September is the new January...

Which means one thing, resolutions.

I have six.

1. I want to spend more time doing and less time thinking.

Okay, I'll probably still do a lot of thinking, but I want to be doing the things I'm thinking about a lot more. For example; I will stop thinking about getting in shape and just do it. I will stop thinking about querying and just finish my book and do it.

2. I won't feel guilty when I can't get everything done in one day.

I work three days a week, so I spend two days a week doing everything. Cleaning, grocery shopping, visiting my family, exercising, did I mention cleaning. I don't want to feel like a failure when I don't get the laundry done on my day off, or the dishes for that matter.

3. I want to read more books of all different genres.

I read a great post by Kristen Lamb. She talked about the difference between writers and hobbyists and one of the main things was reading and I've been neglecting that part of being a writer.

4. I'm going to exercise and get to my goal wait by the time I turn 40 at the end of December.

Yes, I turn 40 in four months and yes, this is a very stereotypical resolution, but I'd rather do it now than in January. Actually I plan to lose five extra pounds, so I can eat whatever I want at Christmas.

5. I want to be comfortable in my own skin.

I am not a fancy dancy girl. I have tried to be, but it just doesn't feel right. I don't wear heels, I barely wear make up and my dream outfit is a pair of well worn jeans and a white t-shirt. I'm tired of trying to be someone I'm not, so I'm going to try to be me in life and in my writing.

6. I will not buy anything new for myself for four months.

This is a hard one for me, because I am kind of clothes horse. The last time I did this was the first four months I was married and we were starving students. This one I think might even be harder than losing weight. Actually, I'm going to start this one of the 2nd, because I have to buy Paranormalcy by Kiersten White tomorrow.

So that's it. I'm sure I could think of a lot more, (like spend more time with family and but those will have to wait til next September.

Motivation

My soccer season ended on August 7th and since then I haven't gone for a run once. In fact, my exercising has been extremely minimal. Now we were on holidays for two weeks and, really, who wants to get sweaty when your on holidays, but I've been back for a week and a half and I haven't done anything.

Indoor soccer starts in October, so there's no immediate games or practices to motivate me to stay in shape. I'm trying to blame the fact that it's still summer vacation, but really I'm just being lazy.

I'm finding this a bit with writing. I don't have a book deal, an editor, or an agent breathing down my neck asking for revisions on my latest chapter. I don't have to write, which for a good portion of the summer I haven't.

So I'm looking at September 1st as my January 1st and I'm making some resolutions. I'll tell you about them on Wednesday.

In the meantime, how do you stay motivated?

Avoiding all things Mockingjay

It's not that I don't want to read this book. In fact, it's sitting on my shelf, staring at me. I just know that if I start to read it, the monster Booklore will take over again and my family will be ignored, so I'm waiting until the kids go back to school next week and then I will indulge.

The reason I'm avoiding any blogs that mention Mockingjay is because I don't want to read anything about it that might give something away. I want to be completely surprised.

How about you? Do you look at reviews before you start a book that you know you want to read?

PS: Sorry for the lateness of this post. I could say it's been a crazy day, but really it's been a lazy one.

Getting my house in order

I've neglected pretty much everything this summer and now I'm facing the consequences. I'm doing spring cleaning in August.

Monday I went through my boys rooms and took out everything they aren't wearing. Next will be the little knick knacks that litter their shelves. Next will be my daughters and my clothes. The pile in the storage room is growing. I'm on a "get rid of everything binge".

After that I need to clean every room, clean out our trailer and go pick some flooring. Yes, that's right we still need new flooring for the kitchen.

With so much to do I have had a hard time sitting down at the computer to write. I fell pangs of guilt when I try to edit because in my periphal vision all I can see are all the books I need to put away, the piles of filing I need to do, and the carpets that need cleaning.

I hope to have all the cleaning and organizing down by the end of next week, so that I can finally get back on schedule and do one more edit of my book before I start querying again.

How about you? Do you feel guilty writing when there are other things you need to do?

I actually finished a whole book on vacation

That might not be amazing to some of you, but for me it's a great accomplishment.

We biked and hiked, sat by the lake, shopped, toured, went to an amusement park, ate some very good ice cream, plus a few other things. So as you can see I didn't have a lot of down time to read. I fit in little bits of time when the kids were busy biking with their dad, or playing at the park.

The book started off slow, but by the second to last day of our vacation I was enthralled and couldn't put it down. I was okay to wait for the boys while they hit a few balls at the driving range, or biked on the BMX course. My kids would tease me when I didn't hear their questions. "Mom's in book mode."

Finally it came to a head when I was reading my book when I suppose to be telling my husband where to turn. He announces to the kids, "A monster has taken over your mother and I will call him Booklore."

So I put the book away and finished it the next morning while everyone slept.

It's good to be back even though that means going back to work. I'm looking forward to getting back to some much neglected writing, plus catching up on your blogs. Let me know if anything exciting happened while I was gone.

Goodbye, farewell, but not quite adieu

Now that all the basketball tournaments and camps are over, I'm looking forward to some family time, so that means a break from the blogging world for a couple of weeks.

Please try to go on without me, I know it will be difficult.

To tied you over I give you Entertainment Weekly's top 6 Opening Lines in Classic Books.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1813), Jane Austen
''It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.''

MOBY-DICK (1851), Herman Melville
''Call me Ishmael.''

A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1859), Charles Dickens
''It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.''

ANNA KARENINA (1877), Leo Tolstoy
''All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.''

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1885), by Mark Twain
''You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain't no matter.'

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (1951), J.D. Salinger
''If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.''

How many have you read? Do you have your own favorite opening line?

Hope you have a great rest of the summer.

Hooks and Contests

I've never really shared a hook or anything on this blog, because I'm entirely too afraid of rejection to be in this business, so I'm putting my pride aside and posting my hook line for book 2 to see what people think.

I figured since my blog friend Jessie did, I could as well.

So here it goes:

In order to become a defender of Archgille, Oliver must rescue a damsel in distress, but when he is assigned dragon rescue, he knows the girl he’s loved his whole life is going to die.

So there seems to be some debate on the phrase "when he is assigned..."
I did have "when he draws..."
how about "when he selects..." or "when he pulls..."

Any thoughts.

There I did it. Whew.

Now onto other news. Roni Griffin and Julie Cross are having a great contest for critiques and books. If you're interested in either head on over.