All posts by Kimberly MacCarron

Things You Love to Hate…Pet Peeves

Kimberly MacCarron, mermaids, Motivation

Yes.  I’ve got some pet peeves.  Years ago, they may have merely been classified as annoyances, but today there are things that just bug the living hell out of me.

 What have I done about my pet peeves?  Well, I’ve thrown many of them into my writing!  Don’t you?

 Come on, admit it.  Don’t you have things that you wish you could say or do, but you feel like you can’t?  But, your characters can say and do anything they want!  You can’t be held responsible for their actions.  It’s fiction!  Right?

So, if I write that one of my characters finds it annoying when someone dips their French fries in her ketchup, what’s wrong with that?  Maybe those French fry dippers will stay the hell away from my ketchup and find their own…if they read my first book.  🙂

 If I can rid the world of things hanging off rearview mirrors, that’s a campaign I can seriously get behind.  I have a friend who admitted that she has tacky dice proudly swinging from her rearview mirror.  (You know who you are, Kerri)  Another friend has a dream catcher.  Cute.  Right?  Wrong!  The number one thing I hate is the crystal prism that practically blinds the people both in the front and back of that car.  To all of you who feel the pressing urge to adorn your rearview mirror—Just. Say. No.

 Do you secretly throw your pet peeves into books as your own personal therapy session free of charge?  Do you give your hero or heroine your own annoyance of a particular pet peeve?  Do you make the protagonist chew her hair or crack his knuckles?  Maybe have someone say, “You know” after everything they say? 

 What are some of the things that drive you nuts?  Do you identify with characters in your favorite book because they share the same likes or dislikes? 

 Fess up!  What are the things you love to hate the most?  I’ll go ahead and get things started.  Let me know if I should include some more.  Unfortunately I have tons.

I love this saying by George Carlin:  “I don’t have pet peeves—I have major psychotic f***ing hatreds.”

I’m not that bad.  Yet.

 Kim’s Ten Top Pet Peeves

  1. You guessed it…dipping your food in my ketchup.
  2. Rearview mirror decorations…especially prisms.  Hate those.
  3. Bumper stickers.  Who cares what you think???
  4. Smart cars.  Enough said.
  5. People who have to One Up others.
  6. Double negatives
  7. Twenty Questions at the gas pump (credit or debit/do you want a car wash?/gas card #?/receipt or no receipt?  Wouldn’t it seriously be faster to just go into the gas station???)
  8. People who begin an explanation with, “…Again, I said…”
  9. Gum chompers–if I wanted to hang out with a cow, I’d visit the zoo.
  10. Self checkout lanes–shouldn’t the stores be paying me for MY time?
  11. People who can’t stop at 10 on lists.  🙂  
  12. Texting while you’re with other people–RUDE!
Unload!  Tell us all your pet peeves.  Who knows?  Maybe one of them will end up in a book.  

Summer Lovin’

Kimberly MacCarron, mermaids

Summer Lovin’, had me a bla-aast…

Don’t you remember the anticipation of summer?  Counting down the days and planning adventures with friends.  Just waiting for life to begin. When every day was a gift and you yearned to make the most of it. 

I’m not talking about the scents of freshly cut grass or wild honeysuckle or even the feeling of sand between your toes and the sun’s rays tingling the tanning oil on your body.  I’m talking about feelings of love and anticipation and a world ripe with…possibilities.  The possibility of falling in love.  Again and again.

I remember the excitement about boys.  I can now look back with the realization that summer relationships taught me a lot.  It was that first taste of all-consuming love—when you knew IN ADVANCE that it wasn’t meant to last beyond the season so you tried to make each and every little moment count.

Sleeping in and sneaking out.  Giggling into the night with girlfriends about boys and willing to sneak out for stolen kisses because summer put your life in slow motion for a while.  It was time suspended, and we made the most of it. It was a time when taking a walk at sunset with the love of your life (for that part of the summer) and intertwining your fingers with his seemed like the most romantic thing in the world. 

As writers, do you tend to write scenes occurring in the summer because they come easiest to you?  I wrote my first book around the place where we used to summer vacation every year, and those scenes always felt the strongest.  The love always felt the strongest there, and I think it’s because our memories of those days remain fresh somehow.  The magic of summer love and the bittersweet flavor it leaves long after it’s gone.  

There’s a comment made in The Notebook that I’ve always loved:  “Summer romances begin for all kinds of reasons, but when all is said and done, they have one thing in common.  They’re shooting stars, a spectacular moment of light in the heavens, fleeting glimpse of eternity, and in a flash they’re gone.”

What are some of your favorite movies and/or books dealing with summer love?  Here are a few of mine.

Kim’s Summer Love Movies

  1. Man in the Moon (with Reese Witherspoon)
  2. The Notebook
  3. Dirty Dancing
  4. Little Darlings
  5. Grease

I’ll leave you with an anonymous quote I read that started me thinking about my old boyfriends of summer:  “In every girl’s life, there’s a boy she’ll never forget and a summer where it all began.”  Who is the boy you’ll never forget?

Summer Lovin’, happened so fa-aast…

Why Can’t Weeds Be Flowers?

Kimberly MacCarron, Motivation, , , ,

 

Looking at life through the eyes of a child, I’ve learned to see the possibility and joy in the small, everyday things.  To search for the magic.  To believe in the magic.  It’s only as we grow older that innocent wonder abandons us.  Or do we abandon the wonder?

I remember my daughter running to me on stubby little legs with a fistful of dandelions.   Her wide smile split her face and pride glimmered in her eyes when she handed me those beautiful flowers.  To me, they were weeds.  To her, a glorious find.   Since I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she’d just handed me a bunch of weeds, I thanked her and put them in a bud vase on the kitchen counter.

But something strange happened.  Every time I washed my dishes or felt the urge to gripe about cleaning the counters, those weeds stopped me cold.  Stored forever in my mind will be my daughter’s smile.  Granted, they weren’t long-stemmed red roses, but they were picked with love and devotion, and that simple act and those simple weeds taught me much about life.

When I told my son years later that dandelions and buttercups and milkweed are just weeds, he looked confused.  He asked my, “Why?” I’m sure I could have googled a bunch of scientific reasoning to back up my words, but, in the end, I ended up disagreeing with my own words. 

I think it’s an important lesson for readers and writers.  We’re meant to turn something average into something extraordinary.  Straw into gold.  Coal into diamonds.  A grain of sand into a pearl.  It’s part of the mystery of life and love and wonder. 

Turning something average into something extraordinary makes me think of my friend Erica O’Rourke’s debut novel Torn, out this month with Kensington.  In it, Mo—quiet, ordinary, unmagical Mo—will have to enter a world of raw magic to avenge her best friend’s murder and to save the world.  Not bad for an ordinary high school girl.  Oh, but the story.  The characters!  I can’t say enough great things about this new young adult book, which won RWA’s Golden Heart in 2010. 

So, what books or movies have captivated you and made you appreciate the average or sometimes overlooked?  Forrest Gump definitely springs to mind.  You can’t get much more average than Forrest…Forrest Gump. 

If you can’t think of a movie or book that takes the average and makes it extraordinary, what about the small, overlooked things that bring a smile to your day?  Like my flowers.  My dandelions.  Because one woman’s weed is another woman’s flower.  I learned that much, at least.  Another thing I learned while researching flowers and weeds is that it truly all depends on WHERE it’s located.  Dandelions on the side of the road are beautiful.  Dandelions in a perfectly manicured front lawn?  Not so much. 

The moral of Kim’s rambling blog today? Plant your ideas—whether they’re found in books or a worldview—in the right places so that others can fully appreciate them!

Calling All Underdogs!

Kimberly MacCarron, Motivation, , ,

 

Doesn’t everyone want to be inspired?  Let’s face it.  We all have that hunger to be the one-in-a-million shot.   And if we can’t be it, we at least want to root for that underdog.    

The first movie that had me sitting on the edge of my seat was Rocky.  With my heart pounding with excitement, I watched as he beat the odds.  I remember being so disappointed and even dumbfounded that Rocky didn’t win that fight with Apollo Creed.  I’m not sure I even knew that he didn’t win until years later.  I couldn’t imagine it.  Where’s the happy ending?  Between Adrian’s red beret falling off and her running, running madly for the man she loved and Rocky not caring a fig that the announcer was declaring the winner and him shouting, shouting soulfully for the woman he loved, it sure felt like he won. 

But then, I got it.  It was about GETTING THERE.  Getting the shot and not being afraid to take it. 

Everyone assumed Rocky would lose.  It was a publicity stunt, after all.  But they didn’t count on one thing.  The drive and determination of the average guy, the common man, to rise above and let nothing stand in his way. 

I love the real life underdogs as well as the fictional ones.  I love ‘em all.

As writers, we want to create characters that not only go the distance, but make the journey to get there inspirational.  As readers or viewers, we want to cheer for those characters. 

Who didn’t cheer for Susan Lucci when she finally received her Emmy?  After eighteen nominations, she finally won in 1999, and celebrities there that night openly cried.  Hell, Oprah Winfrey rushed the stage in her excitement!  Even though she’s beautiful and glamorous, we all felt a bit sorry for her when she lost.  Because she lost so many times and became an ongoing joke in the media, we felt sorry for her—glamorous life or not.  She was our celebrity underdog, and we rooted for her.  I never watched All My Children a day in my life, but I sure wanted her to win that Emmy. 

I also love the romantic underdogs or the story where either the man or the woman jumps life’s hurdles, takes the shot, and WINS!  One of my all-time favorites is the original Ice Castles.  Who can ever forget that moment when the blind ice skater finishes her program successfully only to slip and fall on the flowers? Or Robbie Benson coming to her rescue as he skillfully maneuvers her through them to the theme song “Looking Through the Eyes of Love”?  And him saying softly, “We forgot about the flowers.”  Oh. My. God.  I loved that movie when I was a kid.  The romance.  The blind girl not wanting anyone to know she could no longer see after her accident.   Wanting to be judged on her skill and not win by pity. 

So, when writing or life is getting you down, do you tend to see movies or read books where the Underdog wins?  And which of those stories are your favorites?  I wish I could name the top 100, but I’ll limit my list.     

Kim’s Top Ten Underdog Stories

  1. Rocky (of course.  I’d pick all five, but that really limits the rest.)
  2. Karate Kid (the original with Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi)
  3. Gladiator (where a gladiator defeats the emperor of Rome)
  4. Slumdog Millionaire  (all I can say, is OMG)
  5. Pretty in Pink (this is what I call a romantic underdog story)
  6. Gattaca (defying the odds at any cost)
  7. Twilight series (need I say more?  Vampire…human.  Yeah.  Work THAT out.)
  8. Eva Peron (from the common people to EVITA, for God’s sake)
  9. Ice Castles  (the original.  I Cried.  Cheered.  Cried.  Cheered.)
  10.  Cinderella Man  (Russell Crowe apparently plays a great underdog.  See #3)
  11.  Shawshank Redemption  (Okay.  I know I cheated with eleven, but, come on.  Who wouldn’t want Andy to get some recognition here?  Defeating a corrupt warden and his posse?  Climbing through literal crap to escape from prison after being falsely imprisoned….? )

Please share your top five Underdog stories.  You can cheat if you want.  I won’t judge if you list six.

Who Needs Best Friends?

Kimberly MacCarron, mermaids, Uncategorized, ,

Whether it’s in real life or found on the big screen or between the pages of a favorite book, we need best friends.

Anyone who’s been through either good or difficult times can appreciate the steadfast friend who remains at your side.

As a writer, I can’t imagine having a main character without the benefit of a best friend.  Sometimes they provide comic relief or that voice of reason.  Whether that best friend is quirky, serious or just sweetly loyal, I love best friends!  Love, love, love ‘em!

Where would Lucy be without her Ethel?  Probably not in as much trouble, but, come on, where’s the fun in that?  Can you even picture Fred Flinstone without Barney Rubble?  Or Spongebob without Patrick. 

There are, of course, the stories with best friends that have you reaching for your tissue box.  Beaches.  Bridge to Terabithia.  My Girl.  Fried Green Tomatoes.  Charlotte’s Web.  Those are the stories that make you want a best friend just like the one you read or saw—even though the outcome of that friendship may be about loss and pain and learning to go on without them. 

Mohammed Ali once said, “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain.  It’s not something you learn in school.  But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”  So, so true.  We usually do learn the important lessons from our friends because they’re the sounding board for our hair-brained ideas, and if we’re lucky, they’ll manage to talk us out of them!  From the crib to nursing home, we depend on our friends.  No pun intended on the Depends.  Well, now there is…

What does friendship mean to you?  As a person?  As a writer?  What are the qualities that a best friend has to have as a supporting character in a book?  For me, they have to have a strong sense of loyalty and acceptance.  You can tell a lot about people by their best friends.  In some ways, they help define us.  They help us to understand ourselves, and, sometimes to accept ourselves—faults and all. 

Many times best friends come together because they have so much in common.  Others join forces because they’re so different and can somehow, someway balance out each other’s weaknesses and complement their strengths. 

Writers are an amazing group of friends when they finally meet.  Who else can fully appreciate the need to talk to imaginary people?  Who else can understand the mad scramble for a pen and paper while driving because you just thought of an amazing idea?  Who else can sympathize with you as you hit a bump in the publishing road?  No one else gets why a rejection letter from a complete stranger can feel like someone close to you just broke your heart.

Within the past year, I was lucky enough to become part of several amazing groups of writers.  My Unsinkable Sisters (and one lone brother) from the 2010 Golden Heart Finalists.  My MargaRITA sisters, the YA finalists from that same group.  RWA and the smaller chapters—WRW and YARWA.  And, now, my very own Waterworld Mermaids, who recently joined forces as first-timers at our local conference. 

When you think of best friends in books, movies or real life, who comes to mind?  Who inspires you?  Oprah and Gayle?  Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer?  Laverne and Shirley?  And, when you write those secondary characters—best friends for your hero or heroine—what character traits do they have to have? 

I’ll end with an anonymous quote I once read:  “A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.”

So, when life kicks you in the butt or things don’t seem to be going your way, make sure you have the friend who will remind you not to forget your dreams and the songs in your heart.  Someone who will pick you up, dust you off, and then give you another swift kick in that same butt—but in a good way.