Recently, my husband purchased the Motorola Xoom which is androids’ tablet. He loves it. He told me that I could use it whenever I wanted to. I did give it a try, but it had been personalized to the way he wanted it-after all it was his. I felt that if I used it I would mess something up for him and I didn’t want to do that, so I didn’t play around with it much to get a good feel for it. He asked me if I might want one, and if I did, would I use it?
continue reading "E-Readers"

Where do I start? I guess with the way that I am feeling right now. In short, I guess what I am feeling is really a mixture of joy and doom. It still boggles my mind how I can have both of those feelings, which are complete opposites, over come me as I sit down to edit my WIP.  If you’re a writer, you probably have felt similar feelings at some point in your writing career.  At first, I was happy to be finally strict enough with myself to sit down and begin re-reading the 2nd draft.

continue reading "Chapter One and My Feelings Of Doom"

One year ago, I found myself in an unexpected situation. A situation that I had not planned on. I found myself temporarily out of a job. Although, I am glad that my unemployment came after my husband had found a job. Having the both of us out of work would have been tough. I saw my misfortune as an opportunity for change. I would set out to re-discover a long lost dream that had begun years ago. It was the dream of being a writer.

When I look back on all I had aspired to be, I smile.

I’m smiling because not only have I become exactly what I have wanted to be, but for all the things that have happened to me along the way to make me exactly who I am today.

Although, some of the events of the past year haven’t been exactly pleasant, such as the death of my mother–I have found inner peace and acceptance. That is how I am able to write at this moment.

I reflect not only on past mistakes, or bumps in the road, but on the positives of just how far I have come in the past year. I feel that I have grown as a writer and a person–I am happy with that.

My last entry of this blog I told of how I was shunning the internet. You can read about that pledge here.

Just for the record, I did leave the internet for about a month. But, I did find myself back on facebook silently watching my friends and family and all that was going on in their life. I did write, though. Not as much as I had intended, but I was able to plug away on Clear View. No, it’s not done. I am still working on it, but I am hopeful that it will soon be finished.

In addition to working on Clear View, I started another fiction piece that I had a dream about; which I will discuss in a later post.

And…

I started another blog. I know… I know…

Two fiction works, and two blogs? I must be mad! I feel by working on all these projects, it will give me not only a variety to work on so I don’t get bored, but it will fill my days with a lot more writing–which is what I need right now.

If you’re intrested in reading my other blog, you can find it here.

In essence, I feel as though I have come full circle. No matter what I do, or how hard I try to get away from my writing; I always come back to it.

One year ago, I took that plunge into becoming a published author. Today, I continue on that road steadfast and strong. I don’t know what the outcome for my writing will be, but I embrace it. I have hopes it will lead to publication; only time will tell. Meanwhile, I will continue to learn all that I can about this strange craft that so many embrace and love.

Thank you for stopping by. I look forward to sharing my writing journeys with you, and hope that you do too.

A few years ago, I read the book On Writing by Stephan King. In his book, Mr. King gives sound advice to beginning writers, one of which is to get rid of any distractions during your writing time. As all writers find out, sooner or later, there will always be something to distract you from your writing.
continue reading "“Hasta La Vista Internet!”"

I’ve decided to revert back to my previous ways. This means: setting the timer for an hour and writing, or at least sitting in front of my computer attempting to write. For that hour I will not move, I will only edit/write. This is how I had gotten myself into the habit of writing everyday. It worked too! I wrote for at least one hour a day for the first couple of weeks. Then I added another thirty minutes. By the end of  two months I was writing nearly four hours a day and  had the first draft of Clear View completed.
continue reading "Baby Steps"

Honest!

This morning, I realized that I haven’t blogged in a very long time. I know for some people it might not be all that long, but for me it has.  It’s been twenty-some days since I last posted. And why? Have I been busy writing my poor little heart out? Have I been researching and making my WIP just as polished as it can be? Have I been reading and trying to learn as much as I can about writing?
continue reading "“I Haven’t Given Up, I Swear!”"

I’ve been making revisions to Clear View over the past couple of days and decided to make a bold move. To some it might not be a bold move, but appariently to my characters it was huge, which is good. They are happier now and are thanking me greatly.

What is this bold move I made? Why, it’s their homestead. The location of their old home just wasn’t feeling right to me, or them. Just by giving them a change of address, I feel, I gave the story a drastic change. When I did this, ideas began to emerge–it was great.

By doing this simple little thing, the depth of my characters have grown, and the plot has become more realistic. I am glad that I decided to make this move. Unfortunately, this means I will have more chapters to write, which means a longer rewrite process. But, in the end, I think it will be well worth it.

That’s right!

It’s one of those dreaded slump days for me. You might be thinking, boy, she seems to have a lot of those days. And I say, recently, yes, yes I do.
continue reading "Good-Bye Slump Day! Hello Productivity!"

In part one of what I have learned about writing, we talked about four key tips that I found helpful to me; hopefully these lessons will help any aspiring writer. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read on writing, in which, they pretty much all say the same thing–writing is hard!

That is true to a certain extent. But, by using these tips, it can become a lot easier to write. So today, I am going to talk about two more key tips on what I have learned about writing.
continue reading "What I’ve Learned About Writing, Part II"

It’s hard!

Really, for me, writing doesn’t always come easy. Sometimes it does, but than sometimes it doesn’t. It can be a real battle to make myself sit down and write. Yet, once I do write, it can be a real joy. My goal  is to have more of those good days than the bad ones. It’s what any writer would want. What any writer should, or do, strive for. 
continue reading "What I’ve Learned About Writing, Part I"