Tag: blogging

The Infinity Dream Award aka 11 Random Facts About Me
Expat Blogs, Mommy Blogs, Writing/Book Blogs

These are the digital circles I run in.

But my recent posts have focused exclusively on my expat and mommy identities. I wanted to do a non mommy-expat post.

As if in answer, one of my critique partners posted as part of The Infinity Dream Award, a chain post that seems to be going around YA author blogs, and nominated me as one to carry on the chain. Never before have I been excited about a chain post. Never before have I been included in a group of published and aspiring novelists. It’s a little different for my blog, but I’m doing this. (Also, my daughter’s been home with a cold, and I’ve no energy to think of my own post. Perfect timing!)

First, thank you to Kaitlyn at E.M. Lita for nominating me and thinking I met the criteria of “crazy talented writer”. You made my month. Here are the rules for the Infinity Dream Award:
- Thank and follow the blog that nominated you.
- Tell us eleven facts about yourself.
- Answer the questions that were set for you to answer.
- Nominate 11 bloggers and set questions for them. (Yeah, I’m just going to name a few blogger friends/acquaintances I’d love to know 11 random things about.)
11 Random Facts About Me
1. I’m left handed, as God intended everyone to be otherwise he would have put the fork on the right side of the plate.
2. In middle school I faked a science fair project in its entirety. I never did an experiment. I collected no data. But I gave an awesome presentation about a project that never happened. I got an A. I look back and think of it as an exercise in creative writing.
3. I hate coloring and drawing! Hate!!! In fourth grade, we had a unit on “publishing” a book. I was thrilled for two minutes, then my teacher explained we’d have to illustrate our books. I protested and argued that even professional authors often have other people illustrate their books. My teacher was not persuaded.
4. I also hate crafting. The combination of numbers three and four makes me the worst mother ever because according to the many mommy bloggers out there, the only way to demonstrate love for your child is to glue tissue paper on to toilet paper rolls. Bonus points if you use seasonally themed colors.
5. I love french fries. I have to actively police myself from eating them off any plate on the table.
6. I took belly dancing lessons in Morocco. I still remember a little.
7. I adore animals. I would pet every single dog I see on the street, if society found this behavior acceptable in 32 year-old adults.
8. I am fantastic at reading books aloud. I come up short in the crafting area, but I knock it out of the park at bedtime story reading. I do different voices for the characters. It’s quite the show. Someday, I’ll post a reading of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus on Youtube. The tantrum I throw is pretty spectacular.
9. I have enormous feet. I wear a size 11 shoe. I’m only 5′ 7” (170cm). The last time I shopped for shoes in Brazil, the sales guy just didn’t believe me when I said 43 (size 11 here in Brazil) and brought out a 39. I couldn’t get my foot in the shoe. The look on his face was rather unprofessional in my opinion.
10. I can and do hold grudges indefinitely. It’s not one of my better qualities.
11. I think Matilda by Roald Dahl is the single greatest children’s book ever written. This is not up for debate.
11 Questions From E.M. Lita
1. What are your goals for the remainder of 2015?
  Finish a second draft of my YA novel then send it to beta readers and throw the greatest preschool Halloween party Brazil has ever seen. (One of these is way more likely to happen than other.)
2. If you had to wear one item of clothing for the rest your life, what would it be and why? Underwear. I think it’s obvious why.
3. Favorite flavor of ice cream?
  Mint chocolate chip. I’m confused. Are there other flavors?
4. How many bookcases do you currently own?
  Seven. But we just talked about building some floor to ceiling cases in the dining area.
5. Do you have any half-finished manuscripts hidden away in a drawer somewhere? If yes, summarize one.
  No. I just have my current unfinished manuscript which throws a bunch of bilingual and multicultural kids ostracized by the 15 countries that remain after 2 global pandemics onto a stealth ship. It’s like Divergent set during a semester at sea.
6. Do you prefer writing with a pen or pencil (or keyboard!), and why?
  Keyboard. Being left-handed, I’m happy to avoid the black or blue hand syndrome that comes with using a pencil or pen.
7. Is there a favorite book you go to for inspiration when writing a tough scene? If yes, what is it and why?
  Not for a specific scene. My challenge lately is character voice, and I’ve been going to Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell and The Living by Matt de la Peña. I think both of these books have incredibly strong and unique protagonist voices using third person narration.
8. Do you insist on solitude for writing, or can you indulge in background noise?
  I can block out background noise pretty well. What I need is a child-free writing environment. I cannot concentrate if I’m waiting for the next spilled cup of juice or potty break or broken bone.
9. Serial comma: yay or nay?
  Yay. I’m not a barbarian.
10. Favorite season?
  Fall. And I miss it. Here in Vitoria, Brazil, we have two seasons: unbearably hot and bearably hot.
11. The final and most important question from Buddy the Elf: What’s your favorite color? Red.
Who’s Up Next? This chain might not be right for everyone’s blog, but I’d like these writers know there’s someone who’s curious what they have to say.

Julie Dutra, Mayken Brünings, Louisa Aricheta, Nicole Lynn Hoefs, Lana Pattinson, Lisa Ferland, Elizabeth Menozzi, Chloe at Life Unexpected

My 11 Questions for the Nominees
1. What is one thing you dream of achieving as a writer?
2. What’s the worst vacation you’ve ever taken?
3. What is one lesson you wish you could drill into every single person’s head?
4. What is the perfect breakfast?
5. If you could eliminate one song from history, which would it be?
6. Do you have a current WIP or writing project? If yes, summarize. If no, come up with something right now and summarize it.
7. What is one thing people often misunderstand or get wrong about you?
8. What’s your favorite animal?
9. What is one activity you absolutely hate doing?
10. What is one “classic” or famous book you’ve never read?
11. What is one thing you love about yourself?
October 5, 2015
Why I Finally Admitted I’m a Writer

For the past seven years I’ve been writing a graphic novel. I only admitted this to a non-family member for the first time two years ago. I admitted it to close colleagues eight months ago, and then only because I had to give some reason for quitting my job. I was forced to tell my boss the embarrassing truth; I wanted to focus on becoming a writer. Specifically, I’m trying to sell a graphic novel.

Admitting this at work was awkward because none of my 40+ year-old colleagues here in Brazil had any idea what that was. “You’re quitting because you want to write comic books? Like Superman?”

“No, a graphic novel is a medium that can tell any story. They’re actually becoming more mainstream. A graphic memoir by a lesbian cartoonist about growing up with her closeted father who ran a funeral home was nominated for a National Book Critics award.” This explanation didn’t clarify anything for them.

As I suspected, once you tell people you are a writer and take the time to explain what it is you’re writing, they are going to ask about it. Every time they see you. This is why I never wanted to say anything. This is why I hoped to keep it secret until I could direct all inquisitors to their local bookstore where they would find my already published and acclaimed debut on the shelf.

I never called myself a writer because in my mind, a writer who has never published is a failed writer. I have a deeply rooted fear of failure, and so far all I have to show for my writing is 57 rejections.

I have only myself to blame. I chose to write a graphic novel, which is a growing but hardly massive market in the U.S. If I had written a romance or Young Adult, I’d be able to query a new agent a day for years. I set my story in Brazil with a poor, Afro-Brazilian protagonist. When I started writing, I had never read a graphic novel and had to google “format for a comic manuscript”. I’ve also never had a creative writing class in my life. And I can’t draw. At all. Not even a straight line with a ruler.

Thinking about it, 57 rejections aren’t so much surprising as inevitable.

When my husband and I conceived the story over dinner seven years ago, I was recently arrived in Brazil, with no job, and a lot of time on my hands. I outlined the story in detail, taught myself how to write a comic, and wrote the first 25 pages. I knew a story set in Rio de Janeiro should be illustrated. The visual contrast of the luxury and poverty of the city needed a visual element, but 25 pages into the story, my research was revealing extreme odds against ever getting published. Not being an illustrator, having no experience in comics or any area of publishing, and living in Brazil unable to attend conferences or network led me to save the project on a hard drive and forget it.

That was in 2008. I came back to it in 2013. I quietly finished a first draft and sent out a ton of bad queries for an unpolished manuscript and got back 55 polite “No, thank yous.” Naturally, I then decided to quit my job and pursue writing full-time.

Why? What made me finish the manuscript? What made me finally decide to not only pursue writing full-time but also publicly admit it? I became a mom.

My parenting philosophy is to model the behavior I want from my daughter. I want her to drink water at meals, so I drink water. I don’t want her to resort to physical violence, so I never use it on her. I want her to consider fruit a dessert, so I wait until she goes to bed to eat my ice cream.

More than anything I want my daughter to find her dream and follow it, so I damn well better follow mine.

I can’t tell her success takes hard work and dedication if I gave up after only 25 pages. I can’t tell her that failure is ok and a learning opportunity, if I abandon writing after 55 rejections on a first attempt at a first novel. I can’t tell her passion is a wonderful thing, if I’m too embarrassed to openly admit my own.

Today I have a polished and edited graphic novel manuscript, a critiqued query letter, 2 fresh rejections, and a strategy to pursue publication. I have a picture book manuscript recently sent off for critique. I have a detailed outline and the first 10,000 words of a young adult trilogy. I have this blog.

And when I do finally publish my first book, it will be dedicated to my daughter. Because if it weren’t for being a mom, I would never have become a writer.

June 15, 2015
A First Test as a Writer

Keep the espresso coming!

Recently, I decided to become a writer. I’ve actually been diligently writing a novel for a couple years, but a few months ago I quit my job teaching and left myself with no other answer to the question “What do you do?” So now people actually know.

Today I’m facing my first great test as a “writer”.

The only piece of advice every writer in history seems to agree on is that a writer writes everyday. So I have been. But today, I’m alone in my apartment, lacking inspiration, with access to Netflix. And it’s raining.

I don’t think Shakespeare would have been so prolific if he’d been able to binge watch old seasons of Mad Men, Walking Dead, Downton Abbey, or almost any other show worth watching. (Except West Wing! Seriously, Netflix, where the hell is West Wing?) James Joyce would probably have been more straightforward if he’d been sucked into the Twitterverse daily while building his author’s platform. Without a doubt Twain would have spent his afternoons watching the Daily Show.

And the rain! What is it about grey skies and a light drizzle? I’ve had three espressos, but it feels like I’ve been hit by a tranquilizer. Why can’t sleep be this persistent after my daughter has gone to bed and my teeth are brushed? I could just go take a nap. I’m completely alone. No one would know, and my bed is so conveniently located in the same apartment where I keep my computer.

No. I will remain doggedly at my desk. Why? Because I’m a writer. More specifically, I’m a 32 year-old writer who hasn’t ever published anything, and that makes for some awkward conversations. Oh, I’ve read lots of inspirational, bucking-up articles to new writers. “If you’re writing, you’re a writer.” Own it. Be proud. Hashtag amwriting. Whatever. Let’s be honest. Telling people you’re “working on a graphic novel” is only impressive if you’re sitting in a high school cafeteria and still legally required to be there. To the rest of the world, you’re just unemployed and probably going to have to explain what graphic novel is.

My situation is complicated by the fact my husband is a genius with a PhD and two full-time jobs. To be clear, my husband is incredibly supportive and respectful of new career. It’s not his fault he’s so damn impressive. Well, it kind of is his fault he’s a workaholic, but he’s not the one who makes things awkward for me. It’s other people. Non-writers. I had this conversation the other day.

Not-a-writer: “What have you been up to?”

Me: “Well, I’ve spent the last two days on this synopsis and I have FINALLY, FINALLY gotten it down to a single page.”

Not-a-writer: “How about [the hubby]?”

Me: “Well, this year he’s applying to the Ministry of Education to get approval for his master’s program. He’s been organizing all the lines of research, hiring professors, and specifically recruiting professors with PhDs to publish in those areas. He published three or four articles last year and has two or three pending approval.”

Not-a-writer: “Well, if he needs someone to sum it all up in a single page, I know a gal he can call.” chuckle

Ouch. And that is a mild dose of the unintended condescension given to the yet unpublished.

So I won’t be napping because it’s Monday afternoon and I’m at work. I’m writing. And drinking more coffee. And giving my emails a final check before getting back down…hey, there’s a new episode of Mad Men!

April 27, 2015
Hell: Adding a Social Media Button to My Blog

Help! I don’t speak IT! Is this even what IT people do? See…I don’t know anything!

Today, I had a terrible afternoon. By the end of it, I was pacing around, shoulders hunched and knotted, snarling and snapping at any person who came within arms length. I was adding a Pinterest button to my blog.

It’s easy. Our platform allows for a smooth and intuitive interface. It’s drag and drop. You can have your site optimized in fifteen minutes. You never need to see any code. A blind, semi-literate centenarian could optimize her own site with our system. Lies.

Pinterest is a form of social media, so in order to add a button enabling readers to “pin” a post to their digital board, I must change my “social media buttons”. In order to change the social media buttons, I need to update my plugins with a new widget…or do I update my widgets with a new plugin? I can activate plugins in the settings heading. Or is it tools or appearance headings? But activating the plugin might not work if you don’t change your security settings to allow the code to embed on the blog…or do you want the code to embed on the blog and single post pages? Obviously your blog and posts are two different things. What about archives and categories?

And which plugin for social media buttons do you want? Choose one from the 1,127 listed. This one here allows short code for embedding. That one allows for following and sharing. Some make your static content more dynamic and others make your dynamic content more static. One popular choice allows your website to show both thumbnails and blocks. (No, not the things your preschooler still chews on. Is that what you think “thumbnails” means? Are you 150 years old?) Perhaps you’re really looking for a slider plugin that specifically works with social media SEO. What is SEO? Just step away from the internet. Immediately.

Now that you have selected and activated your widgetized plugin for optimizing all your acronyms, you must decide where on each page the buttons will be displayed. Do you want them in the header, footer, primary sidebar, secondary sidebar, tertiary sidebar, content area, more footer left, more footer right, more footer middle? What position? First, second, third, or fifty-third widget down, caddy-corner to the far-left-more-footer? How many pixels between the icons? Of course you know the length of a pixel because a pixel is now a standardized form of measurement.

Alright, now that you have assigned a position to your button…you’re done! Click visit site and there’s your beautiful Pinterest button! In four different places on the homepage, no places on the individual post pages, and all the post excerpts have disappeared from the homepage. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

I was at this stage of the button adding process when my husband came into the office. He approached me slowly and spoke in a low, calm voice. He stopped a few feet away and didn’t make any sudden movements as he assessed my situation.

“Have you cleared your cache?” he asked slowly.

“What the hell is a cache?” I snarled, a few drops of spittle landing on my screen.

I still don’t know what a cache, but I do know that clearing it is an important troubleshooting technique that should come before slamming your fist on the return key fifty times in a row.

An entire afternoon of my life was given to putting a white square less than a centimeter across on my blog so that strangers will share my writing with other strangers by pinning it to virtual tack boards. There are life-saving surgeries that take less time.

But I’ve got a damn Pinterest button now. At least, I think I do. I’m sure I speak for everyone in my home when I say if you’re reading this and don’t see a Pinterest button, please DON’T tell me.

April 13, 2015
You shouldn’t be teaching if you can’t figure out Facebook

It’s my opinion that if you can’t figure out how facebook works, you shouldn’t be teaching.

Since becoming a teacher, any headline about the profession catches my attention and it seems like every week I read another article about a teacher getting fired or put on probation for an inappropriate tweet, blog, or facebook posting. Out of curiosity I searched “teacher fired facebook” and got 3,490,000 hits. “HS teacher loses job over Facebook posting” “Teacher Fired After Candid Facebook Comments” “Teacher Sues after being fired for Facebook Pics” It goes on and on. One teacher took a picture of a student’s hair, posted it on facebook and added a comment making fun of the girl’s hairstyle. Ultimately the girl’s mother saw the photo and the teacher’s comment.

Even if I accept the fact that American culture seems to no longer have any problem with adults insulting and tearing down kids (see: the entire Internet v. Rebecca Black), I can’t accept any educated adult expecting tweets and blogs to be private. The whole point of twitter is to communicate with many people instantaneously. This is not the place to discuss hiring a hitman to take care of your students.

I’ve only been teaching for four months but that is more than enough time to understand every teacher has days when she needs to vent. Venting is healthy. Venting fosters sanity. Venting should NEVER be done on the Internet. Unless you are Bill Maher and people follow you on Twitter specifically for the insults you hurl in 140 characters, do not post rants about your students, their parents or your administration online. Talk to your partner over dinner. Talk to your friends over drinks. Write it in a diary and save it for the bestselling memoir you’ll write when you’ve retired. Don’t update your Facebook status.

I agree with commenters who think teachers are held to unfairly high standard. The Georgia teacher fired because of a picture of her drinking Guinness at the Guinness factory is an example. Teachers are human and should not be fired for being such. I’m just waiting for the moment my pregnant and gassy body lets one rip in front of an entire class of teenagers. I hope it doesn’t get me fired. The experience will be scarring enough as it is.

However, typing and uploading your darkest thoughts in a fit of frustration or getting a few laughs from buddies at the expense of a child is unprofessional at best. Exerting some self control is a defining characteristic of an adult. And don’t argue an expectation of privacy because honestly, if you think something defined by the term “network” is an intimate forum, you should not be teaching.

So I just realized I followed up a post on not judging other parents with one judging other teachers. Hmmm. Oh well. No one’s perfect. Gosh, it really is hard to keep opinions to yourself.

May 28, 2011
One Day as a Teacher

Here’s what I do in my new role as teacher. I read the chapters of Great Expectations we’ll be covering, marking all difficult vocab that will probably need to be defined and difficult passages that will need to summarized as a class. Plan class on introducing Charles Dickens and Great Expectations. Find fun youtube clip on the life of Charles Dickens. Make adjustments to the supply and demand game that didn’t go well in class the day before. Make new material for tweaked supply and demand game. Correct and grade 15 essays on a personal response Aesop fables. Teach class for 3 hours.

That was this past Wednesday.

I realized two things after logging in to write a new post: 1) People link to my blog from pretty bizarre search terms and 2) I only wrote two posts for the entire month of April. Last November, I cranked out more than two posts a week. Still not anything close to the commitment of blogging all-stars, but it was still a big chunk of content for one month. Now, I have a job and a condition called pregnancy which robs me of the energy to do anything productive past 9pm. Unless your definition of productive is eating Belgian chocolate ice-cream and streaming the previous night’s Daily Show, in which case, I make my greatest contributions to society after 9pm.

Clearly, I’m going to have make a conscious commitment to maintaining Coconut Water. I don’t want it sitting out languishing in the Brazilian sun developing a film of bacteria and mosquito eggs. (Can mosquitoes lay eggs on coconut water? Probably, they’re basically invincible.) The end result of this pregnancy is a baby, which I’m told, will devour whatever remaining free time I have and possibly my will to shower and tolerate other human beings. The chances I’ll be getting back up to two posts a week are small.

Or maybe not. I will be on maternity leave for four months, and while breast feeding is supposed to beautiful, I haven’t heard anyone call it intellectually stimulating. I might desperately cranking out posts. In the long term though, next school year should be easier. I won’t be new to the material and spending hours planning every class. I’ll already have my youtube clip of Fozzy Bear reciting Robert Frost.

The really amazing about my daily schedule right now is that I only teach part-time. I’m in front of a class teaching 16 hours yet find myself working all day, every day. I think what I really need is one of those cushy full-time teaching jobs those pundits keep talking.

May 7, 2011
Blog Upgrading: Brynn in Brazil’s Coming of Age Tale

My new job has done the impossible. I have been made to feel like a computer guru. My husband, brother, stepmother, and any other family member I have recruited as tech support over the years, will marvel at this development and immediately question the quality of teaching staff at my school.

I’m not particularly good with computers. I know I could get better, but I have no patience for them. The slightest thing goes wrong and I get a knot between my shoulders and a seriously cranky attitude. One complication and I shutdown faster than my MacBook. This assumption I have that anything beyond word processing will make me want to cry, is why I continued to put off upgrading my blog.

Back when I started writing,(I think this is probably true for most expats) my blog was a simple way to keep family informed about what I was doing in Brazil. It’s so much easier to write a single blog post than 20 emails. I got a Mac with iWeb and realized I could have a blog with pretty pictures. Oh, and a cool black background. And no code!!! I never had to see rows of letters and symbols ever! My needs were simple, and iWeb filled them.

Last year, we moved to Cachoeiro de Itapemerim. I was without work and started putting a lot of energy into the blog. I found a whole world of expat communities online and started registering my blog on their sites. One day, I got a comment from someone I had never met, spoken to or heard of. A complete stranger who found my blog, read a post, and liked it enough to spend her time leaving a comment. My sense of validation only increased when I discovered the commenter was a gifted photographer, cook, writer and blogger. Only her blog, named after a brine soaked sea fish, was a hundred times more sophisticated than mine. (Really, you should check it out.)

I rediscovered my love for writing. By writing regularly, inspiration came more easily. My blog soon had a ton content and some regular readers. The quality of my posts improved. (At least I think, do you all agree?) This was the point when iWeb started to let me down. It’s still hard to admit because I’m a Mac worshipper but iWeb, in the words of my husband, “really sucks.”

He’d been telling my this for years and I had ignored him. This made acknowledging the need for a better platform, all the more difficult. Not only did I have to betray my Mac and face headache inducing computer stuff, but I also had to admit my husband was and had been right all along. (Honestly, I’d rather try writing software code.) The other major hurdle was that now I had three years worth of content to move and no idea where to start.

Fortunately, my parents put me in touch with a guy who would do everything for me. He’d get a new domain name, host site, and move all my content. This was back in December. Due to various delays that included him being stranded because of blizzards and me having serious stomach issues that had me postponing every Skype call, it took two months to get everything set up.

Thus, the two month silence at Coconut Water (UPDATE July 2015: Now officially Brynn in Brazil).

I’m glad I did it. WordPress is so much better. Not as simple, but I think I’m ready to use real blogger tools. In the end though, no one could figure out how to transfer all my content, because, cue husband, “iWeb sucks.” Yes, I know. I’m now copying and pasting old posts into the new site a few at a time. 50 down. 70 to go. I’m still glad I moved.

I hope you all like the new site and design as much as I do. I’m in love with the banner, which was also the result of someone generously donating their time. Turns out I’m neither a coder or designer. That’s ok. I just want to write.

Oh, and the reason I’m the computer guru among my fellow teachers? The school has started moving to Macs and no one knows how to use them. I wonder if I should talk to them about iWeb.

March 19, 2011