Fried Frog Legs and Rastafarian Bananas

Every June, we have the annual San Diego County Fair (or Del Mar Fair to those of us who REFUSE to call it by its new name). It's a pretty big deal to us San Diegans. About 60,000 people attend the fair each DAY while it's here. People go to eat weird fried food, maybe buy some new knives or a crystal dragon figurine, look at the livestock, ride an elephant or try to win a Rastafarian banana. It's all great fun!

Hubs and I went last Sunday, thanks to some free tickets from his grandma.

 

Some steampunk guys at the entrance! See, K. Marie Criddle? Told ya!

 

Every year there's a new fried food to try. This year, it was Deep-Fried Kool-Aid (see a couple photos down). We didn't buy them, but we saw a lot of people partaking in the red balls of fried dough. Not sure if they were any good. Yes, that is deep-fried butter in this picture. No, we didn't try it (ew!). A couple of years ago, we did try chocolate-covered bacon. But I wouldn't recommend it.

 

Chicken Charlie's appears to have the most bizarre fried foods. Even though hubs says frog legs are pretty tasty, I don't think I can ever try them. Even if they're deep-fried. Ick!

 

Here is the place we ordered from (an extension of Chicken Charlie's). We got the "Totally Fried Avocados" and the fried Oreos. If you can't read the sign, yes that's a chicken sandwich with Krisy Kreme donuts for the bun, and then deep-fried.

 

Here's hubs and me with our fried avocados. They were AWESOME. They came with some olive oil dipping sauce with herbs in it. So good! I was pleasantly surprised. Oh, I just noticed that's the first aid station in the background. Good thing it's right next to Chicken Charlie's!

 

Then we walked through the rides and games area. For some reason, the big prize was one of these Rastafarian bananas. They also had Angry Birds.

 

Normally I love to go on rides, but they're so expensive here. And we'd just eaten fried Oreos and avocados. It made me a little queasy just to watch people get twirled upside down. But this pic is perty :).

 

Elephant rides!! I totally would have done it if I wasn't so cheap. No, I don't know these people. Hope they don't mind being on my blog.

 

In the livestock area ... llamas! We backed away quickly because that white one kept giving me the stink eye. I was sure it was going to spit on me.

 

"You know it's hard out here for a pig". Or hog, I guess. This photo doesn't really show how MASSIVE this hog was. From tail to nose, it was probably a lot taller than me.

 

These music guys were hilarious. They did "Thriller" and did a great job acting like zombies.

 

I totally broke the rules by taking this picture, but it's Cindy Pon's brush art! Later I wanted to take a pic of a painting of the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland, but hubs was like "You can't take pictures. There was a sign." Oops.

 

Another one of Cindy's brush art!

 

OK, this was seriously awesome. This is in the woodworking displays. The sign reads: "The Wand Chooses the Wizard - 25 Wizard Wands." I asked hubs which wand he'd want to have, and he said, "The wand chooses YOU." Oh, right.

 

In the gemstone displays. I just love "Paul's Holey Balls."

I didn't take a picture while we were there, but we usually go to the fair to browse the shops areas. Basically, it's like booth after booth of infomercial products. After agonizing over whether it was a good purchase, we spent $60 on this cleaner (we're so young and hip, right?). The demonstration was very convincing! And, we can bring it back next year for a full refund if we hate it. It has a 20-year shelf life and claims to take care of most of our household cleaning needs. I DON'T HAVE TO JUSTIFY MYSELF. YOU'LL SEE WHEN WE NEVER HAVE TO BUY CLEANER AGAIN - BWAHAHA. Ahem.

So, there you have it - my very professional recap of our fair visit. How does this relate to writing? There was SO much inspiration here. A whole novel could take place at the fair: so many interesting people, things to do and see, experiences that are different from everyday life. What's it like to travel from city to city, trying to sell your wares or entice people to buy fried candy bars? What shenanigans can ensue?

Have a great Fourth of July, everyone!!

So Many Good Books, So Little Time

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I have a pretty daunting "To Be Read" pile (OK, it's a bookcase ... see pic below). The other day I finally finished reading THE WEE FREE MEN by Terry Pratchett, which is an awesome and hilarious book by the way! (Also, I just saw that it might be made into a movie - squee!) Once I was finished, I had to pick a new book to read.

My eyes skimmed the titles that I acquired in January at the ALA Conference in San Diego, plus several others that I just hadn't gotten around to reading yet. Was I in the mood for another fantasy? Or should I choose a light romance? Or maybe historical fiction? I had so many choices, and it took me a while to finally make a decision. (Plus I keep buying books for some reason - I should probably stop doing that.)

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My choice was inspired by what I felt would help me most on my WiP. My novel has several elements: fantasy, romance, humor, a contemporary setting. I just introduced a love interest for my main character, so I figure reading a romance will help spark some ideas for making those first awkward moments feel genuine. I also really want the reader to feel what my character is feeling and, most importantly, stay interested.

The book I chose is ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by the super awesome Stephanie Perkins. I've only read the first two chapters but I am already getting a lot of ideas. I tend to write through a scene too quickly. Stephanie takes us through the scenes more slowly, and the reader learns so much during a simple scene about Anna's first morning at a boarding school in Paris. The actual scene may only be about 30 minutes in real time, but in that time we learn about the other characters, their relationships and the conflicts just by Anna's observations in the cafeteria. And we get those first few awkward moments - yay!

When I'm writing, it's like there's a movie playing in my head and I'm writing down what I see. Perhaps my scenes feel too quick because I just don't want to hit "rewind" and describe the scene in more detail. Maybe I'm just afraid the reader will get bored and want to get back to the action. Or maybe I just don't know how to describe the scene better to give the reader better insight into the story.

Another problem I've been having is how do you get from one main scene to the next? Do you write the scenes you know first and then go back to the filler scenes later? Or can you write straight through?

There's probably no real answer to this. You just write what comes out and/or try to plan with a detailed outline. That's why I read other books for inspiration. So far, I haven't figured out how to make the story flow naturally.

Any advice? What writing problems have you struggled and have you found ways to overcome them? What motivates you when choosing which book to read next?

Here is about HALF of my TBR pile (notice that it's two rows deep). Most of these I grabbed off the "Free ARCs" tables at the ALA Conference so I'm not sure they're my style, but a lot of them have awesome reviews and I'm excited to read them. Plus I just got a book in the mail today (A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford, who is doing my 10-page critique), and I will be buying one on Saturday when I go to Cindy Pon's FURY OF THE PHOENIX book signing. Eep!!