On Pen Names and Such

I've always wondered about pen names. If maybe I should use one? Do you use one? What do you think?
So far, there would be no reason for me to use a pen name. I just use my real name. But I have considered other names. I've thought about M.J. Richardson to put on my novels, but then I realized M.J. also stands for Michael Jackson, and people would be constantly asking me what my middle name was.
   I've also thought about Matty Richardson or even going a little farther with Matt Richardson if I didn't want people to know so much about me. I've also considered keeping the Mattie (it is kind of unusual, the spelling anyway) with a different last name. Mattie Taylor kind of suits me. I also have thought about going all the way with a pen name for something totally different, most likely with the first name Free.

What would your pen name be?

♥Mattie

And P.S. Which one do you like for me?

People who are entered in my giveaway

Okay, when I started I told myself that I would count each time everyone was entered when they commented me and told me why they were entered. Well, life got in the way, people don't always tell me everything, it seems like people told me some things twice . . . but I have gone through all the comments, blogs, etc to compile this list. So the contest ends officially on the first.
  Just to double check. Here's everyone who's entered in the contest. If there is a (1) by your name that means your entered once. If there's nothing, you're entered 2-4 times. A heart (♥) means you have your name entered five or more times. If you feel that any of this is wrong, please let me know!!!

Lulu (1)
Wheezer(1)
Lauren(1)
Sierra (from mission cool)
Tianna
Shelley (1)
Nela
Scezzle
Becca Isler(1)
Arianna (1)
Sierra (from Whispers of the Wind) (1)
Nature Freak (1)
Anora ♥
+Flamingo Pink+
Book Blogger♥
Ellyn
Raindazzle
Ceara (1)
Stephen Baird(1)
Michele (1)

People I've missed, they changed their names or stopped following, or What? PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE ON THIS LIST, WHAT HAPPENED. :)
Allegra Rockwell--what is your name now?
Crazzee Bookworm
Alistar of Woodland
Salome Unger
REMEMBER, you only can be entered if you are currently following too. :)

Hope everyone sees this before the first!

And remember too, it doesn't always matter how many times you are entered. You just have a better chance  at winning. I wouldn't be surprised if someone who was only entered once won the grand prize. :P

♥Mattie

They're Finally Here!

My copies of Dusty's Trail are FINALLY here! I'm so excited. No pictures of my excitement though. I am feeling winter-depressed and some pictures of my ugly self on the internet will not help.

  It looks so much better in real life. =D





An inspirational pile of packaged books to be sent off



 And here are some of the books I have to send out, asap! Including a copy to the school in Thompson, North Dakota where I will be speaking.

And BTW you have only TWO MORE DAYS to enter the giveaway, Dusty's Trail is included as one of the prizes. I am going to add up how many times each person is entered and post it tommorrow. That is your chance to bring up any arguments or tell me if you would rather not be entered, etc. So get some more friends to follow.

Thanks a bunch, blogger friends!
♥Mattie

Wednesday Writing Tip (a day late as usual)

Wednesday Writing Tip--
    Keeping a Journal

Jeez, it seems like I have been running out of ideas for our Wednesday Writing Tips. I've covered nearly everything in novel writing, so maybe I should switch things up a little. Here are some of the best reasons to keep a journal:

1. It's a great way of personal reflection
 Unlike blogging, you can really insert your personal feelings here. NO ONE on this whole earth has ever read my journal, and I intend to keep it that way. The way I felt on my sixteenth birthday, how scared I was the first (and so far--only) time I got pulled over for speeding, the crazy obsession I sometimes have for fitting in; it's all there. I can look back on that with the benefit of hindsight, and I can see how stupid or how right I may have been.

2. It will improve your writng skills
 The best way to improve your writing is, well, writing. Though you may not follow all grammer rules and paragraph structure and all that, it really is a good way to get the ink flowing.

3. It will generate even more writing ideas.
 "Hey--that's a good idea for a story. Maybe I could use that as a foreshadow. Wow, I really put a lot of detail into that description. Why? Wait, maybe my life would be a great story!" I sometimes find these things as I flip through my journal. The more you write in this book, the more inspiration you will find from the best source you have available: the depths of your imaginative mind.

4. It's the best way to vent.
 This is one of my favorite things about journaling. I have a bad temper, and sometimes I run upstairs to my room with the hot tears flowing down my face, my head swirling with the words that I have to get down on paper. Being in a big family is hard. A lot of times I think my mom and dad don't give a snap about how I feel, they're always too busy to even notice me, so I turn to my two best friends, a pen and paper.
  And I always feel ten times better after I have it written down, out of my system. It doesn't matter what I write, just as long as it's out.

I hate mornings.

 Arrgh. I hate mornings.
  I love that fuzzy line between sleep and awakness, that point in time where I dream most, and just as my prince is coming to get me, I grab a spoon to start eating that mountain of chocolate brownie ice cream, or when I just put my pen to sign the line give over the movie rights away for my new novel, I wake up. I love dream life. Partially because it's almost always summer there.
   Mornings are when the urge to sleep overcomes the urge to wake up and get something done. Arrgh again. I cover my head with my pillow try to open my eyes. I know I have to wake up, or I will be doing school all day. I finally put in my earbuds and crank up some Skillet as loud as my mp3 will go. Still my body refuses to listen. The dog jumps up on my bed and licks my face, mom yells at me again, and finally my brother pulls the blankets away and I fall onto the floor. Ouch. I am awake.
    On the other side of things, I love nights! It's the time when I'm most awake, when my mind works quickest, when most of my ideas come to me. It's when I can write, and write, and write without running out of steam. When I can play my guitar till dawn without getting tired. When I can just sit, listen to music, and think clearly.
     Arrgh. Third time. I wish that God would make my mornings and evenings switch.

A Poem For You

 I kind of always wrote poems, but since I began playing the guitar I've switched over a little more to song lyrics. Well, as I was cleaning out my room a little today, (emphasis on a little!:) I found an old notebook of poems I wrote. I picked one out that I kind of liked to post today:

I thank you God for this day

For all the things you give away

Each new morning slowly coming in

Taking off where the last one's been

For the birds that sing each mornin'

The lovely blue sky they soar in

For the sweet small drips of dew,

Who made them all for me, You.

The soft hoot of an owl,

I'm finally roused out of bed now,

To look outside and say,

Thank you God, for this day.

 As you can probably tell, I'm not much good with the whole rhyme and rhythm thing in poetry, which is probably why I don't try to get it published. Do any of you write poetry? (I know Shelley does =) Give me some tips or post some of yours on you blog for me to read.
I also want to enter another one of Scezzle's contests. I'm going to enter the drawing one, in the Animals category. I have two. Which one do you think I should use?

My scanner wasn't big enough to fit this,
but you can see most of it. I entered this one in
the county fair and won a blue.

Here's a kind of disproportional horse- but hey,
I tried!

Thanks,

♥Mattie

Listen to this Radio Commercial--If you Get it, You Will Die Laughing

Ha ha!!

     Save the Spotted Ferret Bat! This was really played on a radio station in Minnesota! I heard it when we used to live there. I love people's sense of humor sometimes. I'm not real big on contributing money to animals that are going extinct, there's better way to spend my money. This doesn't change my mind either. :D
 Thanks all for the kind comments on the last post! I don't know when I'm going to be speaking, but I can't wait.
  So the votes are in for my header too. The majority say that they like it! Though there was one person with a "no", I wonder if that person would be saucy enough to tell me who she is  . . .
 I just realized something too. This blog needs more pictures of my life! That means I'm going to have to get off my lazy bum and start shooting with my parent's camera. *Shudders* I am a horrible photographer. Maybe blogging will help.
♥Mattie