Fact or fiction REVEAL!

If you stopped by for Friday Funnies, they'll be back next week...

Welcome back, my lovelies! It's Friday, which means today's the day everyone rips away the curtain, bares their innermost soul and tells the truth. WOOT!

In other words, you discover if your guesses were correct...or if you were duped.

Emily and I will be counting up votes and announcing winners later tonight (Friday). Every person the storyteller fooled is a vote in their favor. Fool enough into thinking your fiction is fact, and you win a list of prizes here. Fool the most into thinking your nonfiction is fact, and here's what you win.

Runners up get a critique package from either Emily or myself.

Now...drumroll, please....

FACT: The Tale of Casey Crazy Cat
FICTION: The Buffalo Chip Blooper (which really IS all true except for the poop-in-the-face event. ;)

Thanks to everyone who played. I hope you had fun and found some new blogs to follow. Stop back by later today to find out if YOU won!

Fact or Fiction? Post #2

To recap: this is the second post of our hop, in which writers post two favorite summer stories and you must vote on which one is fact, and which one fiction. Go here to read Monday's post...and then decide which is which in the comments!

Do hop around to other blogs on the linky list to vote! Winners get super-cool prizes like books and critiques. WOOT!

The tale of Casey Crazy-Cat



Once upon a time, we had a cat named Casey. He was larger than most small(ish) dogs, loved to drink water straight out of a tap, adored my oldest son and had a thing for sitting in cars. He also had horrible allergies and had to wear a cone on his head at various times, for various reasons. It was a BIG, dog-sized cone because he was soooo big.

Anyway, back to his car-sitting habits. One time he went to the airport with a van full of relatives visiting for Christmas. Other times he ran errands with me because he'd hopped into an open car window and sat in the back seat, sunning himself. By the time we noticed he was there, we were always too far from home to turn around.

Casey, the best cat in the whole world

One summer Wednesday, I left to pick up my son from youth group at church. As I pulled out of the garage, I heard a vague screeching noise. Thought it was my seat - bounced experimentally at the stop sign when I heard the screeching again. Huh. Kept going to the highway, where I turned and again...screeching noise. Very weird. Not my seat. Had to slow way down to 30 mph bc the guy in front of me was going really really slowly and staring at me in his rearview mirror. Jerk. Three miles later, took the turn off into town and heard the screeching noise again. Very long, very high...thump! In my rearview mirror I saw...

THE HINDLEGS OF CASEY. He'd ridden on the TOP OF MY CAR all the way from the house. With his hood on!!!!!!!! When I braked to turn, he slid almost entirely off the back of my car. (The screeching noise?  All of his claws fully extended, trying to hang on to the roof.) Only the back windshield wiper saved him from getting flung into the ditch.

No wonder that guy in the car ahead of me was staring. o.O I never laughed/cried so hard in my life. I was so relieved he hadn't been killed/amazed he made it that far...wearing a hood!

Apparently, others have had the same experience:

Only in this video, they weren't going 35 mph. Or wearing a gigantic hood over their heads.

So...true or false?? Vote in the comments!!

What I Did Last Summer: Fact or Fiction bloghop

(If you're here for #GUTGAA, scroll down or click here.)

Welcome to this fact-or-fiction bloghop, hosted by the lovely Emily King and me! To recap: the point of this hop is to read two stories posted by each participant and decide which one is true, and which one is false.

The stories must be under 500 words and about something that happened one summer - it doesn't have to be this summer. I've put my first one below (the second one goes up Wed.)...and even though Emily and I aren't participating for prizes (which are posted here for the fiction winner, and here for the fact winner), it'll be fun to see who(m) I fooled!

So vote "fact" or "fiction" in the comments for my story, then hop around the others' blogs and vote for real. I can't wait to see what the rest of you have come up with. *evil cackle* Since most of us write fiction, I'm hoping to spot some whoppers! not the candy kind...although I do take bribes...

The buffalo-chip blooper

 

When I was growing up, my family spent summers at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota because my dad was a park ranger. Each year, the ranger families put together a festival that featured all kinds of silly games, costumes (I went as a mosquito one year), scavenger hunts and - this being park-ranger-land - a huge campfire at night where we all roasted s'mores and sang songs like "Ghost Riders in the Sky."

A buffalo chip, prior to throwing

        The most favorite of all silly games was a buffalo chip throwing contest. For weeks, rangers would collect the huge patties of buffalo poop and set them out to dry. They turned into these flat, Frisbee-like wedges of dung that were surprisingly light. Then we'd all fling them across a field to see who could throw the farthest.

 

My job the year I was nine was to measure. So after the poop landed, I'd take the end of a tape measurer and call the number to the score keeper. Only one time, I didn't move far enough out of the way and a contestant threw his chip right at my head. I was, of course, dancing around in my mosquito costume completely oblivious to the buffalo sh** coming at me...until it hit me smack in the face. And the chip wasn't completely dried. It had a liquified center - a bit like a jelly donut - that smashed right into my nose. Also, my mouth was open.

 

So....fact or fiction??  Tell me your vote in the comments...then go forth to the others on the linky and do likewise.  

 



GUTGAA meet-and-greet

Hi all!! It's a busy day on this blog: in addition to the GUTGAAM&G, I'm co-hosting a What I Did Last Summer Fact or Fiction blog...wherein the participants post a summer story (actually two of them, one today, one later this week) and you must figure out whether it's fact or fiction. The writer who fools the most wins prizes! Yay! So if you have a minute, pop over here and give your opinion on a few stories on the linky list.

Questions for the Meet and Greet

-Where do you write?

Theoretically, in my lovely office. Realistically, on the couch in the family room. Sometimes on my bed if the family is really noisy.

-Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see?

 Wood floor with a nice rug.

-Favorite time to write?

Early morning after the kids are gone. These days, I get 1 hour to write before work.

-Drink of choice while writing?

Chai tea, although it's hard to hold a mug while typing. Also, I worry about spills so I don't generally drink anything while writing.

-When writing , do you listen to music or do you need complete silence?

Silence is preferred, but my husband will tell you I can block out pretty much anything. (I've had lots of practice. Thank you, loud children and spouse.)

-What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it?

My WIP is about a treasure hunt based on a real-life guy who searched for a Spanish galleon for 16 years. I wanted to write about Caribbean diving and discovered this story while doing research.

-What's your most valuable writing tip?

 

Know where you're going before you stop writing each day. Become disciplined enough to write a certain amount - whatever that is - each day you can write. (Okay, that's two tips but they're both valuable!!)

YA fall books preview

This summer, I had the privilege of reading several upcoming fall titles via Netgalley. (LOVE Netgalley!) And today I'm sharing the best of the lot. You can find reviews I've done on these titles over at Goodreads, but I'm just sharing the blurbs here because....

This list is really a PRIZE list!! WOOT! As you may know, Emily King and I are hosting the What I Did Last Summer: Fact or Fiction? bloghop next week. Your job: to fool us with two summer stories - one fact, the other fiction. The writer who fools the most into thinking their story is fiction when it's actually fact gets to choose one of these books for their very own. How cool is that?? (Want to join us? Go here to sign up. The list is small right now - exactly how I like it - but there's room for a few more.)

UNSPOKEN by Sarah Rees Breenan (Go here to read Sarah's interview, and here to read my first reaction to this title. Serious. Love.) Release date: Sept. 11
Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.

But all that changes when the Lynburns return.

The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

IRONSKIN by Tina Connolly; Release date: Oct. 2

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.

It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin.

When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation"—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.

Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey.

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.

THE BRIDES OF ROLLROCK ISLAND by Margo Lanagan; Release date: Feb. 12

On remote Rollrock Island, men go to sea to make their livings--and to catch their wives.

The witch Misskaella knows the way of drawing a girl from the heart of a seal, of luring the beauty out of the beast. And for a price a man may buy himself a lovely sea-wife. He may have and hold and keep her. And he will tell himself that he is her master. But from his first look into those wide, questioning, liquid eyes, he will be just as transformed as she. He will be equally ensnared. And the witch will have her true payment.

Margo Lanagan weaves an extraordinary tale of desire, despair, and transformation. With devastatingly beautiful prose, she reveals characters capable of unspeakable cruelty, but also unspoken love.

THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah Maas, released Aug. 7

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

 Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim?

As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

DARK LORD: THE EARLY YEARS by Jamie Thomson; release date: Oct. 2

The Dark Lord is confounded when he awakens in the middle of a small town on a planet he's never seen before. What is this strange place, why do they keep calling him Dirk Lloyd, and why is he powerless against these earthlings who insist on finding his parents? Could it be that Dirk Lloyd is really a human incarnation of the Dark Lord who, after a cataclysmic final battle with his arch nemesis, was hurled into the Pit of Uttermost Despair, aka Earth? Or is he just a lost and confused boy? The Dark Lord must regain his rightful place in the universe before his powers of domination and destruction are lost forever, and help comes from a most unlikely source . . .

Obviously, this list isn't all encompassing or the post would be wayyy too long. Other great YA reads: Send Me A Sign by Tiffany Schmidt, Gennifer Albin's Crewel, The Sweetest Spell by Suzanne Selfors, Swipe and Sneak (first two in a series) by Evan Angler, and Blood Red Road - which is already out but too good not to mention - by Moira Young.

What great new titles have you read recently?

Fact or Fiction Bloghop coming up!

Can you tell a great story, one that's so good, it's hard to tell if it's fact or fiction?
Next month, Emily King and I are hosting a bloghop where you'll share your favorite summer memory - whether it be hilarious, a comedy of errors, sweet-as-pie, adventurous or the kind of story you're glad to have over - as well as one that's pure fiction. Everyone else's job? To spot the fact from fiction. The writer who fools the most commentors wins the prize.

Confused? Let me break it into bullet points. (I love me some bullet points.)

• Monday, Sept. 3: Post one summer story, true or false, it doesn't matter but it should be under 500 words.
• Tuesday: Sept. 4: Hop to other participating blogs to check out your competition.
• Wedesday, Sept. 5: Post your other summer story. If Monday's was your truth, have Wed. be your fiction story. Or vice versa. (Again, under 500 words.)
• Thursday, Sept. 6: Hop to other participating blogs. Decide which one is true and which is false and put your vote in the comments of each entry.
• Friday, Sept. 7: Your reveal. Tell us which story is true and which is false.
•  Late Friday or early Saturday, Sept. 8: PRIZES!!! Emily and I are giving away FOUR total - two grand prizes for the stories that fool the most commentors; and two critiques for the runners up in each category. The PRIZES will be a book of your choice from lists Emily and I have compiled. My list will be Best Fall Fiction Reads, which I've previewed via ARCs and that come out starting next week. Emily's got a list of nonfiction books she's putting together.
• In other words, I'll be awarding the writer who fools the most with his/her fiction - meaning most people thought it was true -  and Emily will be awarding the writer who fools the most with his/her nonfiction. The critiques will go to the runners up in each category.  Make sense?

No, the stories you share do not have to happen this summer. Reach back into your childhood for the best one as long as one of your stories is absolutely true. You're on the honor system here but we trust ya. ;)
Sound like fun? Sign up in the linky below. (It's working now! :) Then check back the third week of August. I'll be interviewing Sarah Rees Brennan, author of The Demon's Lexicon and Team Human, as well her newest release, UNSPOKEN, coming out next month (one of my faves). Then I'll post the list of hot fall fiction I recommend, which the fiction bloghop winner will choose from as his/her prize. Emily will post her nonfiction picks around the same time.

Questions? Post them in the comments. And we hope you'll join us next month!