It's all about the words...

Books, words, stories, plots, characters.  These are all the things that have accompanied me as long as I can remember.  Each night before bed, I would kneel before my bookshelf and run my hands over all the spines of my favorite stories and my friends.  The likes of Mickie Mouse, The Littles, My Little Pony and, of course, The Berenstain Bears.  My dad would sit on the edge of my bed and read the same beloved stories time and time again.  As I got older, I started holding the books and reading along.  Until one day, I was able to read them by myself.  At that point, I never stopped.  I would devour a book in an afternoon and pick up another.  Then another after that one.  It was a passion.  An escape. The characters WERE my friends.  I felt their pain and happiness.  The butterflies fluttered in my tummy during Charlotte's Web.  Their world was my world.

My passion has always been the written word.  Technology has advanced but the touch, the feel and the smell of a bound book comforts me.  Turning the pages reminds me of those childhood years when I had no cares.  This love made me the student I was as I wrote papers, stories and poetry for my own amusement and for assignments.  In the beginning, I had many start and stop stories.  More of thoughts and outlines to go back to later.  My poetry was the number one thing for several years.  I read every book I could get my hands on but my writing was poetry.  Reaching the middle of high school, I ran out of academic classes to take so I signed up for Creative Writing.  The first day of class we were handed 5 1/4" floppy discs to save our work on before we printed it off on dot-matrix printers.  The sound of that printer kicking into action excited me.  My words on the paper for others to read.

Almost 20 years later, I am still typing in front of a computer.  My ideas flowing into a story.  The birthing of a novel is a strenuous job.  And I love it.  My creativity can flow and I can say whatever I want.  No one can tell me what is or isn't supposed to be in my stories.  I am free to explore the depths of my mind.  And I love it.

This month's topic for Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour for Forward Motion is "Why am I a writer".  My answer quite simply is: I love words.  I cannot think of another reason better.  Writing a story is setting down words to convey what is in my mind.  Without words, there would be no writers or books to read.  I am thankful to my dad for instilling the love of reading and the importance of it at a very young age.  It has been a light in dark times.  A beacon to show me my way through the mist of sadness.  The time spent with a book is never wasted but a cherished time with old friends.  Til we meet again...

Please go visit the writings of my fellow writers at Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour and see why they became writers themselves.  Tomorrow will bring the writings of G R Colorado.  Until next month, happy reading!

Life's a Balancing Act

In the month of June, Forward Motion's Merry Go Round blog topic is balancing life and writing.  It is a tough topic for many reasons but everyone can relate.  So, it is time to delve into my experience with the balancing act.


From the minute we are born, we must learn to divide our time amongst different tasks.  The young baby has only a few things to balance: sleep, eat, cry...  It is simple and the baby never has a worry because these things settle in well together.  That is until they grow and need to learn new things like crawling, feeding themselves, walking and talking.  The lesson begins.


Life prepares us slowly for the busyness of adulthood.  We start out like that infant with limited abilities and needs.  Slowly, new skills are learned and we grow to learn to balance physically as well as figuratively.  Once you get the physical balance down, you start to run and never look back.  Seems awesome, right?  But what are you running towards?  Adulthood.  Responsibility.  A life to balance all of your own roles in it.


I am a wife, an aunt, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, a homemaker and a writer.  These are just the roles I fill today.  As we start our family, a mother's role will be added.  I toss my juggling balls into the air and hope for the best every day.  My feet it the floor each moment with the sole purpose of not disappointing anyone in my life, myself included.  However, I am the first person I sacrifice to take care of others.  My time alone, my time to read and, of course, my time to write,  These are the first things to go.  My husband is taken care of as well as our home.  My parents have been checked in on.  My friends and other family members have all claimed their piece of me for that day.  The quiet of evening takes over and the time to write turns into zoning in front of the TV to relax.  But no more will I let my life run me!


My new resolve in life is to balance the personal life and my writing life so that each is fulfilling.  I have a to do list each day.  It includes the household activities that need tending to as well as my objectives for my writing.  I am not looking at each aspect of my life as a chunk of time but as each task getting the attention it deserves.  Today is writing this blog.  Tomorrow I will start to create character profiles for my next project.  Will I fail some days?  I am sure of it but I still toss those balls in the air every morning.  Hope for the best and expect the worst.  You end up happily surprised at the end of the day.

You've got readers!

Who is my Ideal Reader?  That is a very good question.  January is Ideal Reader month on the Forward Motion Merry-Go-Round blog.  Each writer needs to take time and figure this out to see if they are meeting the needs of the reader.

I am lucky to be able to answer this question without a doubt.  When I started writing, I wrote about what I knew.  I know all about mentally ill pre-teens and teens.  I also know a great deal about mental illnesses and how to deal with them.  My first character came from past experience as well.  I thought it would be awesome if teens could read about characters that are dealing with real life issues.  Their issues!  Hence, a target audience was born.

Will this work for all of my manuscripts?  The answer is, of course, no.  Over time things change in your works.  The style, subject matter and audience all are looked at in a new light.  We, as writers, should remember to adapt and examine our works.  Then, and only then, can we know who our Ideal Reader really is.

Check out other writers Ideal Writers at http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com/

Writer's Worst Fear

I just realized a writer's worst fear: the computer won't boot.  I put it into sleep mode with a webpage open.  Then I opened it and woke it up.  Out of no where is shuts off.  Now I have tried booting with and without storage expansion media several times and I get to the same place then off.  I say this all to make a point.  Save often and in multiple places!

I have a dropbox, thumb drive and main computer as well as the netbook I write on.  However, none of my backups include the last 2000 words written.  Devastation since my husband is sleeping and he is the computer technician who works 8 to 5 tomorrow.  Another day lost in National Novel Writing Month.  I am determined if I have to start over though.

A warning to all writers:  make multiple copies everytime you save!

Vacation offers more than relaxation

My husband and I spent 6 days in Indianapolis this last month.  It was a glorious time!  Good food, good fun, and good ideas.  We spent those days at Gen Con, the convention for gamers of all types.  People watching was abound!  So, when asked where my newest ideas came from, my only answer is Gen Con.

Meeting several new people and learning about their lives gave me story lines to follow.  Plot bunnies started hopping through my mind.  It wasn't until I saw a bulimic young lady that the story all fell into place!  I am excited to get started on this project.

I have characters in my mind that I am going to be creating profiles for.  An outline is not far behind.  Then the real fun begins.  I am diving into the dark places that drive the human mind to do the things that they do.  I am excited to move forward!

Check back on the 26th of September for the next installment of the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour.

Death and other stuff

I have ignored this blog for ten days and even missed WIP Wednesday.  Not really how I wanted to start out with this endeavor.  It seems like every time you get a groove going, life throws curve balls right straight at you.  That has been the last week.

Yesterday, we finally laid to rest the ashes of my mother-in-law.  It has been a sad and lonely time for my husband and I.  She is deeply missed but it feels good to have closure.  But the closure of one emotion opens the flood gates for the What if's and How do we go on without her.  It is a process.  Grief, like many things, is a journey.  I have buried two grandfathers and my older brother in the last two years.  The unexpected deaths are the hard ones.  My brother was only 37.  My mother-in-law was 67.  Both died too young.  It is time to pick ourselves up, dust of our legs and move on with our lives.  Enough of the sad stuff.

Writing has been going alright too.  I started meeting with some fellow, local writers at the cutest little book store called the Book Nook and Java Shop.  It is a cozy atmosphere and the employees are very nice.  The people I meet are totally different than my critique group.  Different lifestyles and backgrounds offer vast variety of opinions.  I am looking forward to next Saturday when we meet again.

This week has been research week.  I spent time looking into flashbacks and prologues.  All things I struggle with on the mechanics end.  I spent even more time working through the depths of websites on cutting and eating disorders.  Some of the stuff out there is down right scary.  The thoughts in young girls minds are hard to believe and our society planted them there.  Absolutely amazing!!!!!  It made me take a hard look in the mirror as I am struggling with weight loss.  It seems like everything I do for my writing comes full circle back to my life.  May I never need to go to a pro-ana or pro-mia site for myself!

Come back Wednesday for an new installment of WIP Wednesday and on July 26th, I will be guest blogging for http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com/ which is a project started by the fabulous folks at Forward Motion Writers Community.  Check in with them often as well.  There are guest most days of the month.

Setting Goals

As Monday morning dawned, I thought of only one thing:  what do I want to accomplish this week?  Easy question, right?  Not so much.  Rolling out of bed, this thought faded as dirty dishes and pets to care for filled the first half hour.  Phone rings and time for a shower.  Writing?  Not even a thought anymore.

Lunch having been eaten, I sat down at my computer.  Now it is time to set a goal and make a plan for the week.  If I publish it online, surely I will follow it.  Umm, maybe.  Facebook beckoned me first.  Then the emails.  Wow!  ADD is in over-drive!  Now I am ready to make my goals known.  After I answer a text or two...

My goal this week is to finish the first read through with line edits on The Cutting Edge.  My long term goal is to get the best manuscript I can ready for queries by the end of the summer.  This is edit number 672 or something.  We'll see how it goes.  Wish me luck!