Jenna Terese

@Rochellaine *snorts* I really want to read that story.

@jenwriter17, @rochellaine, @seekjustice, anyone on?

@seekjustice, I like Out of Sight, Out of Mind

@rochellaine, I think the handshake/hug is weird, but that might be because I lived in Asia for so long

@jenwriter17 Yup.  Apparently it’s only an American thing.  No, I don’t think it’s weird, it was @seekjustice who originally said she thought it sounded weird.  But I guess it would be hard to picture if you’ve never seen it.  I know that it’s actually hard for people from other countries to get because we had a family from Canada stay with us a l…[Read more]

@seekjustice Oh yeah, I was thinking about young people a bit older, I guess.  Kids up until they’re about sixteen or seventeen don’t shake hands with each other, though always with older people.  (The older initiates, though, unless there’s a precocious youngster. 😉 )  When they get to their late teens they start shaking hands with each ot…[Read more]

@rochellaine

If you’d rather not though, that’s fine. 🙂 I just thought I’d ask since you seem knowledgeale on the process.

@Rochellaine

Hand shaking just isn’t a thing with youths here, which is a shame because I like shaking hands (it makes me feel powerful since I can make grown butchers wince. I just have to remember not to crush the old ladies). But you can always go for the high five if they initiate it. 😛

I was stalking Jen’s self publishing thread and saw…[Read more]

@ariel-ashira Thank you! 😀  I was so sure, but then, trying as one American to state a fact about our huge country was kind of intimidating and I wanted to make certain. 😛  @seekjustice needs to come to America to see just how normal and not-awkward the handshake hug really is. 😉

@seekjustice Oh my goodness!  The awkward head nodding thing with male friends! 😛  Sometimes the guy is confident and just goes out to shake your hand, but if he’s not sure if you want to and you’re too shy to initiate the handshake, it’s kind of awkward.  Especially if you just hugged his sister or something… 😉

Um…hmm…of course! 😀  Wha…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Well those other greetings are pretty standard here, particularly the fake kissing when it comes to older people. I often shake older peoples hands and hug my female friends and do some kind of awkward head nodding thing with male friends.

Um…hmm…I was wondering if I would be able to ask a favour of you?

@jenwriter17 @seekjustice @rochellaine Thank you so much!

@rochellaine @seekjustice I confirm the handshake hug thing.  At least, I know it happens in Alaska, Kansas, and Missouri, and maybe New Mexico.  I think that there has to be a level of friendship already established for them to do it, since its more friendly and less formal than a handshake.

@seekjustice It’s about the least awkward greeting I can imagine, for men.  They won’t go in for a hug usually, but a handshake is never awkward.  Then they can show they’re a bit more friendly by adding a half hug on to the end of it.

Women do it sometimes, but it’s mostly a guy thing.  And a guy greeting a woman will usually either shake her ha…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Our anthem is quite long too, and we usually only sing the first two verses.

Well I guess its not weird…I’ve just never seen anyone do it. It just sounds awkward, trying to handshake and hug at the  same time.

@jenwriter17 No, I do not. 🙂  How does that work?

(I do know what Goodreads is, of course!  I use it all the time to look up books.  I’m just not sure what an author account would do or how you would set it up.)

@ariel-ashira I’ll be praying!

@alia  Oh, I’m so glad you like them!  Yes, they do look similar.  Ha.  Funny.  🙂

@seekjustice Most Americans only know the first verse of the National Anthem, but it’s a very long verse.  The second verse talks about God, so Christians sing it in church or when we get together for hymn sings, but regular people don’t know it.  Have you ever heard the American National Anthem?  It’s famous for being an extremely complicated so…[Read more]

@waterlily The standard way to get around age limits is to use the joint venture approach. Basically, someone older than you (a parent, probably) agrees to be part of what you’re doing. They can create an account on MailChimp and let you use it. If they ever stopped letting you use it, legally that would be fine unless you had signed some sort of…[Read more]

@rochellaine

I understand that feeling. It’s so easy for us writers to become besotted, isn’t it? 😉

I guess the way I love my characters stems from my desire to maintain objectivity in my writing. As evil overlordish as this sounds, my characters are, ultimately, tools. Since I personally know so much about my characters, it is easy for me to…[Read more]