Hello crazy lady…

Needless to say that I think that is what the peanut football team is labeling me lately.  As I sit watching…ok sometimes looking up to watch practice between checking my iPhone for email, scribbling notes in my notebook for story ideas and reading a book…I sometimes have thoughts out loud.

Yes, thoughts out loud. No, thank fully I don’t answer myself during the conversation and most times my husband could be sitting beside me in the next chair but he will be napping so I am having a one sided conversation with my trusty self.

Self…here is another great idea for a story. Yes! That’s perfect…I would say satisfactorily loud—or no…no…no! and the little players would just look at me crazy like hey lady we didn’t even make a play yet—shake their little heads at me and continue on. I know that they are very thankful that I am not the coach. Lol J

Have you ever caught yourself talking out loud for story ideas or just in general over something or nothing in your life? I do it all the time so if you do…just know you are not alone.

I have lost me…

I got to thinking the other day and let me tell you…ohmebegez. Once I start it doesn’t stop for like three days – promise.

So I was pondering all the work I am attempting to put into my edits as I keep getting non-stop ideas (like volcano eruption – just keep writing until it crusts up). Then I also love and mean totally LOVE to beta read for people. I read and try to keep a blog. (as you can see) I am trying to twitter and email and network and keep up with where I started on Writer’s Digest…

Then there’s the peanuts football practices Monday, Tuesday, & Thursday nights. Volleyball games Tuesday & Thursday nights. Football games – J.V., Varsity and Peanuts – Monday, Friday Nights & Saturdays.  No joke!

So here it is the second week of school and already it looks like the only night we don’t have sports is tonight – WEDNESDAY – fabulous Wednesday night. As I look at trying to edit so that I can actually …maybe one day send my manuscript out to shop for an agent. Beta reading, writing, blogging, following blogs, tweeting, following tweets, and worrying about my following – “Am I entertaining enough?”

I’m so caught up in building a platform that I am losing me. Not to mention that my routine is a little insane and after sports I still have to check homework before I can play with my friends.

I just want to say ‘hang in there’. I’m not complaining or making excuses. I LOVE MY LIFE. It’s just a little bumpy like every one else’s. We all have our moments. Up, down, happy, sad, frustrated, or just plain pissed off.  We’re all human – but I don’t have to tell you that right? Ahem! Right?? Kidding.

However, my brain got a little rattled…okay. A lot. But it will get a jump start and back into action very soon. More ideas are getting thrown to paper so maybe they will show up here. Who knows. Until then, take care of you.

A great ARC Contest hosted by Sara McClung

Ok, those of you that aren't familiar with Sara McClung, I suggest you mosey over to her blog and check her out. She is funny and has great advice for any writer. Right now on her blog she is hosting an awesome ARC giveaway. She is offering to give away some wonderful books that are going to be delicious reads and just make you itch to check it out and enter to win.

Here are the books that you will find.
A set of Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness both are signed by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
The Unidentified by Rae Mariz
Halt's Peril by John Flanagan
The Goblin Gate by Hilari Bell
Jane by April Lindner
The Winds of Heaven by Judith Clarke

So if any of these sound like the juice that your brain needs to drink, then float on over to Sara McClung's blog and sign up. You might just become a dedicated follower. Plus she gives you a small teaser of what the book is about. So go and check it out. Thanks Sara. Good Luck with the ARC Giveaway.

I have decided that any that I am fortunate enough to win...after I read them of course, I am going to donate to our local library. Their budget is so small that we can't get the newest books for quite some time, so I am going to do what I can to help them out as a writer.

Scott Westerfeld...what can I say? Thank you.

Eating Scott Westerfeld's books up like candy. Uglies, Pretties, Specials and now finishing Extras. A must read.

Weekly Chapter Challenge Update # 2

So far things are going great. I have stumbled a couple of times because I am having some split personality issues of wanting to write in first person and then switch to third limited and then back to first and so on and so on.

Thankfully, I have someone who is understanding and helping me cope with my dilemma of wanting to portray the other person’s POV other than the MC. It has been a tough road, but I have been diligently reworking my thoughts to convey the first person POV only.

When we are done, I will go back and revamp the MS with it written all in first POV. I thought about it for a while and stewed on it and then decided I liked the voice it had when I wrote it in first.  I liked the third person vision to give light to the pain of my other characters so that I could explain their intensity of passion/feelings within the MS, but if I do it the right way in first person, you will get it.

I guess that means I just need to work that much harder. So thanks to my buddy, I am doing just that. I am trying to morph my multiple personality into one so that I can write my MS the best I can.

Best of luck to you writers. I believe in you. Keep writing… and take care of you.

BETA READERS FOUND!!

Ok everyone, I promised to talk about beta readers. I have a few and I have a place where you can find them. My friend Nathalie from Writer's Digest has just started a new community for you to join if you are looking for beta readers to look over your work. Go to Writer's Digest and join Beta Reader Central.

I promise that you won't be disappointed that you join and have others read your work and give you insight. It will be fun and you will meet new people. So go--Yes, I mean RIGHT NOW!! Get your ass moving. Sign up and help an aspiring writer out.

I read all genres. I don't care, as long as I can help someone else out. I am there, come find me. I would be honored to beta read for anyone. You never know, one day, I could be asking you for a signed copy reminding you that I once beta read for you and that even though you didn't take any of my advice...I was there for you. lol

Anyway, I think that it has been a wonderful experience for me so far and I am enjoying it more and more every day that I do it and hope to get to meet more people and read more work. It does give you a break from your own work and then puts me back into the mode where I feel I can make my MS worth reading. Sometimes it is good to hear what a reader thinks since they may be the one that picks it up in the store someday. IMPORTANT!

Weekly Chapter Challenge Post Prompt

Ok…so I am a little behind on this post because I was promising to do it on Monday and life happened as usual. Thank goodness, I am breathing. Wheew!

So I am part of the Weekly Chapter Challenge on the Writer’s Digest Website and anyone who is aspiring to be a writer really should become a member of Writer’s Digest and go to the Weekly Chapter Challenge and find a writing buddy.

I wasn’t sure I was ready for one at first so I put it off for a couple of months and then I joined and hooked up with a wonderful YA writer, Trisha Leaver, who is represented by Jessica Sinsheimer of The Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency and is diligently working on edits for her manuscript Cedar.

In her spare time, she is exchanging chapters with me, beta reading for others and maintaining her family. I look at her with awe, because she is a magnificent beta reader and she tells me directly what she thinks…with tact. She never comes across the wrong way. She is always appropriate in her comments

If it hadn’t been for EJ starting the group, then I wouldn’t have found her. So thank you EJ. Much appreciated. I also found a couple of other people that I beta read with and am having a blast sharing my work and reading others. I guess I never thought in a million years I would be brave enough to let anyone read my work, but everyone has been so kind and honest with their feedback and that makes it easier to want to share it with the WORLD.


Also, this is the fist time that I have tried to work with links and such on my blog, so forgive me if they aren't working out. I haven't mastered the blog world yet. Post me and let me know if I miffed it up bad, real bad, really, really bad, or just forget trying it again Regina. LOL.


So this is mainly about the WCC so watch out later when I give a huge shout out to my beta crew who I hope to continue to work with them on future projects. I like their input. So go... yes, RIGHT NOW to Writer's Digest and friend me. Then go to the Weekly Chapter Challenge and get cracken on those chapters. I know you can do it. I believe in you. So go, get movin and take care of you. See you there.

What would happen if there were no television? Why would this be good? Bad?

If there were no television then people would have to go back to some of the older forms of entertainment that brought joy to the masses before everyone in America had television. READING! Families read together, they played board games and outdoor sports. Bringing them closer and forging a bond that most families lack today. Television is the babysitter for the children while the parents cook, clean, grade homework, do their work and so on. Video games take over for the family interaction of the board games and the children learning to count money and read together.

There are so many things that we pass up to watch television that there have been times that we have thought about getting rid of ours. We haven’t, because who would want to miss their favorite shows or not have cartoons available when the little ones are cranky and you need them out of your hair for a bit. It is an accessible pacifier that we are all guilty of abusing.

Would it be good? Possibly. I could say HELL YEAH, because I want to be a novelist and if there were no television then more people would be reading and I might have a better chance at getting published and people might have to read my books for entertainment to their families at night or help their child learn to read. My books might be the book their teenager grows up remembering reading that impacted their life and helped mold them into the character they become.

I have never really been drawn to television much my entire life. There are few sitcoms that draw my attention…ok, I am addicted to House, but that is the only one I watch besides the occasional weekly NASCAR race. Music on the other hand, without music I would be lost. I always have music in the background nurturing me and soothing my soul.

Would not having television be a bad thing? Again…possibly. I know a lot of people depend on the television for late breaking news and weather reports to know what is going on around the world. So it is a toss up. Maybe it is good to have, but in moderation and we have lost that somewhere along the way. It is like a food addiction. Without moderation you become obese. Our house has become obese with television consumption. Again these are only my views and I do not intend to offend anyone with them.