ESSAYS AND TERM PAPERS by Michelle McLean

Dude, you guys, today we have the amazing Michelle McLean and her amazing book, HOMEWORK HELPERS: ESSAYS AND TERM PAPERS.

I have never been more excited. Except for when I had bacon at IHOP... No, no this beats even that.

About THE BOOK:

The Twitter version: tell us about your book in 140 characters or less:

It’s a fun guide on writing essays and term papers that explains step by step, with examples, in plain English, exactly what you need to do

What made you think, “I need to write a book like ESSAYS AND TERM PAPERS.”?

I’ve always been the “go-to” gal for when family members or friends need help writing a paper or essay. I actually really like writing essays and papers, and I’m good at it. So I decided to do a few How To posts on my blog. I looked up some rules one day as a refresher for some of the posts I wanted to write, and the information I was finding was so technically worded and confusing even I, with all my experience and degrees, had a hard time understanding it. It drove me nuts that there wasn’t one site or book I could find that just said “Look, this is what you need to do and here is exactly how you do it, oh and here are a bunch of examples so you can see what I’m talking about.” Seriously, why do people have to make it so confusing?

So, I took the info and wrote a series of blog posts, in plain English, easy to follow directions, with examples. And I got a great response. A few friends told me I should write a book…and kept at me until I agreed :)

What else are you working on? Secrets? Inside scoops? Give us the juicy stuff!

I’ve got two more guidebooks in the works, one on poetry and one on literary analysis and criticisms. And I also write YA historical fiction and always have a novel in progress. And a few children’s picture books for fun :D

About THE AUTHOR:

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

It was always sort of in the back of my mind, but I didn’t think it was really a career option for some reason. I wanted to be an astronaut for a while, but I’m claustrophobic, afraid of heights and terrible at math, so that was pretty much out of the question. I settled on archaeology for a long time, or archiving…majored in history and everything.

But I’ve always written. I’ve got stories from when I was little…won a young author contest when I was in 5th grade. No matter what path I thought I was going down, being an author was always the big dream.

What made you decide to go that “extra step” and seek publication?

I just had a “why not” moment one day. I’d written a children’s book that my family was raving over. My mom, always my loudest cheerleader, kept telling me I needed to get it published. I’d just started working on my first novel and had always had visions of my name on a book, and just figured I had nothing to lose. It was what I’d always really wanted but it wasn’t going to happen unless I tried…so I did :)

Quick! You’ve been chosen to be a contestant on Survivor. What luxury item do you take?

Ha! I was a huge Survivor fan for years (THANK YOU!) so this is something I’ve considered before…probably flint and steel…you always need fire and a lighter would eventually run out of fluid (cause you know, I’d of course be on the island long enough for it to run out)

Tell us something about yourself we don’t know.

I still sleep with a nightlight in my room :D Overactive imaginations can be a pain sometimes ;-)

And the most important of all: bacon or chocolate?

I almost hate to say it, knowing how you love bacon, but I have to go for the chocolate (It's okay. We can still be friends) …though I’m not averse to putting those hands together and dipping a few crispy morsels in some chocolate deliciousness :D (She's not lying. She sent me some bacon-dipped chocolate. It was delish.)

Awesome, yes? Go visit Michelle here:
Website
Blog
Operation Awesome Blog
Facebook Author Page
Twitter

And get ESSAYS AND TERM PAPERS here:
Amazon
B&N
Borders

And if you're feeling lucky today (and even if you're not), you can leave a comment here to WIN A COPY of Michelle's ESSAYS AND TERM PAPERS!! I so could've used this book in high school. College. Heck, I need this book now. So comment. Enter. Win.

Check out what the other Bookanistas are up to today:

• Katie Anderson raves about THE LIAR SOCIETY, Myra McEntire shouts about the cover, and Shannon Messenger is giving away an ARC!
• Christine Fonseca applauds Michelle McLean's HOMEWORK HELPERS: TERM PAPERS AND ESSAYS with Signed Book Giveaway, and Bethany Wiggins adds her voice to the awesome
• Carrie Harris celebrates THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE
• Jen Hayley lauds DELIRIUM
• Shelli Johannes-Wells gives a shoutout to IN LOVE WITH HARLEQUIN
• Jessi Kirby admires MATCHED
• Carolina Valdez Miller salutes XVI with Signed Book Giveaway
• Megan Miranda gives some love to ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, and Lisa and Laura Roecker happy dance for Beth Revis
• Shana Silver cheers for HERE LIES BRIDGET
• Scott Tracey acclaims DIVERGENT

Gangsta Style

Okay, let's have some fun. First, I'll let you inside my head. I had to go to a meeting a month or so ago. It was not a meeting I was looking forward to. It was summer, I didn't want to go, and the meeting was about making a schedule for a bunch of other people to follow.

Luckily, the three other people in the meeting are some of my favorite people who breathe oxygen. So I'm at the meeting and we're hammering out the schedule. Checking how many kids are in each class. Calling other principals. Reading a chart that someone from Jupiter made, cuz that thing was a beast. In order to read the chart, you had to attend graduate school for four years and obtain two Ph.D's. So since I'm the one with the math minor (not two Ph.D's, mind you) I've got the chart. I finally figure it out and the four of us think we've worked out a schedule that everyone is just going to love. How could they not? (insert snarfage and heavy sarcasm here)

With me still? So since I'm also sort of witty sometimes, (usually only on Mondays, which this meeting was on a Monday) I was designated as the official email writer. So the other three people are dictating and I'm typing the email.

And I happened to give one of the people a nickname. I'm all over nicknames. I really like them. My DH gives them to our kids, his students at school, even me. He calls them rapper names, I call them Gangsta names. Details, schmetails.

So I made one up for this guy. Let's call him Zach Attack. So ever since then, he's been trying to come up with a gangsta name for me. Which, I must admit, thrills me to no end. I've always wanted to have a gangsta name. (In high school, I went by "Lane" or "Lanie" or pretty much anything else that started with an L or an E.)

Problem: my name is, well, not that easily adapted to gangsta style. But he's been working on it with his team. That's right. A whole team. So he comes in the computer lab last week to run a couple of the names by me.

The one we like best: EJ Jamma.

My DH hates it. He thinks E-Jamma would be better. So I need some help. What should my gangsta name be?

Here's some I've come up with for some gangsta friends of mine. If you imagine a gangsta accent and like me swinging my arms with my fingers splayed out and some baggy pants and my hat on sideways and some serious bling, it really helps. Trust me.

Christine Fonseca: Fonz-C. (Yo, yo, yo, Fonz-C. How's the WiP?)

Suzette Saxton: Z-Shizzle (Have your peeps call mine, Z-Shizzle. We'll do lunch.)

Bethany Wiggins: Wigs (He-ey! Wigs is in da house! *imagine the heavy gold chainz and you'll be there with me*)

Michelle McLean: Triple M Stack (Triple M Stack is bustin' out the wordage, yo.)

Heather Dyer: HDMD (Dude, HDMD, keepin' it real.)

So...so many of your are uber-creative. What have you got for a name like Elana Johnson? And this picture totally made me laugh. Cuz, well, E-Jamma and Zach Attack, yeah, we're pretty much like these guys. Can't...stop...laughing!

Associating With Greatness

Okay, since the whole Michael Jackson funeral/spectacle last week, I've been thinking. I know it's a dangerous pasttime similar to skydiving, but hey, sometimes I like to live on the edge.

And I was watching the funeral from my couch, in my pajamas cuz I had it DVR'ed. And there was this woman who had flown all the way from Brooklyn or somewhere in New York just to stand on the street like three blocks away.

This stunned me. I was like, For real?

But why?

I mean, I grew up in the eighties, so I get the adoration of MJ. We (meaning me and my sister) choreographed moves to some of his songs, and who didn't learn Thriller? So I get tuning in to see the funeral, but I stayed in the comfort of my own home. I don't get flying across the country just to stand on the street.

Here comes the thinking part.

And I've finally concluded that it all has to do with Associating Oneself with Greatness. Think about it. Wouldn't you want to associate with Michael Jackson (as perhaps messed up as he was) or Oprah or say, Holly Root or Rachelle Gardner or Jessica Faust or Kristin Nelson or Nathan Bransford?

I would.

And why?

Because we believe they're great.

Enter more thinkage, and a few MJ lyrics.

Heal the world

Make it a better place

So that's my thing. I want to make the world a better place. With my books, my blog, my life. I used to listen to my favorite Michael Jackson song, Man In The Mirror, everyday on the way to school. It helped me to realize that I couldn't change those kids, their life circumstances or make the right choices for them.

But I could--and can--change myself. What I say. Do. Think. React to. Ignore. All of it.

So I've associated myself with greatness. Pat, Heather, Suzy, Carolyn and Mary are the kewlest critmates, blogging buddies and downright best friends ever. They are the epitome of what it's like to live your life intending to make the world a better place.

Christine, Lisa, Laura, Michelle, and Katie make my world a better place with their constant encouragement and uplifting emails. Thanks, guys.

I love hanging out in the QueryTracker forum. I think the people there make the world a better place. I also love going to my Writing Throwdown forum and reading the support people show each other there. That is a small slice of the world that is made better--and most of those people are you guys, the Mindless Musing blog readers. So thanks.

I'll be gone to Yellowstone the rest of this week, enjoying the beauty of this world. I could write a bunch of posts and set them to autopost, but I like to discuss with all of you, so I'm not going to do that.

I'd like to open the blog this week for you to talk about greatness. Who out there has influenced you? Made your life better? Made your world a better place to live? I want to associate with those people. All of them.

I want to be great. And to do that, I must Associate With Greatness.