Award Season is Upon Us

This week was AWESOME because I received not one nomination, but four for the Kreative Blogger Award :D. So exciting!

Thank you so much to Lynnette Labelle, Tereliz Luziana (coolest name ever), Michelle McLean, and Scott, who needs no last name. It really did touch me to get this from you guys, because you all have blogs that I love to read daily and really admire!

Okay, onto the rules of this award (because rules make it more fun):

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might not know.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

At this point, I'm very grateful that rule #4 doesn't say "fastinating thing" because yeah... I've got nothing.

Here are the top 7 things you wish you never knew about Rebecca Knight:

7. I realized the other day that all the movies and TV I own/watch are dude movies. It's all things like First Blood, Season 1 of MacGyver, Preditor, and Equilibrium. This translates into my reading life, too. I'm emotional and love some romance in my novels, but if they don't have someone's arm getting chopped off or a werewolf eating someone's face, I'm not truly happy.

6. I am a closet trekkie. I LOVE The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and all of the movies except for Nemesis, which didn't exist. If I could walk around wearing one of those sweet Bajoran earrings, I totally would. Also, Data's hot.

5. I value Badassery very highly. Even though I wear skirts and makeup and heels (once in awhile, I'm tall), I want to be able to defend myself from ninja attacks at a moment's notice. This makes me want to one day become some kind of Muay Thai master. You know. Just in case.

4. I own most of the Lord of the Rings action figures. And play with them. When I was in college, I almost shot my mom's eye out with Aragorn's tiny (yet deadly) bow and arrows. Well, I had to try it out! It was CHRISTMAS, for Pete's sake!

3. You know when you hear the recordings that say "This call may be recorded for quality purposes?" That's my job. I'm the lady who sits in a cube all day listening to people's calls and judging them on call quality and compliance to consumer protection laws. When I tell people this, they look at me like I just announced I'm Hitler's personal secretary. :(

2. The X-Men animated series has made me cry, as has Futurama. That stuff is well written, dammit!

1. I'm a total sucker for babies and kittens, despite my insistance that I am a badass. So if you are a zombie coming to attack me in my home, bring a kitten to distract me. It will work every time.

SO, on to the really fun part now!

Here are the 7 folks who I love and nominate for this award (in no particular order):

1) Christine Fonseca

2) The Rejectionist (seriously, I love this blog!)

3) Lisa & Laura Write

4) Jenny Mac

5) Cole Gibson

6) The Badass Geek

7) Terri Rainer

CONGRATS, ALL! Thank you for constantly entertaining and enlightening me :D.

Last but not least, I wanted to make up my own award just for funsies.

Everyone has those couple of awesome writer friends who have helped you grow as a writer, have patiently talked you off the ledge when you're being crazy, and have corrected your passive language more times than you can count. I think those folks need an award, too!

So, here is my official Awesome Writer Friend Award, also known as the WORD NERD Award!



I would like to give to this the irreplaceable Abby Annis. Thanks for being there for me, dude! :D Please feel free to pass this to someone who is your Word Nerd and give them the love. (Also, please forgive the ugliness of the award, I has no skillz at this type of thing.)

Thanks again, Everyone, and Congrats to our winners!

The Real Life of a Book Buyer

Happy Friday, everyone!

Today, I'd like to share a link that was on the agent blog Pub Rants: http://kashsbookcorner.blogspot.com/2009/06/random-houses-hail-mary-pass.html.

This is a post by the book-buyer Arsen KashKashian of the Boulder Bookstore breaking down his decisions to buy certain books, why he bought the number that he did, and why he may have passed on others.

Aside from Arsen having the most badass name ever, this is a fascinating look into how books are chosen to go on your local bookseller's shelves.

I'd love to hear what you guys think of the whole process. What questions does this bring up for you?

I was riveted by the thought that even though the booksellers think something is drivel, they will still buy it if it's popular enough.... as well as buy things they love even if they're not sure they will sell.

Good news? Scary news?

What do you guys think of this insight?

Medal of Honor Tactics

Calling all rule-followers!


As the Rule Following Master Champion I want to share a breakthrough I had today. My husband was talking about people who win the Medal of Honor and laid out a very simple truth: they are all rule-breakers.


People who follow orders don't get Medals of Honor.


It's the people who know what needs to be done and take the risks, who become great, and are honored.


I think you might see where I'm going where this applies to writing. We hear so many rules each and every day about how to start a novel, how to write a proper sentence, how to do fill-in-the-blank.


And a lot of us obsess about it, which is good to a point. My epiphany today is that you need to learn the rules in order to separate yourself from the masses. If you know what you're doing, and what's expected to be competent, you're already ahead of the curve.


The next step after you know the rules?


Break them.


A lot of great novels start with a dream sequence or a crazy prologue that happened 500 years in the past. A lot of authors begin sentences with "And," or use dashes instead of semi-colons.


They take risks, they do the unexpected, within the framework of skilled writing.


Those who do find themselves rewarded, time and time again.


What do you guys think? Are you a rule-breaker or a rule-follower?


What are your successes with either?


How might doing the other help?