RANDOM THOUGHTS
In our random thought, we talk about werewolves on bikes and what would happen if SuperBowl players dressed up like zombies and vampires. Who would win?
Here are the photos we promised.
The Advice Part!
So, advice is cool, right? It’s other people sharing their wisdom, but sometimes advice? It just sucks.
This goes for writing advice and life advice.
I was driving from Manhattan to Long Island with my boyfriend and his parents. These were wealthy people with a really expensive car. The dad was a partner at one of the top firms in the city, and he was brilliant. He was not, however, the best driver.
On this drive, my boyfriend and I were in the backseat and suddenly the car was bumping along. We looked up and his dad was legit driving his car on the median of the road, the bumped out divider thing.
His mom was screaming and he was just totally oblivious. The traffic was flowing, but heavy and there are signs in the median.
“Jimmy!” she screamed.
The sign is getting closer and closer.
And he said, “It is fine.”
He swerved off into oncoming traffic.
People screamed. He swore. He veered back up onto the median. The sign was still there, waiting.
I was clutching the door handle.
My boyfriend yelled, “Dad! You’re going to hit the—”
His dad slammed on the breaks. We waited about five minutes for his mom to stop swearing and for someone to let us to get back on the road.
And he said, I swear to God, “Let this be a lesson to you kids. Roads are not for everyone. You find your own damn way.”
Carrie
Bad advice, right? Sometimes it’s okay to stay on the road. When you deviate off, you want to deviate safely and not run over signs or almost get people killed.
I also had a relative who told me college was for fools and that I read too much so I wouldn’t get anywhere in life.
Also the thought does count, but it usually doesn’t count for the person you’ve kind of failed.
And credit cards aren’t free money, Mom.
There’s good life advice out there too like:
- Check your credit card and bank statements a lot.
- Don’t make big decisions when you’re super angry.
- Don’t not do things because you’re afraid of rejection.
- Don’t not speak your mind because you’re afraid of trolls.
- Floss your teeth so you can keep having teeth.
And there’s bad writing advice out there too like:
- You always have to outline. If you see “always,” it’s probably going to be a bad piece of advice.
- You should never outline. If you see “never,” it’s probably going to be a bad piece of advice.
- Adverbs are always demons. You really don’t honestly want them to be totally almost every other silly word, but you can totally use them sparingly. Sorry! I couldn’t resist.
- Semicolons are always demons. They aren’t; sometimes they help when a conjunction just doesn’t work.
- Write the way you talk. This isn’t necessarily a good idea if you’re a person who talks like Carrie. Plus, it’s limiting. Do you want every character to sound exactly like you? Every book?
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
All advice is not created equally.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Live your life for yourself sometimes.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.
Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.
WE HAVE EXTRA CONTENT ALL ABOUT LIVING HAPPY OVER HERE! It’s pretty awesome.
AND we have a writing tips podcast called WRITE BETTER NOW! It’s taking a bit of a hiatus, but there are a ton of tips over there.
We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream biweekly live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and YouTube on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. But she also has extra cool content focused on writing tips here.
Carrie is reading one of her raw poems every once in awhile on CARRIE DOES POEMS. And there you go! Whew! That’s a lot!
HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.
We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.
Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!
One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?
And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass.
And Carrie has new books out! Yay!
You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!
HEAR MY BOOK BABY (AND MORE) ON PATREON
On one of my Patreon sites I read and print chapters of unpublished YA novels. THE LAST GODS and SAINT and now ALMOST DEAD. This is a monthly membership site (Hear the book chapters – $1/month, read them $3-month, plus goodies!). Sometimes I send people art! Art is fun.
On this, my second site, WRITE BETTER NOW, you can do a one-time purchase of a writing class or get two of my books in eBook form or just support our podcast or the dogs. It’s all part of the WRITING CLASS OF AWESOME.
It’s a super fun place to hang out, learn, read, and see my weirdness in its true form.
And I’m starting up a brand new, adult paranormal set at a Maine campground. You can read the first chapter here.
