigning an injury. What’s not romantic about that?
Did you notice how she reached out to touch him after he shocked her, and he’s all, “Please don’t hit me!” and cowering away from her? Be sure to pause at 0:35 for the full effect.
Also, I have no idea how the past week got away from me so fast…or, you know, most of January.
More kissing, MORE! There can never be enough!
In a post a while back, I mentioned that I was considering relaxing my blog’s tight focus on a niche topic. I thought maybe I should open up my blogging and write on more general topics. So, I’ve decided…
SCREW THAT!
This is a blog about kissing, and charity, and kissing for charity, and it’s going to stay that way. Yippie kay yay, motherpucker.
To celebrate, I hereby declare Thursday to be video kiss day, and I found just the right video to start it off — one with prank kisses. My favorite moment is at 1:16.
Well, that was agonizing
I’d been meaning to clean up my main Pinterest board for, well, months. By “clean up,” I mean go through and delete all the pins that I really shouldn’t have pinned in the first place. It felt very dirty and naughty, knowing I had so many pins that I wasn’t certain I should pin.
It was such a beautiful pinboard, though. So many lovely kisses. That’s why I put off the cleanup for so long. To do the cleanup, I went back and checked all the original sources, looking for ones that offered free reign with social media sharing and/or specific “Pin It” buttons. In some cases, I followed through to multiple links to find the original source. If the source offered free reign to share, I kept the pin (sometimes updating the link). If not, I deleted it.
I slashed the board ruthlessly. It went from 84 pins to 27. OUCH. Where have all my beautiful kiss pictures gone? I think I’m in mourning.
If, some day, I can gain some greater readership for this blog, it’d be fun to hold a kiss picture contest and pin all the entries. Until then, though, I think I’ll just be a little more circumspect about how I pin to the Kiss Chronicles pinboard. At least now my conscience is clear, and I can start rebuilding.
Happy 2013! Resolution: book
Happy new year to you (albeit just a tiny bit late)! Did you get a New Year’s Eve kiss? Just in case you didn’t, I recommend clicking this link to get your smooch fix. Oh heck, click it even if you did get a kiss.
I have only one resolution worth mentioning this year: Publish the Kiss Chronicles book. I still have some editing to do, but I now have the entire manuscript written/acquired. I can also now announce that, in addition to the main story, the book will include eight flash fiction stories about kissing and kisses from eight talented writers. I’m very excited to have all the stories in hand and ready to go. They add so much to the book over all, and they change it from a single story to a true chronicle of stories.
The cover art is in progress, although it’s on a hiatus at the moment. My sweetheart of a cover artist slipped and broke her right elbow very recently. Then she promptly told me that she would try to work on the cover with her left (non-dominant) hand. And I promptly questioned her sanity and told her to rest. I’m tempted to wrap her up in bubblewrap.
So, if you could, please send healing thoughts toward my friend and cover artist, Hamster. Yes, that’s her nickname, and now I’m stuck with a mental image of a hamster in a cast looking cute and helpless. To try to fight off that sickly sweet “aww” factor, here’s a clipped preview of her still-in-progress work on the cover:
Indecent lounging frog is indecent! *covers eyes*
This cover isn’t even done, and it already blows my mind. I can’t help but let out an undignified “SQUEE!” every time I look at it. I love my poor, broken Hamster so much.
I am the Queen of Cakes
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Well, almost. I’m just a smidge early, but it still counts. Me and my hours in the kitchen say that it counts.
Want to see what I’ve been up to? I’m kind of excited for tomorrow. I baked. Look, it’s a cake!
The practice cake
So, it turned out somewhat okay, but this was actually the practice cake I baked a week and a half ago. I’d never made a layer cake before, so I knew I needed to give myself a chance to make a mess of it the first time. And that’s exactly what I did. I royally borked the frosting, and if you bork the frosting, the whole cake suffers. It didn’t taste bad; it just wasn’t what it should have been. I also panicked about the whole domed-layers issue, which apparently is a standard problem.
I got advice from my neighbor, who is a baking wizard. She gave me all sorts of great ideas for improvement.
Et voila! The cake, she eez a masterpiece!
So I went back and did it again today, and it turned out like a VISION. I cackled like a mad scientist when I was certain it would come out the way I wanted it to.
The details: It’s a yellow-chocolate marble with lots of orange hints. I made both frosting flavors by hand, with butter cream on top.
The thing is, these cakes make a rather good metaphor. I always wish that I could get a job done right the very first time I try it, but few things ever turn out that way. I’m often too hard on myself when I fail to succeed at that first attempt, but I can improve each time I try something by making adjustments.
I’ve lost track of which iteration the Kiss Chronicles project has reached. At this point, the number no longer matters. What matters is that I have finally reached a point where the end is in sight.
I think, too, I might have borked this blog in general. I’ve been wondering lately if maybe it would be better off as more of a personal space and less laser-focused on the niches I chose to create it for. I want it to concentrate on the two niches, kissing and cancer charity, but maybe that’s just not what I’m best suited for blogging. I’m still giving that some more thought.
Meanwhile, tomorrow I’ll be celebrating with family (lots and lots of family) and friends. I sincerely hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday, and even if you’re not in the U.S., have a great Thursday anyway!
Walk of Hope ’12, my second year volunteering
I’m now a repeat offender, albeit one who has failed to offend anyone. This past Saturday, Oct. 6, I went back to the Walk of Hope, held by the Women of Hope from St. Vincent Hospital, for the second year to act as a volunteer and help make sure the walkers got off to a great start for the day. (Last year’s summary: Women of Hope Walk, ’11.)
What a difference a year can make: The event was held in a new location, at Lions Park in Zionsville. I began early in the morning again, choosing a shift that started at 6:00am. However, this year, I received a little layout map by email, so I knew exactly where to go. No wandering lost in the dark and harassing caterers for me! Not only that, but I saw signs of human life as soon as I arrived, silhouettes trotting into the Volunteer tent.
I got registered, got my T-shirt, and got to work in no time. I marched off with several other people to help set up the Registration tables. It was brisk out, but not unbearable — just a smidge shivery. I ended up working along with a few others to unbox and fold T-shirts for the walkers. That’s when I discovered that the T-shirts in the middle of the boxes were still warm, like paper right off the office printer. It felt heavenly on cold fingertips.
If you were one of the walkers, um, yes, it’s possible that I might have molested your T-shirt for warmth. Hey, at least you weren’t in it at the time!
I finished folding, and I got to see the sun rising over the gazebo as the day began.
But it gets even better: This year, bagels, doughnuts, and coffee were served for the early morning volunteer crew! Thank you so much for the early morning treats, Women of Hope. It was worth fighting a lion or two to get breakfast.
I ran out of work to do at the Registration tables, but shortly after that, someone commandeered me to help with running the Shoe Prints tables. Now, I’m not sure whether this was a new thing this year, but I’m pretty sure it was. People could, for free, write on paper shoe print cutouts to say who or what they were walking for. Then other volunteers and I stapled the shoe prints to wooden posts and stuck them in the ground along the start of the walk routes.
When walkers began arriving, we had a steady stream of people filling out shoes. I particularly enjoyed it when a cluster of little girls stopped at the table and decorated their shoe prints like they would at arts and crafts time.
Oh, and this year, I made certain to take a picture of the Harleys decked-out with giant Styrofoam ribbons.
I was free to watch most of opening ceremonies, and I even got to hang out with my boss from work. He was there for his son, who sang with his choir for the ceremonies. The choir sounded clear and lovely.
To end my shift, I took up a position near the start of the walk at the bottom of some steps. I was positioned there to wish the walkers a great day and to warn them not to slip and fall on their bums on the slick stairs. No one slipped, so my mission was a success.
I have to say, overall, the organization and coordination seemed much smoother. I worked for 4 hours this year, as opposed to 8 last year, but I felt like I got just as much accomplished because I went from task to task to task with little downtime. I’m already looking forward to 2013! Before that, though, I ought to try to pick up a couple more cancer-related volunteer efforts. Maybe I’ll see whether the folks at Impact 52 want to team up for some sort of event in Fort Wayne.
Newsday: How women want to be kissed
After work today, as I got in my car, I realized that I had my shirt on backward. Of course this means I’d been wearing it backward all day. So I went ahead and did my grocery shopping and filled my gas tank in my backward shirt, and I had sushi and Chocolate Cheerios for dinner.
Typical Tuesday. Just file that under “Completely Useless Information.”
Right. Back on topic. What I really want to talk about is kissing in the news. It pops up in the news pretty darn regularly. I like to meander through Yahoo! to read weird bits of information, and yesterday I stumbled across this article: How women want to be kissed. Actually, it’s less of an article and more a series of quotes. I’ll summarize the highlights.
The women quoted in the article say that they want their guys to kiss them…
- With passion.
- With savvy moves, making the approach slowly.
- With correct alignment — no nose bumping!
- In other places besides on the lips, such as an unexpected kiss on the neck.
- As a gentleman, not a rogue!
- With some hair-petting on the side.
- While adding some occasional eye contact.
- In public, kissing like no one’s watching.
- As a series of little kisses.
Would you say this is list accurate? Are there other kisses missing from the list that you think ought to be added?
Also, I would love to know the OTHER side of the story. If you’re a guy, what kinds of kisses do you like? Is your wish list the same as the article’s list or different? If I don’t get any replies here on the blog, I might have to ask my guy friends and report back with my findings. In fact, I might just do that anyway.
Remembering 9/11 on the bridge
Whenever I drive to work, I cross a bridge going over highway I-69, a bridge that many people pass under or over each day as they enter or leave Indianapolis. Every September 11, about five or six people show up on this bridge. They park their cars on the grassy circles of the highway interchange, and they erect an arch of American flags in the center of the north side of the bridge.
This year, as I drove to work, I wondered, “Will they be here this year? Will they spend their day standing in the sun by the flags?” I wondered this as I drove nearer and nearer the bridge. I wondered if perhaps now that it’s the 11th year since the tragedy that they would be done — maybe practicing their tradition for 10 years was enough. At first I couldn’t see them, but then there they were, flags fluttering wildly. And, as always, my throat tightened, and I had to blink rapidly a few times, for their loyalty as well as for the victims and the heroes of 9/11.
Of course it wasn’t enough.
It will never be enough.
We will always remember.
Why I don’t blog about celebrity kisses
It would be so very easy for me to make blog posts about celebrities kissing. For instance, I frequently browse through Yahoo! News, and yesterday I noticed an article about Taylor Swift kissing her beau, picture included. There was also the Kristin Steward debacle recently, which involved some scandalous kissing pics. And not terribly long ago, President Obama and Michelle got caught on the Kiss Cam and shared a sweet smooch.
Celebrity kisses would be easy blog fodder for me. They also might help me draw in a young audience (or, to be honest, any audience), which I’d love to attract. So why haven’t I been writing about those moments? Well, this isn’t a blog about celebs, and I don’t want it to be. Unless it’s an extraordinarily awe-inspiring or special kiss, I’m not going to post about celebrities getting into lip locks.
Note: I’m not talking about on-screen kisses. All cinematic kisses are fair game for either praise or mockery.
Reasons why I eschew blogging about celebrity kisses:
- Celebs already get plenty of attention. I’d rather use my blogging time to give attention to ordinary people who don’t normally get interviewed and/or admired. I find it more interesting to tell the stories of people who otherwise might never be heard. (Just as a reminder, I’m always accepting new kiss story submissions for the blog!)
- The pictures usually disappoint. The paparazzi are just hoping to get the shot at all. The aesthetics go missing in the pursuit of a quick buck.
- Often, there’s little story aside from the smooch. For instance, the story I read about the Taylor Swift kiss was yawn-inducing and made me wonder why someone thought it was newsworthy.
- Some of those celebs want privacy and can’t get it. Is it silly of me to say that I sometimes feel kind of bad for them? Because I do. A lot of celebrities go to great lengths to keep a little bit of their lives to themselves.
Maybe I’m shooting myself in the foot. Maybe I’m being too picky and should take whatever interesting tidbit I can if it’ll help my blog. If so, oh well. I’m okay with being a kiss snob.
On the other hand, I know I can do a lot better about coming up with interesting kissing news, not involving celebs. Time for me to get to work!
New Kiss Chronicles logo
It is with great pleasure, and a whole lot of time dedicated to sketching and revising as I stick my tongue out of the side of my mouth, that I present to you the new Kiss Chronicles logo! TADA!
This logo design was brought to you by the brilliant mind of Hamster. Never underestimate Hamsters. (No, honestly, that’s the designer’s nickname.)
I’m retiring the old logo because it no longer reflects the nature of Kiss Chronicles or the path that I see it taking in the long run.
The new logo is even better than I could have hoped for when the design process began. The two big elements, the K and the L, each represent the word they’re a part of. But even better, the logo has a tie-in with the book, and that little secret is dear to my heart. I so look forward to the book’s future release, because when you’re finished reading it, you’ll see the connection for yourself.
The blog has gotten a color scheme update to match the new logo, plus I’m integrating the logo into Twitter and Facebook. The logo comes in a gold version as well as the blog’s silver version, so when I want to use Iron Man colors for something, I can. Here’s a peek at the gold version:
In other news: As of July 31st, I’ve received the last of the written critiques back from the team reviewing the second book draft. Sometime soon, I’ll be able to announce that I’ve cleaned up the third draft! Then…then the party really begins. I’m nervous and excited to seek out the charity. I hope you’ll stick with me even if the ride gets bumpy.
12 Kiss quotes by William Shakespeare
I went scouring the Internet for Shakespearean quotes about kissing. Why, though, did I have to scour? Shouldn’t there have already been a compiled list of the best ones? Yet, I didn’t find such a list. I’m sure someone out there on the vast interwebs has put together the top kiss quotes by Will, but it didn’t come up on the first page of my Google search, which is ridiculous. I’m going to rectify that problem right now.
Note: I double-checked the quotes against my copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, but call me out if I made a boo boo somewhere.
1. Twelfth Night, Act 2, scene 3, said by Feste:
“In delay there lies no plenty.
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty;
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.”
Feste, the fool, is singing a song that mocks the young lovers of the play, pointing out that they ought to kiss and make merry while they’re still young. Very quotable.
2. “Venus and Adonis” is a monstrously long poem with plenty of smooching quotes in it. Here are just a few:
“A thousand kisses buys my heart from me;
And pay them at thy leisure, one by one.”
“Is twenty hundred kisses such a trouble?”
“Ten kisses short as one, one long as twenty”
What is it with Shakespeare and twenty? However, that oddity aside, those would make great pickup lines.
3. Richard III, Act 1, scene 2, said by Richard:
“Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.”
I don’t recommend that as a pickup line.
4. Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, scene 3, said by Romeo:
“Thus with a kiss I die.”
I think the excessive monologging killed him, not the poison.
5. Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music, IV
“Were kisses all the joys in bed,
One woman would another wed.”
I suspect Shakespeare of being a progressive.
6. The Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, scene 1, said by Petruchio:
“Why, there’s a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.”
Not a good pickup line, even if the girl’s name is Kate.
7. Coriolanus, Act 5, scene 3, said by Coriolanus:
“O, a kiss
Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge!
Now, by the jealous queen of heaven, that kiss I carried from thee, dear, and my true lip
Hath virgined it e’er since.”
It may be a quote, but it isn’t easily quotable. Try slipping that into a conversation some day.
8. Othello, Act 5, scene 2, said by Othello:
“I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No way but this,
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.”
9. King John, Act 2, scene 1, said by the Duke of Austria:
“Upon thy cheek I lay this zealous kiss, as seal to the indenture of my love.”
Another righteous pickup line.
10. The Second Part of King Henry VI, Act 1, Scene 1, said by Henry VI:
“I can express no kinder sign of love, than this kind kiss.”
11. King Lear, Act 4, scene 6:
Gloucester: O, let me kiss that hand!
Lear: Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.
12. Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, scene 5, between Romeo and Juliet. Basically, the whole scene that starts with this by Romeo…
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”
and ends with this by Juliet…
“You kiss by th’ book.”
I’m not even going to make a wisecrack. It’s a masterful flirtation.
And…FWOOSH! Another month went by since the last post. Somehow, I have to break my irregular posting habit. How about I promise you that the next post will be a kiss story post?
FWOOM — 3 months later
FWOOM is the sound of three and a half months passing by. I bet you didn’t know that time can make a noise.
I thought about apologizing for not keeping up with my blogging, but at the same time, I don’t want to make excuses. So rather than subjecting you to my personal brand of awkwardness, I’m going to just dive in and give an update.
Although I haven’t been blogging in the past months, I haven’t been idle. I completed the first draft of the book a while back, and since then, I’ve been submitting the book chapter by chapter to my weekly writing group, Pen to Paper. I’ve gotten invaluable feedback from the group members, which I’m using to improve the book. Several of the criticisms have been “expand this part and that part,” so my editing process involves adding significant chunks of new material. Type type typity, read back, tear some hair, rewrite rewrite, eat some chocolate, delete, growl at cat for walking in front of computer, rewrite, type type typity — that’s roughly what my editing activity looks like in a repetitive loop.
Right now I’m making a big push to get the book cleaned up to the point where I can call it the second draft. As soon as I have Draft 2, I’ll ship it out to the three readers I have lined up and ready. Their mission, should they choose to accept it, is to read through the book and give me more feedback. Then I’ll take their responses, make more changes as needed, and arrive at the third draft.
When I have Draft 3, it’ll be time to contact the charity and apply to run my fundraising project. Thinking about that gives me all sorts of tummy butterflies.
I still have a lot to do, and I have butterflies to battle, but times are exciting right now. So knock on wood, cross fingers and toes, keep a four-leaf clover close to your heart, and blow me a kiss for good luck!
1k words a day in February!
1,034, 1,032, 1,078, 1,213, 1,012, 1,030, 1,332, 1,054, 1,013, 1,070, 1,006, 1,030, 1,161, 1,133, 1,059, 1,178, 1,146, 1,027, 1,150, 1,041, 1,237, 1,094, 1,470, 1,031, 1,034, 1,135, 1,007, 1,021, 1,014
Grand total: 30,842
No, this is not me struggling to do my taxes (though I need to do those pretty soon). Rather, the numbers listed are my daily totals for the month of February — daily totals of words written for the Kiss Chronicles book, that is.
I’m a beast.
So here’s the deal. January found me in great distress. I wanted to write, but I struggled to sit down and just do it, to get the words flying freely. I felt intimidated by the book because I had made it the project, and I also still felt pretty sad about the original project. So as the end of January approached, desperation started creeping up and down my spine. I knew if I didn’t get to work on February 1st, I would be in real danger of never working on the book again.
I didn’t want that to happen, so I had to come up with a plan. I decided to turn February into a private, miniature NaNoWriMo. If you don’t know what NaNo is and you don’t feel like following the link, it’s simply a writing challenge that occurs every November. Writers around the globe sign up for it and then push themselves to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month. It’s essentially a writing marathon. There’s no prize except having a lot of text written when you’re done.
I’d never done a November NaNoWriMo before, but I’d always admired the writers who tackled the challenge…while calling them as insane as caffeinated squirrels at the same time. Fifty thousand words in 30 days is an incredible push — it’s 1,667 words per day. The concept behind NaNo is to practice discipline and just get to work writing. To meet the challenge, writers have to lay aside all hangups and just belch out words.
That’s what I wanted to do. I modified it to my needs: Rather than set myself a precise total for the month, I decided that I would write a minimum of 1,000 words every day in February. If I could stick to the plan, it would net me 29,000 words minimum.
When February 1st came, I started work on one of the easiest chapters that I hadn’t yet written a single word for. This turned out to be a perfect strategy. In just a handful days, I’d completed the chapter and moved on to the next. To my amazement and pleasure, I kept hitting my daily goals. And I didn’t stop. Some nights I barely managed to hit my minimum, and on a few good nights I just blew right past it.
By the end of the month, I felt like a chicken leg in a deep fryer. I wanted a break, a night off. But I also didn’t want to give up. The last day of February steadily drew nearer…but, ironically, I found myself running out of raw text sections to write. Close to the end of the month, my book had reached a point where it was near completion, with some gaps that still needed filling in. However, filling in just little gaps in chapters made it harder to meet my 1,000 minimum, because the work I needed to do was more tedious and produced fewer words. For the last two days, I had to do some meta writing (which is writing about writing) just to finish up, so I worked on things like filling in some gaps, brainstorming the title and cover, doing stream-of-conscious writing, planning the website for the book, and so on.
Currently, I still have gaps to fill, but the first, roughest draft is nearly complete. I’d say it’s about 90-95% of the first full rough draft.
TOTAL word count at present, including what I’d written before February, is 42,428.
Now, for me, at this moment, I’m going to do the big count up of pages. This is something I’ve been looking forward to for weeks. I don’t usually focus on word count. I prefer page totals much more. So, total is (insert calculating noises) 71.5 single-spaced pages. HOLY SHIT! THAT’S AWESOME! I thought it’d be more around 50, 55! Oh my gosh, this is great. And I still have more to add as I start going back! That’s even better!
Next step: Take a few days off and then get the manuscript to a 100% completed rough draft. Then edit like a boss. Also, now that I’m not killing myself stressing over my word minimums every night, I can start taking time for the blog again.
During February, I had a conversation with a writer friend that went a little like this:
Fake Dave (that’s his nickname): “I don’t think I could write a thousand words a day. I have to just write when it comes to me.”
Me: “Normally that’s the way I prefer it to, but I knew I needed to do this.”
Fake Dave: “But why?”
Me: *shrugs* “I don’t know. I just couldn’t get the words out, and the book seemed so impossible. I just…I needed to…”
Fake Dave: “You needed to make it your bitch?”
Me: “Yes!”
And that’s just what I did. 🙂
Introducing the Wednesday Writing Recap (WWR)
Welcome to the first Wednesday Writing Recap (or WWR for abbr. geeks). I’ve decided that I’ll give you weekly updates about my writing progress, what I’ve been up to for the project. I’ll throw in a little bit about blogging now and then because that’s also writing and still a big support for the project. All the work for the book is entirely up to me, no outside help required, so I figure I can build some much greater and more intimate accountability into the blog. You’ll know what work I’ve been doing, and I believe giving you a regular recap will act as both a spur and an inspiration for me.
Where I’m at right now: As I mentioned in my previous post, my original concept for the book was that it would be a promotional tool. Making the book into THE project is a different beastie entirely. Originally, I thought it would be 40-50 pages long. At the very least, I need to double that and target 100. When I sketched the original TOC (or Table of Contents if you’re not an abbreviation geek), I set it up with an introduction and 10 chapters. Just today, after I took a glance at the TOC and gave it just a little thought, I’ve already come up with one new short chapter idea, and I’ll likely be able to come up with more.
After I started the book in November, I completed two chapters and got two other chapters close to completion. However, all four of those will need expansion and heavy editing. But really, editing is what I do best. I’m not at the editing point just yet, though. My focus now is going to be getting the bones laid out for all the chapters, and then I start filling in the flesh until I have an army of zomb— oh wait, sorry, that’s my other little side project. Right. Just forget I said that. Regarding the book, I’ll lay down the chapter drafts, I’ll edit them until they start to look presentable, and then I can start seeking feedback and making them gooorgeous.
The work I’ve already done is a good foundation. My next move is to make a daily writing habit and stick to it, and I’ll put more thought into the TOC.
If I ever miss a Wednesday Writing Recap, I’ll still make a WWR, but it’ll be a Weekly Writing Recap. (I have built-in abbreviation flexibility for my own convenience, and it’s alliterative. I’m a happy, smug little wordsmith.)
Don’t worry, I’m not giving up the regular blog stuff. In fact, I want to add onto it. If you’re interested, you can help with that. I’d love to hear from you: What would you like to see more of? More kiss stories? More charity-related content? Also, I’m thinking of starting a Tuesday Newsday — every Tuesday, I could give a recap of some relevant news articles, such as kissing in the news as well as some things about charity or cancer health. Would that interest you at all?
Also, last but by far not least, thank you for your support from the bottom of my wee heart.
KC Announcement: Now serving Humble Pie
I hope this is the hardest post I ever have to write as a blogger. If it is, I’ll never have to feel like the scuzzy gunk on the bottom of a shoe again.
If you’re still reading this blog, HI! And wow, you really stuck with me. I almost completely skipped December in terms of posting, and I was just as bad (or worse) about communicating. The truth is that I haven’t been able to face blogging because I feel like a sham, a fraud. (No, don’t jump to conclusions. It’s not about the lack of the first kiss.)
I’d been trying my damnedest to keep the blog upbeat, positive. The reality is that the project for the donation war has foundered…more than once, in fact. It’s been in bad shape for a long time now. Emotionally, I followed right along and foundered with it. I’ve been a wreck, and this past month I’ve been struggling to reach the point where I could finally accept a lot of hard, undesirable truths. I couldn’t write this post until I reached that point.
The Loathsome List of Pain-in-the-Ass Truths:
Truth 1: Multiple decisions, foundational decisions, that I made at the start of the project have turned out to be mistakes, and those mistakes have crippled me. I rushed, failed to think things through, and blundered. I started this project with a partner, a friend of mine, who had a skill set very different from my own. We agreed to tackle the project together, each of us using our skills to complete it (my skills in writing and communication, hers in web media and design). Back in September, my partner informed me of her decision to quit the project. She stopped working on it about a month prior to that.
I forged ahead with the intention of either filling the gaps myself or finding a new partner. I’ve been unsuccessful.
Truth 2: I let other people sway me. People have loved this Kiss Chronicles idea. So many have encouraged me to think bigger and bigger, and that’s what I did. The project grew far beyond the little idea it was at the beginning. It grew into something I didn’t intend, but I fell in love with it even as it expanded like kudzu. However, the truth is it’s grown into something that I lack the means and skills to fulfill.
Truth 3: I’m not as strong as I wish I were.
Truth 4: For my well being, I need this project to be something that I can accomplish independently, with my skill set.
Truth 5: The result of Truth 4 is that I’ve failed to deliver on what I said I was going to do.
To all the people I’ve told about this project, to the people who have supported me for so long, I very sincerely beg your pardon.
I am, in a word, humbled.
Throughout December, I stared dismally at the option of starting at Square 1 again, but I’ve had enough. I need to take a new path. I need this project to make sense, to be something that’s within my power. The biggest sticking point in the decision was that this new path still has to be about charity. I said that I was going to benefit a charity, and it’s a point of honor that I’m not going to give up on that goal.
What I’ve decided is that the book I began writing back in November, which I intended to keep very brief and use as a promotional material for the project, will become the project itself. I’ll slow down, flesh it out fully, make it fantastic, and then publish it as an ebook received in exchange for a donation to the charity (tba).
Where does this leave the blog? Now that I’ve finally faced those damned truths, the blog will resume. I won’t feel like I’m covering anything up whenever I post from now on. If I have one New Year’s resolution, it’s to be a more open, honest blogger, and to blog for myself, because it pleases me to write and post.
Where does this leave my first kiss? …screw it. Not having my first kiss can be just another one of those quirky things about me. I’m odd. That’s my lot in life.
TL;DR: The project to hold the donation war in order to raise money for charity and to determine who will give me my first kiss is on hold indefinitely. I deeply apologize to all. From here on, the book is my focus and will be how I raise money for charity.
Positive 12 for 12/12
I was supposed to have my act together for today. I didn’t. I’m still trying to get my act together in a lot of ways. All I can say is that I did my positive list, and I’m very glad I did. This is the second time I’ve done it, and it’s helped me focus on little accomplishments.
If you did a Positive 12 list for today, please let me know, and I’ll link update this post with a link to it, here at the top.
Here’s my result:
- Positive 1: Refrained from killing my cat for hurking on the carpet. Cat’s lucky he’s cute. #positive12
- Positive 2: Resisted having cold pizza for breakfast. Ate proper cereal instead. Go go go! Ready for the day. #positive12
- Positive 3: Made unplanned stop for an oil change. Spots were available. In and out in 10 min. #positive12
- Positive 4: Changed broken front porch light. I usually forget it for weeks. Fixed in record time! #positive12
- Positive 5: Cut dying groundcover flowers. They looked sad. ): #positive12
- Positive 6: Made home maintenance phone call I’ve been putting off. Ugh. Left message. #positive12 Half way there!
- Positive 7: Going to finally have that cold pizza as a snack now. #positive12
- Positive 8: Took a power nap to recover from doing all of this positive stuff. #positive12 Wears a body out.
- Positive 9: Arrived for @PenToPaperIndy early to get some writing done before critique time. #positive12
- Positive 10, 11, 12: Bought three Christmas presents. #positive12 That DEFINITELY counts as three. Christmas shopping is brutal. DONE!
Just getting my Christmas shopping started (FINALLY) felt like such a relief. If I hadn’t focused on doing Positive 12, I would have put it off starting it yet another day.
Please pardon the short post, but I still have more book writing I want to accomplish before bed!
Perchance to dream
This is a post about what it means to be a dreamer. Quote from YouTube: “Lindsey Miller, age 26, has pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer. And she’s ready to start dating. In this video, she asks Joseph Gordon-Levitt out for coffee.”
Here’s the video, “Girl with cancer asks 50/50 star on date”:
Over Thanksgiving, one of my cousins gave me the heads up about this video. He’d found it noted in a newspaper clipping. When the clip was placed in the paper, the video had 142,993 views. It’s a few weeks later now, and the video is close to reaching 380,000 views. Furthermore, it has over 1,800 comments.
Several of the comments are nice and warm-hearted. Plenty of comments are anything but warm-hearted. Some are downright crappy.
Trolls happen. It’s the Internet. There is no escaping trolls on the Internet. They don’t OWN the Internet, though, much as they’d like to think they do. I just wish the video had more positive comments to drown out the negative ones. I’m adding a positive comment of my own as I put up this post.
Some of the comments have basically called what she’s doing emotional blackmail. Some have said that she’s put Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a position where he either has to agree or get called an asshole. I don’t think so. There’s such a thing as a “graceful decline,” which is a respectful no, but I guess a lot of people, trolls especially, don’t understand that it’s possible to be tactful in this day and age. As I see it, one of three things will happen for Lindsey: She’ll get no response at all from JGL, she’ll get an acceptance of the offer, or she’ll receive an extremely polite decline that will leave her satisfied because her invitation was acknowledged. What’s more, at this point for her, no matter which of those three things happens, she wins because she had the guts to try. She’s done something wild, she stuck her neck out, and she’s willing to accept whatever comes from it. That’s what it means to be a dreamer. It’s unfortunate that more people don’t understand that.
Lindsey, I say screw the trolls. Don’t listen to them. Listen to Kermit!
I’m glad I did my homework and clicked around on links. It looks like Lindsey’s a fellow blogger: I Am a Liver. YAAAAAY! (Picture me doing a Kermit flail.)
* * *
Being a dreamer can also be rough. My head’s been spinning for a few weeks now, in a mental funk. Dreams don’t always come easy. I’ve been working on writing the book for Kiss Chronicles, but I’ve let other things slide. I owe people replies from messages and emails. I’m still eager to do Positive 12 on Monday, though I haven’t done the prep I’ve kept meaning to do. More on that tomorrow.
Oh great googlymoogly, I have to go Christmas shopping. Ahhh! *flail*
Wait wait wait, one more thing: If you haven’t noticed it yet, I have a new poll in the blog sidebar, “How old were you when you had your first kiss?” If you haven’t already, please take a second and send your response!
Kiss Heckler #4: Ellen D. scooped me
Every now and then, I like to heckle kisses. (For instance, some past heckles are here and here. I even did a Top 5 Worst Kisses as a guest post.) However, Ellen Degeneres already heckled the following kiss…and rightly so:
http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/0_2gbljs2k/uiconf_id/6043041
UPDATE: The above didn’t want to embed properly. This makes me sad. However, here’s the commercial alone, though it regretably lacks the Ellen heckle:
See, this just preys on my fears. When I finally do get my first kiss, I really don’t want to end up behaving like a deranged hamster trying to fit an entire ear of corn in my mouth. However, I sympathize with the woman in the video — years of kiss deprivation can drive people to acts of kissing insanity.
This is also a perfect example of why people should NOT wait until their wedding day to get their first kiss. I’ve heard of it, certainly; I’ve found tweets and articles about it. I just don’t think it’s a good idea, because then you end up getting heckled by pros like Ellen and amateurs like me.
But beyond the heckle, I’m curious about this coming show — or rather, the NOT coming show. (Ba dum, ching.) The Virgin Diaries sounds like it would have all sorts of material that might relate to my Kiss Chronicles project. However, because I’m not much of a TV watcher, I don’t have cable. I’ll have to check whether TLC is going to air episodes online somewhere.
* * *
Update from previous post: The plumber successfully fixed the backed-up system at my mom’s house, and my cousins and relatives who were standing around with their legs crossed after Thanksgiving dinner finally got to use the toilets.
Update on me: I’m still trying to shake this darn cold, but I’ve gotten some good rest by taking a break from Kiss Chronicles the past two weeks. Since I started this project at the beginning of summer, I haven’t really been able to put it aside and out of my brain, but getting sick finally forced me to slow down for a bit. However, now it’s time to get back to work! Also, to my bloggy friends, expect me to come around and catch up with you on your own blogs. 😉
Update on Positive 12: I’m looking forward to hosting the little Positive 12 event on 12/12. Be ready! I’ll be working on getting the plans together this weekend.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m contacting you from Thanksgiving Central in Indiana to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving Central, by the way, is my mom’s house. She has hosted Thanksgiving for a bit over 40 years now. This year, we have 27 people gathered. Temporarily, at this moment, we have 28 people gathered because a plumber had to be called due to the backed up pipes. (Toilets and the garbage disposal get a work out with this many people in the house.) Currently, the downstairs and basement toilets are unavailable for use. I think we’d better give the poor plumber a tip.
I love my Thanksgiving. I’m heading back to continue socializing in just a few minutes, after this update.
For KC, I’ve been totally out of it. I’ve had a head cold this past week, and I just sort of holed up in my home and left KC alone for a little while while I sneezed and coughed and snuffled and slept and read novels. I haven’t been checking the email for KC, either, so I’m terrified to open the inbox now. Good gravy, I wonder what’s waiting for me? Please cross your fingers for me that there wasn’t anything marked “URGENT! IF YOU DON’T ANSWER IMMEDIATELY, A KITTEN WILL DIE!”
By the way, if you’re traveling, I wish you very safe travels this holiday. Also, if you can’t be with your family for whatever reason, I hope you’ll carry the holiday warmth with you in your heart.
UPDATE: About 30 new emails, but thankfully no kittens died for my slacking.
Save the date for Dec. 12, Positive 12
I had such a blast last Friday sharing my Positive 11 to celebrate the 11/11/11 date. I used a #positive11 hashtag on Twitter and stuck to the goal even though completing my list came down close to the wire. (Well, sort of. I accidentally repeated a number. Typical me.) The one unfortunate thing about my Positive 11 experiment was that I thought of it only that very morning. If I’d thought of it sooner, I could have invited others to do it with me.
Live and learn! Some folks have expressed interest in trying this. This December 12, I’ll hold a Positive 12 event to celebrate the 12th day of the 12th month. Everyone is welcome to join in and will be invited to make and share a list of 12 positive actions taken that day. Where/how you share the list will be flexible. If you’ll be tweeting your list (not required), the tag will be #positive12.
I’ll refine the details as the date gets closer and post again.
I don’t know how to do a blog linkup yet, but I’ll find out. I’ll also see about creating an image for the event.
I’m already looking forward to your Positive 12 list! Thanks for the encouragement go to Mary my Aunt, Dory the Brave, Deborah the Closet Monster, Doc 1948, Missy Who is Literally Mom, and My Favorite Domestic Clown.
P.S. Kisses are positive and can be included in your lists! In fact, feel free to have a make-out session with your S.O. for one of your positives. Wink wink, nudge nudge.
Also P.S.: If you missed it, I had a guest post over at We Are All In This Together: I posted about the Top 5 Worst Kisses. I’m telling you, I had SO much fun writing that post! I’m really glad Brenda let me loose on the topic, ’cause it was a blast to research and write. Keywords for the post: harry, ape, letterman, chameleon, and EEEEAAAUUUGGHH.
Positive 11
I was up early this morning, early being 2 a.m. because I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. By the time I needed to get moving and start the day, my brain was already a tired jumble of thoughts.
I checked Twitter, and a random thought occurred to me: Do an experiment. To celebrate the special date, make a conscious effort to do 11 positive things and tweet about them. Decision made, I went to it immediately. Here’s what came of the experiment:
- Positive 1: I just outlined a top-level Table of Contents for a KC book.
#positive11 (Join in sharing 11 positive accomplishments today!)
Side note: Nobody joined in, but that didn’t slow me down. - Positive 2: Volunteered with kids in elementary school on reading a Veterans Day article & answering Qs.
#positive11
Side note: I volunteer regularly throughout the year as part of a program at work. - Positive 3: Enjoying a
#sushi lunch with@4ndyman and@morrplease#positive11 - Positive 4: Doing charity research by making phone contact. Whew. Just gotta wait for a call back.
#positive11
Side note: THIS IS WHERE I SCREWED UP. I did two #4s, so I actually ended up with 12. Don’t judge; you know you would have done it too. - Positive 4: Dedicating
#FF to 11 positive causes/go-getters.#positive11@indianablood@TheJimmyFund@jensthankyou@SM4Nonprofits@sloane
Positive 4 cont.:#FF causes/go-getters.#positive11@stupidcancer@WomenofHopeIndy@LIVESTRONG@Jack_Marshall_@keyinfluencer@ACSCAN - Positive 5: Cut back the flower garden for winter. (Dying flowers, not so attractive.)
#positive11 - Positive 6: FINALLY started reviewing
@StephanLoy ‘s book.#positive11 I love mythology. - Positive 7: Gave a compliment.
#positive11 (Will I make it?! Still 4 to go, and it’s 7:00pm.) - Positive 8: Started writing on the book I outlined this morning.
#positive11 - Positive 9: Just sent an email to a friend I haven’t talked to in a couple months.
#positive11 - Positive 10: Did my daily free click to help fund mammograms on this site: http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2
#positive11 - Positive 11: Put a $5 tip in at Starbucks for a brownie.
#positive11 (Honestly, I owed back tips for many@PenToPaperIndy meetups.)
I had a lot of fun with this. It’s something I’d like to do again in the future. Who knows? Maybe I can get some other people to do it with me for a day, perhaps a #positive12 on December 12th. Is anybody interested? It wouldn’t necessarily have to be tweets, just a list published somewhere.
Kiss Chronicles 