Games, Games, Games

My daughter got an Operation game for Christmas. It made me smile remembering the hours I spent as a kid trying so hard to pick out that funny bone and not touch those metal edges. Growing up, one of the things I was blessed with was a family who loved to play games. I've written before about the epic Scrabble battles we used to have. It seemed like there was always some board game spread out somewhere.

I've been blessed a second time with a husband who has the same love of play. So, with Christmas behind us, and the New Year and many months of winter still ahead, I thought I'd share some of our family's favorite games with you. I hope you'll reciprocate with some of your own in the comments - we're always looking for something new to play.

For the Young Set

Chutes and Ladders and Candyland are always perennial favorites. Here are a few more that might tickle your little one's fancy.

 Zingo!

Okay, I lie. This game isn't only for the young. It's addictive. With a simple pictoral bingo board and plastic picture chips delivered by an ingeneous dispenser, this is a fast paced game the youngest kids can play and the oldest kids can still enjoy. I can't say enough about how fun this game is.

 Sequence for Kids

This board game, filled with colorful animals, challenges kids to use their cards to get four animals in a row. The luck of the draw is important, but so is strategy to block and outmaneuver opponents. We had a lot of fun when the kids were young playing this one. 

Older, But Not Necessarily Wiser

(Or More Mature) 

 

 Munchkin

Ah, where would our family be without Munchkin? This hilarious tongue-in-cheek card game is based on D&D  with a choice of cleric, thief, mage or warrior. But with monsters to fight such as the Ether Bunny and the Bi-Polar Bear, curses to face (including Chicken on Your Head) and rewards (Bribe the GM - Go Up A Level!), this game will have you chuckling, snorting and guffawing the whole time. There are tons of add on packs, too, to keep the fun going.

 The Farming Game

Yay! The Whole Valley Is Green!
This game was literally created on the seat of a tractor. A farmer from the valleys of Eastern Washington (where my own grandpa was a farmer!) came up with the idea for the Farming Game when he wanted to show us city-slickers what it was like to really work. This is probably the most board-gamey of my suggestions. Players roll dice and move around the board planting and harvesting hay, wheat, cows and fruit (Fruitage! - sorry, we used to have all night tournies in college and they got a little - uh, yeah). Just when you think you're in the clear, Wham! the fruit borer beetle decimates your harvest, or the IRS swoops in and garnishes your wages for the year. But when things go right just that once and you get that $80k payout - wow, what a feeling. Ha ha. Great memories with this game.

 Curses

This is an all time favorite. On a player's turn they draw a challenge card, which is an action they must perform ('You are a grade school bully. Try to take another player's lunch money.' 'You are in a TV soap opera. Tell another player why you can never marry them.') That's funny enough, but things really get wild when the player then draws a curse card which they can hand out to any other player ('You are a Vulcan. Whenever you laugh, say, "That is not funny." with a straight face.' 'Whenever you speak, use your arms to do some dance moves.'). The curse is in force for the duration of the game and must be performed at all times. Curses can also be compounded with other curses, so people often end up with a combination like this: 'Speak only in a high-pitched falsetto voice,' AND 'You are Mr. T. Whenever you speak, say "I pity the fool," AND 'Whenever you speak, a swarm of invisible mosquitoes surrounds your head. Swat them away.' AND 'Whenever someone makes an animal noise, shout the name of a lunch meat (in a high falsetto voice, first saying, 'I pity the fool,' and swatting yourself).'
Try this one. Seriously.

 Ugg - Tect

My husband just gave this one to us this Christmas, and I think it's shaping up to be another winner. You are part of a team of cavemen. Your task is to listen to your team's Ugg-Tect to create a structure using colorful building blocks before your rivals finish theirs (Only the Ugg-Tect can see the structure plan card). Communication is only allowed with a few gestures, guteral grunts, and a blow-up 'wooden' club (complete with spikes!) Yep, that's our kind of game, all right!

So, now that you've gotten to know my family's tastes probably a little too much, what games do you and yours enjoy?

~Susan

When (Not) to Query an Agent

First off, happy 12 - 12 - 12!

(and Happy Birthday to my son, who, on 12 - 12 - 12 is ... 13! Almost made it there, buddy.)

So, on to the topic at hand.
Coming to the end of my novel (and maybe the end of my sanity, too) I began to wonder if there was a best time to query an agent. Of course, the best answer is to query when your novel is ready. Beyond that, though, the all-knowing www is sort of nebulous. But, there is definitely a wrong (or less right) time to query. And that time is Now.

Let me reiterate: most sources say, do not query now unless you absolutely have to.

A few things happen to agents this time of year:

1. Agents get hit with the NaNoWriMo tsunami. No matter how much the NaNo site tries to tell you there's more to be done with your novel, many, many people flush with a 50k victory will pack up their next Twilight or War and Peace and email it off to a bunch of agents. Wading through that is probably enough to make any agent into a rubber-stamping rejection Grinch. Don't get caught like so much flotsam and jetsam in the NaNo deluge.
2. It's the Holidays! Believe it or not, agents are real people, too. They have lives, loved ones, and people they'd like to spend time with. As much as you might think it's a great idea to curl up with a good book over winter vacation, an agent might not like curling up with yours. Sorry, but that's her (or his) job, and when she's reading your manuscript, it's not for pleasure. Let agents have some breathing room to enjoy the bright lights, tinsel, and company of friends and family, too.
3. Oh, and don't think about querying January 1st, either. It's a New Year. You've set a goal to get published this year. How many other people have the same idea? How many others are sending out their stories January 1st so they can check that puppy off their New Year's resolution list? A lot. So, how do you start the year out right? By not querying. Just like NaNo, let the flood subside before you submit.

So, if it's not right to query now, when is it right? Just about any other time of the year. Late winter to early spring seems to be particularly promising from what I've read. Summer can be hit or miss. Some agents love to have something to do during those dog days. Others are busy with vacations and activities. Fall, like Spring tends to be another universally good time to query.

One other thing to be aware of when querying is the agent's schedule. If you know an agent is going to be attending something big, sitting on panels, hearing pitches, etc., it's probably reasonable to expect her inbox to get a little overstuffed. Wait to query until she's a little more free.

There you go. You now have permission to breathe a sigh of querying relief, put down the keyboard, close the email, and go enjoy the holidays.

What good querying tips have you found?

~Susan

Happy Halloween!

found at: http://twitpic.com/b7h88q

Boo! Scared you! 

Happy Halloween!

Okay, that squirrel really is about as much scary as I can handle. As I mentioned in MaryAnn's excellent post yesterday about supernatural movies - I can't do horror. At all.

So, for today's spooky post, let me present to you my top three favorite non-scary (and very family friendly) Halloween movies:

# 3 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

(Disney Edition)

Alright, I'll admit, this one did scare me as a kid. But as an adult, I can see the charm. And, better yet, it looks like you can watch the whole thing on YouTube!*
(*brief perusal of titles only, so ymmv)


#2

 It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Well, of course this is in the top three! One thing I miss about only having Netflix and not real TV, is that there's not the anticipation I had as a kid of waiting for these classics to come on the network channels. You had one, maybe two chances to watch, and then, poof, they were gone, so you made the most of it.

#1

Arsenic and Old Lace

Okay, all you Prosers have to have seen this, right? The best Cary Grant movie ever?

For you deprived few, here's a little background on the clip:

Confirmed (and vocal) bachelor, Mortimer Brewster, has just gotten married to the girl next door. While she's picking up a few things at her house for the honeymoon, Mortimer goes back to visit his dear, sweet Aunts who raised him. Also living in the house is Teddy, who is more than a little off his rocker (he thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt and is always going to Panama (in the cellar) to dig more locks for the canal). 

The visit takes a decidedly macabre turn when Mortimer finds a body in the window seat and comes to realize that maybe it isn't just Teddy who should be donning a straight jacket.

Add in an excellent 'Boris Carloff' performance by Raymond Massey as Mortimer's terrifyingly reprobate brother, Jonathan, and this is a real winner.


Alright, Prosers, so what are some of your favorite Halloween movies (scary or not)?

~Susan

Ghost Stories-or Ghost Movies to be more specific

Before I had kids, I used to spend Halloween eating pizza and watching a good horror flick while passing out candy to the five or six Trick or Treaters that stopped by.  Now I’m out Trick or Treating with my kids.  Which of course is so much fun, but I do miss my pre-kid Halloweens a little. 

Ghost stories have always been my favorite of the horror genre.  I enjoy more eeriness and mystery to shock and gore, and a good creepy ghost story can scare me a little more than a vampire or werewolf mostly because, I hate to admit it, but part of me believes that ghosts might exist.  Embarrassing confession aside, ghost stories have always been my favorite Halloween picks.  So I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you.

I haven’t watched very many horror movies since I had kids (partly because I have to wait until the kids are in bed to watch anything scary and partly because for some reason my mommy brain has a hard time with the horror elements, especially when they involve children which surprisingly so many do), so this list is going to be a little dated.

Anyway, in no particular order, here are my favorite ghost movies.

Sixth Sense (1999)-I love a good, big twist, and a while back I wrote this post on how perfectly this twist is pulled off.   This is one of my all-time favorite movies.  The story is amazing and while it isn’t really scary, there are some truly creepy moments, but it is the characters that make this film so compelling.  

Every character int he movie is in so much pain.  Malcolm feels like he failed a former patient and needs to help someone to redeem himself.     Cole can see ghosts which not only terrifies him but makes him different than everyone else, and he is afraid that if other people know, they will see him as a freak.   It is the great characterization that makes this movie.

The Others (2001)-This movie also has a great twist ending.  This movie centers around two mysteries of who are the intruders and what the mother did to the children that caused the rift between her and her daughter.  Both of these mysteries are really compelling and kept me riveted throughout the movie even though it had a slower pace.  Although like with Sixth Sense, this movie isn’t really scary, there are some very creepy moments, and the house itself and the darkness they must live in because of the children’s condition add to the eeriness of the movie.  But once again it is the characterization that really makes this movie.  

The mother is very conflicted, highly devoted to her children, there is no doubt that she loves them, but their condition has trapped her and isolated her.  There is great pain there, and this all leads to a really compelling and heart breaking story that I thought was amazing.  This story would have never worked without the complex characterization of the Mother and her children.

Poltergeist (1982)-This movie really freaked me out when I first saw it.  I still remember it.  I was about eight or nine at a slumber party, and I remember being so terrified once it was over that I couldn’t sleep.  All my friends had fallen asleep, and I just kept staring at the dark stairs, and I swear I saw the scene where the white spirits descend the stairs.  Maybe not, but I always had a way too active imagination.  

But I think this was the first movie that every really scared me.  I know it is a little old now, but I think it holds up pretty well as a scary story.  There were a lot of freaky moments:  like the clown attack and the vortex in the closet and the little girl talking to the static on the TV.  I thought overall it was a good story although the house disappearing may have been a little over the top.  Still I think it is a classic.   

The Ring (2002)-This movie was pretty freaky, and I was in college when I first watched it.  It had a creepy concept and lots of eerie imagery.  But ultimately it was the mystery of what happened to the girl that kept me watching, and it did have a nice twist in the ending that wasn’t as big as The Sixth Sense or The Others, but still I liked it.

The Shining (1980)-Just the premise of this movie was freaky enough.  The idea of spending a winter trapped in a huge, empty hotel in the middle of the wilderness is creepy all on its own.  But there were some really disturbing elements in the movie like the little boy saying “redrum” in that creepy voice and the ghost twin girls in the hallway.  And the father, who are supposed to protect their families, turning on the mother and the little boy in a murderous rampage truly made this story horrifying. 

So there you have my top picks.  Did I miss any good ones?  Let me know, I’m in the mood for a good ghost story.

Happy Halloween,

~MaryAnn

Happy 4th of July!

 

And for those of you not of the American persuasion, I hope you have a very nice July 4th, which is as good a day on the calendar as any other to enjoy yourselves.

That Might Be Poisoned: A Thanksgiving Tale

I’ve been running a low-grade fever for a week and my younger son is a walking landmine of mucus explosion. The cats just decided to get fleas, my bathrooms are science experiments, and I have a mountain of dirty laundry. My in-laws drove two days just to visit this disaster.

But... I did what I could for Thanksgiving. Anticipating continued health challenges, I pre-ordered a cooked turkey, stuffing, and gravy. That left only a couple more sides to make, plus pies.

The perfect pie ladies, they taunt me.

It should have been easy, even if my heart wasn’t in it this year. Most of my thoughts centered around bed and more bed. I stole away a lot, making little notes, sometimes tweeting the worst of it to an anonymous Internet. Here is the rundown of Thanksgiving 2012: 

9:30 Every year it haunts me. I can’t flute my pie crust so it’s pretty. Tasty, but not pretty. I have little hope this year will be different. Grateful today that there is a new American Horror Story available for download on iTunes. It’s the little things.

10:00 As predicted, my pie crust looks like I let the 5-year-old shape it. Sigh. Tastes the same. 

10:45 Something smells wrong. Not burning. Is it possible the ceramic pie plate wasn’t safe at 450? Or the silicone crust shield? WHAT SMELLS? Someone on Twitter says it’s probably the silicone, but… if it is the shield, does that make this a POISON PIE? 

10:54 I have Googled. Many people report strange smells with silicone. Strange smells make me nervous. I hope we don’t all die from the fumes. 

11:00 I live. It is a miracle. But we’ll see what happens after we eat the POISON PIE. 

1:21 Holy crap! If you order a pre-cooked turkey, you have to check under the foil before sticking in oven. For plastic wrap. And a plastic container. The parade of smells just keeps on coming. 

1:25 This is our POISON THANKSGIVING. 

1:30 But really, if they say heat it in foil, don’t you think they should also say, but not until after you’ve removed all the hidden plastic? 

1:35 I hope this doesn’t cause stomach cancer. I really don’t want stomach cancer. (I am a hypochondriac with a particular dread of digestive diseases. I’ll spare you the "why" on that one.) 

2:50 We ate, we drank, we made merry. In a subdued, small family, WASP-y sort of way. We made politely pleasant. 

3:02 Less than 30 minutes since the kids were sooo full they couldn’t possibly eat a bite of green beans, the first snack request has aririved. 

3:03 DENIED. 

3:08 So sleepy. So very, very slee… 

4:30 Don’t want to clean up the mess. Don’t wanna. Next year we’re getting turkey sandwiches from Quizno’s and that’s that. Note: I make this declaration even on non-poisonous years. At the point when I am most certain I will never cook again, I am subdued by pie. 

5:21 Diabetic relatives = more for me = will be one of them soon. 

5:30 Pumpkin pie should be a vegetable, at least by federal standards. It’s at least as vegetable-ish as pizza and fries. Pecan, though… that’s a crime against nature. Sugar, corn syrup, eggs, and butter, cooked into a caramel filling of pure insulin-spiking pleasure with just enough pecan crunch to justify naming it pecan pie instead of sugar pie. You can’t have seconds of “sugar pie,” but “pecan pie” is a two-slice confection. 

7:00 All day, I have tweeted to my writer buddies, as well as random followers such as @nomoredarkcircles and a few shady characters who may or may not be selling pornography and/or iphones. Nanowrimo people posted their word counts, and each one was a fresh stab of jealousy. Why do I have to have a fever, children, and in-laws? Why did I have to be born American? If we were Canadian, my house wouldn’t smell like turkey and burned plastic right now and maybe I'd get some real writing done.

8:20 In-laws went to their hotel. Another thing to be grateful for: not being able to afford a big enough house to host anyone. John can do bedtime. I’m sneaking out to the office. 

8:38 I don’t think The Bravery needed to re-relase The Sun and The Moon with remixes. And I would like Pandora to understand this Truth. 

8:39 I still love you, Pandora. 

8:40 It is too late. I am ruined. Carbs, wine, fever… I give up.

I cuddled, I watched over-the-top horror featuring a mysterious rubber suit, I took three kinds of cold medicine, and then the dam broke. I let the gratitude I’d been fighting all day wash over me.

Yes, I fight it sometimes. Gratitude is always a mixed bag for me. The more I think about how lucky I am, the more I have to be aware of how fleeting everything is, how quickly blessings can disappear, and how many variations of tragedy and hardship I’ve been spared for no conceivable reason. It can be a weighty emotion, one I don't always feel strong enough to carry.

I checked on the children and wished I’d hugged my older one before bed. I wondered if the younger one would crawl in between us again, and knew I wouldn’t kick him out if he did. Damn gratitude. It always leads me to this place: the feeling that everything I hold dear is slipping through my fingers like so many molecules of water. I promised myself tomorrow I would write it all down, trying to hold on a little longer, hoping I could remember - what their smiles looked like, what their wishes were, how their bodies felt in my arms - the day I cooked the turkey in plastic wrap.

~Sarah