Emmy Award Wrap Up

I don't watch a ton of TV, but I do have a handful of shows that I record on the DVR. In fact I have to still finish a few episodes of some before the new season starts in September! But I do DVR the Emmy's and do a quick fast forward run through each year. I love the dresses and love to see my favorite TV stars get nominated.

Click here to see a list of winners (who I do I look like, Ryan Seacrest?).

Here is my usual:

RANDOM THOUGHTS WHILE WATCHING THE EMMY'S

1. Love the Born To Run/Glee opening! And Joel McHale was in it! Bonus! And Tina Fey! Double Bonus! I know I would love the show, Glee. I need to buy or rent the DVD set one day.

2. I adore Jimmy Fallon and his guitar! And Conan, what a good sport!

3. Ty Burrell (Modern Family) or Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) - both nominated for Supporting Actor in a Comedy. Both are hilarious. Either should win! Eric Stonestreet of Modern Family won, but that's great because Modern Family is awesome!

4. Love the Modern Family parody clip! Stewie! 3D Sofia! George Clooney! Always clever, that show. Love, love, love it!

5. Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory) has way too much blush on.

6. Musical Tribute to three shows (Lost, 24, Law & Order) was funny. Jimmy Fallon is so talented. He crooned about Lost to the tune of Green Day, "I didn't understand it, but I tried."

7. Yay! Joel McHale again! And he towers over Jeff Probst...

8. I have to admit I stopped fast forwarding through commercials during the Community/Infinity QX56 commercials. C'mon it's Joel McHale AND Chevy Chase!

9. Beautiful song by Jewel for the In Memoriam.

10. Woo hoo! Eric, Sookie and Bill presenting! Boo hoo! Only two more True Blood episodes left to watch this season.

11. Hmmmm, I thought Lawrence Fishburne would be presenting for adult TV films..(Sorry, Lawrence! Yikes...)

12. Mad Men wins for Best Drama instead of True Blood! Bastards!

Quote of the Night by Stephen Colbert: "Hello, ladies. Many of you look lovely tonight."

Best Dressed Male: TIE! Alexander Skarsgard and Joel McHale (They win no matter what they wore!)

Best Dressed Female: Navy was the big color this year and did look pretty. The dresses didn't wow me as a whole this year but I thought Rutina Wesley (Tara on True Blood) looked smokin' as did Nina Dobrev (of Vampire Diaries) - and no, not just because they are from shows about vampires! Claire Danes looked lovely as well, but I find it hard to compliment her as I still don't forgive her for having an affair with Billy Crudup while his longtime girlfriend, Mary-Louise Parker, was pregnant...

Amy Poehler also looked amazing for just giving birth three weeks ago!

Did you watch the Emmy's?

The Family That Rocks Together

...stays together. Last Saturday was a momentous occasion in my oldest son's life. My mother-in-law and I took him to his very first rock concert. My first concert (REO Speedwagon and Survivor) was with my parents at age eleven. Now his first concert was at the age of four days shy of eleven. When I saw that 2/3 of his favorite bands (Disturbed and Avenged Sevenfold) were playing in the same festival, I knew I had to take him! The other main band playing (Stone Sour) also has the same lead singer and guitarist from another fave band of his, Slipknot, so that was an added plus.

The Rockstar Uproar Festival started at 3pm. We arrived at about 3:40 to make sure we received bracelets for the Stone Sour Meet and Greet. We also wanted to see one of the band playing on the side stage, New Medicine. This band I discovered on Candyland's blog recently!

We rocked out to New Medicine then waited in line in the hot sun for an hour to meet Stone Sour. It was so fun watching my son mingle with some of his fave musicians.
Here he is with Stone Sour/Slipknot guitarist, Jim Root


J-Man talking with Stone Sour/Slipknot lead singer, Corey Taylor


After the Stone Sour meeting, I ran to the New Medicine Meet and Greet and met the guys.


I said Hi to Brady, guitarist of New Medicine, for Candace Ganger! He was just as nice as Candace said he was. See here how Brady and Candyland raise money for women of Ghana.

After being out in the sun for a few hours, we were ready to get some food and eat at our seats in the main ampitheater. We enjoyed the band, Halestorm, while we had dinner.

Then Stone Sour came on and I got to see my son headbang for the first time! He can scream the lyrics and throw the horns just like his mum. My fave songs were their newest single, "Say You'll Haunt Me" and "Through the Glass."

Here's a short clip of "Say You'll Haunt Me."





Avenged Sevenfold was next, my son's favorite band. The set was spooky and the music LOUD (I made my son wear ear plugs at the concert). Lots of fire and energy! They played some new songs and old faves like my favorite song of all time, "Unholy Confessions." Can you see the man dangling in the air? He bungy jumped and hung there for the first song! Creepy!

Here's a short clip of a fiery "Buried Alive."





Remember when my son and I did a Rock Band tribute for Avenged Sevenfold's drummer who passed away in December? See it here. Avenged also sang a tribute song called "So Far Away" for him at the concert.


Disturbed, a Chicago band, was next. Excellent graphics in the background, and David has an amazing voice. My fave song of their set was "Inside the Fire." Their most popular song is "Down With the Sickness."

We left before Disturbed was done with their set since my son is a minor and we'd already had a long, fun day. Plus we could beat the crowd after the concert. We left exhausted and happy.

A day my son will remember for the rest of his life. His mom will, too.

Books! Glorious Books!

Was WriteOnCon awesome or what? I was preparing for and having a garage sale during the days of the conference, but made sure I took the time to participate in most of the live panels and read most of the posts so far. I came away so informed and so inspired. I thought I was about done with my middle grade manuscript, but the conference (and critiques) taught me that there is still so much work to be done! I'm looking forward to using my new knowledge and energy to tackle it full force when the kids go back to school soon.

THANK YOU to all of the wonderful organizers and contributors. It was amazing.

See that pile of books in the left hand corner? I bought those this weekend! Most are gifts (some for my childrens' upcoming bdays, shhhh. Happy eighth birthday to my daughter today!), but I bought a few for myself and to pass along to my mom and sister. I have been dying to read Fat Vampire by Adam Rex and Linger by Maggie Stiefvater. And now I have them! Woo hoo!! I just started reading Fat Vampire and I already laughed out loud twice at the first page of the first chapter. I kid you not, people.

The best part about these books? I bought them with a gift card that I won!

When my mom, sister and I went to Printer's Row Fest in Chicago, I entered a contest. There was a Hyundai filled with paperbacks, and you wrote down your info and your estimate of how many books were in there. Guess who was closest in all of the Chicago participants??? Little ole me! I won a $100 gift card! The funny thing about it was that my original guess was 350 or something and my mom looked at it and said, "Kelly! There's more than that!" I looked at her guess and my sister's guess. Their guesses were over 700. I then entered a new guess, 692. So, thanks Mom! She's an avid reader and will definitely benefit from my winnings. I still have about $20 left that I'll save for future birthday gifts (or I should say gift, hardcover books are expensive!).

Speaking of awesome books, a big THANK YOU to Patricia at Simplicity in Volumes. I won third place in her Writing Triathlon and the upcoming release, The Duff. Another book I am looking forward to reading!

What new books are you excited about?

Three Things for Thursday

1. I'm back from another family vacay to my dad's cabin in northern Wisconsin. I love to watch my children catch (and release) frogs and fish at the same place I did as a kid. Good old fashioned family fun (but now with internet access!). We also saw Despicable Me while we were there- cute movie, it made me tear up at the end!

2. Thank you so much to my critique buddy Sharon Mayhew! I received some fun, random goodies in the mail after entering her (and Jackee's)Random Contest last week!
Thank you also to Lisa and Laura at Lisa and Laura Write! I won a query critique at their blog, and they gave me a rockin' critique! Great advice, ladies!

More crazy cool contests!
*Lovely Lola is having a contest that includes perfume, Stephen King and surprises! Enter at her Sharp Pen/Dull Sword blog!

*Win Rena Jones' third picture book The Marshmallow Man at her blog! Contest ends tomorrow!

*Win a copy of Alex Cavanaugh's upcoming sci-fi book CassaStar at his blog! Enter by August 8!

*Sara McClung is giving away lots of cool ARCs at her blog Babbling Flow. Check 'em out!

*Have you heard about Holly Cupala's book Tell Me a Secret?! Join her at her launch party and win cool TMAS stuff! First, check out the trailer...and enter to win, it ends today!




3. Thank you to all of you who are posting your stories and expertise from last weekend's SCBWI LA conference! I'm so jealous of all of you, but I am glad you are sharing your experiences with us! Suzanne Casamento emailed me after she spotted Anna Paquin (Sookie!) in LA (and I totally appreciated living vicariously through her!). I hope to attend the conference one day!!
I'm sad I didn't go to LA, but I am super excited about attending WriteOnCon next week! Click here to see what is ahead for the registrants. Day One is posted and looks packed with awesome agent/author/editor panels and workshops. The day starts with author Josh Berk and ends with agent Mark McVeigh! I can't wait!