Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! 

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page 
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL TO NOT INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

HERE'S MY TEASER:

I, Mona Lisa

by Jeanne Kalogridis

page 4: And as an only child, I was well aware of the power I possessed; I whined and pleaded pitifully until my mother yielded.

Had I known then what was to follow, I would not have pressed so hard.

Back to that Stringer Thing!

If you read my post about surfboard shapes, (Surfboards Demystified) you might still be wondering what this mysterious stringer thing is. So here goes!

Actually, it’s super simple. A stringer is the thin piece of wood that runs down the center of the board’s deck—from nose to tail. Think of it like the board’s spine.

The stringer's main purpose is to increase your board's structural strength. But here's a way it can help you in the water: make it a useful visual cue to line up and center your body on your surfboard. How? When you're paddling, just glance down occasionally to check that your face is centered over it.

Fun fact: Shapers like to write stuff on the bottom of the board next to the stringer. Often they'll sign their name, write the board's dimensions, and if it was shaped for someone specifically--such as you--they'll write "shaped for ____".

Do all boards have a stringer? Some, particularly those constructed of foam, don't. But these are the exception, rather than the rule.

So there you have it! The mysterious stringer :D 
Happy Surfing!

An earlier post you might find interesting:

SURFBOARDS DEMYSTIFIED

Teaser Tuesdays!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! 

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page 
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL TO NOT INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

HERE'S MY TEASER:

Nefertiti

by Michelle Moran

page 20: He smiled like he knew my thoughts on the matter, the prying old donkey, then he held out the collar and I snatched it. I ran back to my room and held up the heavy jewel like a prize.

Cleverly Inked: Weekend Question? Book Scarring...

Weekend Question?

"Is it a big No-No? IE Marking, Breaking Binds, Dog Ears, etc."

Tallulah buys a Big Gulp

    I carted my stuff to the register. The Russian woman frowned.
     "You must forget this boy," she said.
     "What boy?"
     "He must be very bad boy." She tapped my drink. "Why else you drink this big bucket? You must forget him."
      I stared at her. "There's no boy."
     "I know bad boys. Every day I see bad boys. I work in deli-mart. You think I don't see bad boys? You must forget him. He makes you fat."
      I was so not fat! Okay, so my skirt was a little tighter than usual. It had shrunk from the whole apple juice thing!
     "Can I pay?" I shouted.

page 57

Cougar Town with Courtney Cox

Hi, I hope this finds you well! 

I'm posting to tell you about a super fun experience I had recently! On May 25, I played 'Lisa' in an episode of ABC's "Cougar Town" opposite Courtney Cox. 

It was one of those lucky things. The casting director, a friend of mine, called me last minute to come down to the audition. He knew I'd acted in a bunch of independent films, and said I should come try out for the role. I did. Days passed, and I thought that there was no way I got it. Then I was getting my hair cut, my phone rang and I saw that the caller was from the L.A. area code. I answered, and just about fainted when they told me I got the part. I freaked.

But then suddenly I was nervous. What if I couldn't do it? What if I freaked out acting opposite a big star? Seriously! What if I lost my ability to speak?? 

A few days later, even more nervous now, I drove to the set. It was up on Oahu's North Shore at Turtle Bay resort. They directed me to my trailer to change. Yes, I had a trailer! :) I felt so cool. Of course, it's hard to enjoy all that when you're sweating bullets. I went to hair and makeup, and they made me feel at home and pampered. The day was long. They called us to the set several times, but then changed their minds as shooting was going slowly on the other scenes. Finally our scene came up.

On set, Courtney was extremely professional and nice. I immediately forgot my nerves, which was great, and was somehow magically able to focus on the task at hand. We were all in the water, and it was a lot of fun. I got the feeling the whole crew was enjoying being away from the studio and on a mini-work-vacation in Hawaii.

What was crazy was the amount of paparazzi. Photographers had rented the hotel rooms looking over the pool, and were leaning out every window with huge camera lenses. On set, PA's held up umbrellas to block the flashbulbs from ruining the takes.

The episode was the show's season finale. Entertainment Weekly ran a small bit about it. I couldn't believe it when I saw my picture there, credited and everything! 

An excellent time all around. 

SURFBOARDS DEMYSTIFIED!

What exactly is the difference between all those boards in the surf shop? What kind should I ride? And do I seriously need to know what a stringer is?

It's time to demystify this once and for all!

The Funboard: 

A Funboard is also sometimes called an Egg. As a beginner, this may be your best bet. I believe it is. It’s what I learned on when I started out. Not only are they fun boards to surf (thus the name), and less challenging than other boards, they can also be a great stepping stone. 

A fun board is thick, so it floats well. It is wide in the middle for balance, it’s around 8 feet long and is shaped like an elongated egg. If you decide that you want to move to a short board, it is easy to do so from a funboard. It is much harder to go from a long board to a shortboard. The other great thing about a fun board is that it’s much less threatening than a longboard size wise. You can carry it, it doesn’t have as much momentum in the water, it can be easier to control both for turns and to be able to sense the water dynamics as your riding.

The Shortboard:

Shortboards range in length from 5 feet to around 8 feet or so. They have a pointed nose and various tail shapes. Within the short board realm, there are various forms–the fish, the gun etc.

The reason they’re not recommended for your first day out is that they sink easily, and they require more power to paddle. No question, they are harder to learn on.

However, shortboards are extremely fun and rewarding to ride once mastered!

They are by far my preferred choice. Shortboards provide riders with endless possibilities for tricks--from tight turns to aerials and endless fast maneuvers. Shortboards are the racecars of the surfing world.

Another plus is that they’re easy to carry around, and they can fit in the passenger seat of your car—with a seatbelt on for good measure. How cool is that?

The Longboard:

Longboards range in length from around 9 feet to 12 feet. They can be made of fiberglass, which is hard and probably the most preferred if you plan to surf it a lot. They can also be made of foam, which is great for learning on. However, in the long run a foam board is hard to surf on as you progress. It’s too soft to execute sharp turns and maneuvers. But it doesn’t hurt when you fall on it. A third form is hard plastic. A fourth is epoxy.

A longboard can be good for building confidence and the ability to stand up. You may decide longboard style is the way you want to go permanently. Some tricks that you can do on a longboard, which you cannot do on a short board, are hanging 10, walking the board, tandem surfing, riding a surfboard with your dog, being able to ride in the smallest conditions, laid-back surfing stuff.

Specialty Boards:

Specialty boards include the extremely long Rhino Chaser for big wave surfing, some special tow-in boards that have foot straps, etc.

The Rhino Chaser:

The Tow-in Board:

We'll get to the stringer some other day. In the meantime, I hope this helps next time you decide to try out a board. 

Happy Surfing!

Best Day Ever at the Vans Triple Crown

Thanksgiving turkeys and cold weather are descending on the mainland, but here in Hawaii surfers are flocking to the famous North Shore for the Vans Triple Crown. The event works its way through three separate contests and ramps up to an exciting finish at one of the world's best, heaviest tubes: Pipeline. 

First up on the Vans Triple Crown circuit is Haleiwa, right in the town of Haleiwa. The wave is popular on small days with surfers of all levels. But in winter, watch out! It pumps, and big swells turn it heavy and challenging.

On my first morning off, I headed up to check it out. The women's contest was in full session, the weather was amazingly beautiful, and I was stoked to visit Scotty, Mark Morgan and Lyrl Hailstock, who are all on the film crew.

Mark Morgan & Scotty Lisetor with the camera jib arm.

I guess being in the industry has its advantages! I got to climb a camera scaffold tower and look through the lens. I could hardly believe how powerful the zoom was--I could see the looks on the competitors' faces, all the way out at sea.

me with Lyrl Hailstock up on a camera tower

I also got to drop in on the video trailer, which is a big tractor truck full of people and flashing equipment. It looked as if they were about to launch the space shuttle or something.

Entrance to the flashing video village land

Outside, Vans had a tent with free swag that included stickers, programs, Vans frisbees, and all sorts of other things. Rockstar Energy Drinks, another sponsor, was giving away free cans of their drinks, including new flavors like lemonade and cola. A third tent had hats, shirts and hoodies for sale, and Scott got me a super cute Triple Crown hoodie. Yay!

Best of all, the women surfed really well, and it was exciting to watch. 

To make a virtual visit, check it out here:

http://triplecrownofsurfing.com/

Now I must head to the grocery store in search of a turkey and some cranberries. Happy Thanksgiving and best wishes to all of you :D

Why I've Been "Off the Map"!

Hello all! Whew, it's been ages since I've posted, but I have an excuse. (although I've thought about blogging literally every day, somehow I just never made it happen. How do multi-taskers do it all???) I've been off the map for three months. What I mean is--I've been working on a new TV show from the makers of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, called Off the Map. It's exciting, because I think it's going to be really good!!

We started in September. The first day on a new set always reminds me of the first day of summer camp. You're milling around between the hundred or so people, wondering who's going to be there that you know, searching for friends and familiar faces, trying to see what the new people are like, checking out the people in charge, and hoping like crazy that the food will be good. Slowly, after a few weeks, everyone finds their places, learns names, and this whole social world develops.

We've all been cloistered away up in a rainy, jungly (is jungly a word? I don't know but I'm going with it) valley in Hawaii. We eat breakfast, lunch, and even sometimes dinner together in a big tent. It's like we're off in a land that's totally remote from our normal lives. Or maybe it just feels that way because work days run 12-14 hours and I tend to get a little fuzzy at that point . . . ! And I'm super happy to say we're now like one big family. The food is pretty good too :)

What's the show about? Off the Map features a bunch of doctors who run a clinic in the South American jungle. We have people getting attacked by anacondas, strange diseases, and lots of romance. It's fun, and surprisingly funny. We've shot 8 of the 12 scheduled episodes so far.
The show will air on ABC some time in January. On Friday and yesterday we got to watch two of the episodes during lunch. It was awesome! Jammed in our lunch tent we were hooting, laughing, and there were even some tears.

In the meantime, I've been huddled down every moment I can get to work on my new novel. Watching drama play out live is inspiring, and helping fuel my own creative energies. It's a great combination!

Sending you all best wishes!

The Awesome Scholarberry is Hosting a Poser Book Giveaway

I was super flattered when Eliora Vespera, aka Scholarberry, asked me to do an interview for her blog. She had some really thoughtful questions. Some were pretty hard, like--what are my favorite books? There are so many great books out there that it's difficult to just name a few. And then afterwards of course all I can think is, wait, what about all those other books I didn't name? But there it is :)

If you want to read the interview, and also enter her contest to win one of three signed copies, go check her out. She has some fun, interesting interviews with other authors, and is a great resource for book reviews if you're looking for something to read.

To visit Scholarberry, click here:

s c h o l a r b e r r y:  "Sue Wyshynski wrote a 10/10 book called Poser, and I was very excited to get her answers. Poser is..well, by the title, you should know what..."

The Poser Surfboard Goes to...

First, I want to say thank you so much to everyone who entered the Poser surfboard contest. You’re awesome.

We processed all the entries and submitted them to Random.org, and the results are in. I’m excited to announce the custom Poser board goes to the Dannecker Family in San Diego, CA. I’m sure they will love it a lot!!

It was so great to get your entries from all over the country. You made me wish I could’ve given all of you a board! I hope to hold another cool contest like this in the future, so I’ll keep you in the loop.

I'd like to once again thank Christian Budroe of CSH who teamed up with us to offer this board.

Thank you!

Thank you Christian Budroe of CSH!

Sellers Library Teens: Check These Out!

Sellers Library Teens: Check These Out!

POSER Sightings

It's been really exciting to receive everyone's texts and emails about Poser sightings at bookstores across the U.S. This one was taken by Judy at BooksAMillion in the Sawgrass Mills Mall in Florida. Thank you to everyone who's been sending them!!

Poser at BooksAMillion, Sawgrass Mills Mall, Florida

Note to self: NEVER Pack My Handwritten Manuscript in Checked Luggage!!

Sometimes I'm on top of my game, other times, I just don't think. And last week was one of those times.

I've been working on my latest manuscript, and am just around the halfway mark in the book. I like to write by hand, on those yellow lined pads. It's great, because you can't go back and edit, you just keep moving forward. The downside of course, is that it's the only copy. I've already spilled a full cup of Starbucks coffee on it at a coffee shop--the ink miraculously survived--so you'd think I'd have learned my lesson after that moment of panic.

However, I was packing in a hurry, and I had other work to do on the plane, so without thinking I just tucked the manuscript, all those many months of work, into my suitcase.

Merrily I made my way through one connection, arrived at my destination, and no bag. At that point, I hadn't remembered putting the manuscript in there. Several hours later, it was a different story. A call to the airport to check up on the bag's progress revealed that they had no clue where it was. It could be anywhere. India. China. Russia. Timbuktu. I started to go through what I had in there, and that's when I broke out in a sweat.

My precious manuscript!!

Two days followed with no news and a lot of phone calls. By now, I was just trying to be stoic. The worst part was, half of the writing in there I couldn't even remember, because in writing by hand I never go back over it.

Then, finally, the phone call came. Miss, we have found your bag. It is in San Francisco. It will be shipped to you on the next plane and delivered to your door.

I would've kissed the delivery man, except my sister happened to be on the driveway when he arrived, so I never got the chance. But I'll tell you this, I'm entering all that writing into my computer ASAP, and until then, it will be right there where I can touch it :D

 Here it is, yay!

Poser Surfboard Contest Almost Over!

Hi! I hope everyone's having an awesome weekend.

The Poser surfboard giveaway will soon be coming to a close. We've had tons of entries from all over the country. It's been great to get all of your emails! If you still haven't entered and want to have a shot at winning the board, visit www.poserthebook.com for more information.

Here's a picture of me with the shaper, Christian Budroe. We're giving away one of these amazing boards! Good luck :D

I'm Glad to Finally Be Blogging :D

So many of you have great blogs out there. I really enjoy reading and following what everyone has to say!

Somehow it seems appropriate that today I'm finally entering the world of blogs myself. My first novel, POSER, came out this June.  I'm visiting my parents for the first time since then. I'm sitting typing this back in my childhood room, beside my bookshelf full of all my old favorite books. Their covers are worn out from being read and re-read. When I pick one up, I feel like I'm visiting old friends, favorite old places. Those writers had such a wonderful impact on my life. No matter what was going on, I always knew I could disappear into the pages of a book, and that is a wonderful thing.

When I arrived home, I found my parents had put my own book alongside them. I've done signings and readings, have seen my book in store windows and on the internet. However, seeing it there, on my shelf--I think that's when it really hit home. That other readers might be carried into my story. That I've been able to give back, just a teeny bit, in return for all those wonderful moments my favorite writers created for me.