Shnoobers

Never heard the phrase shnoobers? Well, that’s because you didn’t have my dad growing up. In our household, any kind of swearing was the biggest no-no, so of course we had a bunch of substitute words. In fact Napoleon Dynamite utilizes most of them. But sometimes my dad would say shnoobers, you know, kind of like great googly moogly.

Why do I bring up shnoobers in the first place? Well, as you may remember I have a full manuscript in for consideration with an agent. Call me a perfectionist (hey, it’s true, I won’t be insulted) but I’m still scouring the thing for typos, etc., and I’m still finding some. Argh! Shnoobers!

I know, there are some books in print that have typos in them, but you know how it is… You want to present them with your best possible manuscript. I’m just hoping the agent sees the story and the voice past the few errors.

Hence my reaction shnoobers! I know there’s nothing I can do about it now, and I’m guessing I’m not the first aspiring author to send in an imperfect manuscript and I’m sure I won’t be the last. It just makes you wish for some kind of man with a time machine to help you get the better one emailed off instead.

AHEM. Man with time machine, that’s your cue.

*sigh* No blue box. Shnoobers…

In other news, I did get my replacement guitar and it is working fabulously. I’m getting closer to going all Marty McFly with Johnny B. Goode and having fun messing around with the Top Gun theme and Thunderstruck. I’m so close on the speed for Thunderstruck. It’s not technically a hard song, just the speed.

Now our neighbors that can often be heard yelling at each other at least have a soundtrack for their fights. That’s got to be positive, right?

But I’m pretty close to being finished with this most recent edit session on SHADE, then I’ll put it away for a little while and to short stories I go. I may even try a novella. There are many more contests to enter after all!

Have you ever submitted something you realized was a bit more error-ridden than you’d like? Any really big mistakes that made you cringe? How are you coming along with your editing or writing? Are you more of a short stories person or a novel person?

I Bought an Electric Guitar

I’ve been thinking about buying an electric guitar for a while now. I have a beautiful Fender acoustic electric I’ve owned for nearly 20 years, but there are some tunes which just sound better on the electric. (Like the blues, for example).

But I wanted to start cheaper and see if I would use it and love it as much as a decent electric guitar would cost—a beginner guitar, if you will. So I decided on a Squier starter kit. These are the types that come with a guitar and amp. When I was looking at a used Gibson online (the Maestro), I came across the review of a musician who said the Maestro was crap and a better starter guitar was the Squier. After looking at several different reviews, most people agreed this was a pretty decent guitar for the price (some even said they thought it was really great for the price) so I went for it.

I got it last night and had a chance to play with it a bit. The amp was pretty decent for a 10-watt and the guitar sounded fairly decent. However…there was an issue with the fretboard. On the 7th and 8th frets sometimes the 8th fret sounded exactly the same as the 7th and it was a bit tinny. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. 😦 I packaged it all back up to ship back to Amazon. Hopefully my replacement will be just fine. The thing is, no one mentioned a problem on the reviews, and many claimed to be lifelong musicians. The next guitar I suppose will tell. I know it’s not going to be the best thing I’ve ever played in my life, but certainly having the frets work like they should isn’t too much to ask—especially coming from a company like Fender.

I have been playing the acoustic a lot lately to essentially clear out my mind while editing. Even if I have all the time in the world to edit, there’s only so long I can go before I need a break. Music certainly helps with that, which is what inspired me to make the purchase in the first place. I think I needed to test out the waters with a starter guitar to see if I really want to invest in something major. I don’t get the replacement until Friday, so no conclusive evidence yet. I did plug in the acoustic for a few minutes, and it was nice to have something to bring up the volume a bit. Hopefully Friday will be less disappointing.

Something I always found difficult to play on my acoustic was the Marty McFly opening for Johnny B. Goode, mostly because of a tough string bend toward the end. My fingers are little and girly (I’m a girl after all) so it’s hard to push them up. The electric makes it a little easier, and it just sounds cooler. When I get reasonably well-practiced, I’ll see if I can’t post a little video here on the blog. I’ve also teased my roommate about one day waking her up with Van Halen’s Top Gun theme. That is going to happen, people. Some day…

Do you dare me to find that outfit? I might have something close.

PITCH WARS

As you all know, Pitch Wars is happening today. I’ll update the My Novel section of my blog as soon as I have any news. I doubt there will be offers of representation today (not that I’m ruling it out) but I think there will be requests for more material, and I’m hoping I’m among those in the request pack. I linked yesterday to all the blogs hosting the pitches, but you can find mine here.

Wish me luck!