A Working Weekend

I've been writing like mad lately. In fact, I spent my whole 3-day weekend working! No complaints here though because as my blog states, I'm trying to write as much as possible.


So, after coming up with a list of what not to get your boyfriend for Valentine's Day, I created Your 2011 Valentine's Day Gift Guide for Her which was really a secret list for my husband to randomly find, ha. Then, I wrote a piece about the oh-so handsome Colin Firth winning his Golden Globe (yay!), and produced what I think is a pretty useful review of the Top 5 Study Abroad Programs for Communications Majors.

Finally, I worked on some additional projects for my other freelance clients, none of which I can mention just yet. Shhh...

Oh, and I'm still working on my magazine queries. Just waiting for a bite. Pretty please bite!

The question is: what shall I create this week? Stay tuned to find out! :-)

Get your fang on!

finally, the mobile game that i began working on over a year ago has been released! introducing Vampire Romance!


...and yeah, for some reason i couldn't grab the logo from gameloft's website, so the one above is from a different site.

anywho, it's for the mobile phones (not the iPhone...yet) and is geared mainly towards girls- tweens or young teenagers. there's all types of supernatural beings in your high school and a whole romance story evolves! plus, your choices in conversations determine how the plot changes and there's a whole "mad libs" element where you have to type in words to finish sentences! it's fun. :-)

here are some screenshots for you to enjoy:

Happy 2011! New content from moi...

I've been so busy crafting wool felt flower clips lately (don't worry, i'll post a pic soon) that my writing has somehow fallen to the back burner. Nevertheless, I recently published an article as part of Yahoo!'s Contributor Network. I've never used this network before, so I submitted an article more as an experiment than anything else. I figured the more online clips I have, the better!

So, please click, enjoy & pass it on!

How to Survive a Passive-Aggressive Boss

Also, one of my SafetyWeb resource articles was finally published- yay! If you are currently a college student or know somebody who is in college, this is a must-read. No joke. Check it out here:

Online Reputation Guide for College Students

More later, promise!

Where Did The Year Go?

greetings readers!

so, i haven't written in a couple of months because i've been super busy working and writing like crazy and o-m-g... where did the year go? my birthday's around the corner and soon it will be 2011!

i must admit that 2010 has been a pretty awesome year for me. i had steady freelance work to keep me afloat (so grateful for that) and i finally moved into a 2 bedroom apartment for a (drumroll please) HOME OFFICE!!!! *sigh* my dream! i'm still organizing the room, so expect some great photos sometime soon. let's just say that my walls are two-toned and i'm surrounded by inspiration. it's actually part office/part craft room and i can't tell you how much more productive i am with an entire separate room to myself!

i'm also super excited to announce some of my upcoming projects but unfortunately, everything is still confidential at the moment so i can't say much. :-( i will tell you that one of my games (remember the cupcake post?) is finally coming out in january and i can't wait for players to sink their fangs teeth into it!

i've also been working pretty hard on my children's book manuscript which i hope to finish by the end of the year.

so... stay tuned. more announcements to come soon!

Blogging, Blogging, more blogging!

I've been a super busy bee lately freelancing for SafetyWeb, a startup based in Denver. It's great, worthwhile work because they specialize in helping parents keep their children safe online. If you're a parent, you should definitely check 'em out!

Since cyberbullying and cyberstalking have been making headlines all over the country lately, there's no shortage of topics to blog about. Plus, I'm really exercising my journalism skills... which makes it all the more fun. In fact, I was thrilled that Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post actually linked to my story about the upcoming Phoebe Prince trial in an Answer Sheet column! (Seriously... that was awwwwwesome).

SafetyWeb recently flew me out to Denver to meet their crew. Here are some pics of their office (albiet taken with my horrible BlackBerry camera):

Okay... that last pic is actually the Stanley Hotel (The Shining hotel) which, admittedly, was a highlight of my trip.

Anywho, you can read all of my SafetyWeb tips and blog posts at http://blog.safetyweb.com/. Look for anything by yours truly!

Oregon Trail Makes IGN's Top 25 List...Again!

i realize that i keep talking about video games. i DO write other things. :-) but well, video games have been making a lot of news lately!

for example, a game i wrote last year called Oregon Trail (published by Gameloft) was just named one of The Top 25 iPhone Games of the Year by IGN for the 2nd year in a row! if you haven't checked it out yet, download it on your iphone or ipod touch now! it's fun, it's quirky and well, i'm pretty proud of the funny dialogue in it...especially samuel morse's! (little known fact: i'm a daughter of a ham radio operator and was taught morse code around the same time i learned the alphabet).

here's a colorful screenshot for you to enjoy:

why, oh why?

video games and bad writing.

they seem to go together like a big funky, crunchy, uber cheezy bowl of mac & cheese, right?

well, a friendly coworker of mine came across this video from The Escapist and it pretty much sums up the issues i go through while writing games. in fact, if you're in the video game business, this video should be, like, required viewing... or something. :-)