Finding a dress

I have a Christmas Party this weekend where I have to wear a fancy dress. For those who don't know me, I'm a pretty casual dresser. My favorite clothing store is Sports Chek (I think you have those down south).

I bought a dress a few weeks ago, but I'm not completely happy with it, so today I went looking for another one. I probably tried on thirty dresses. Some were awful even though they looked good on a hanger, some were okay, but would a body shaping slip to make it look alright. Then I found the dress. The one I had to have. I thought it was on sale only to find out that out of the 100+ dresses this store had, it was the only one not on sale. Totally sucks. So instead I settled for another dress, or I'll go back and wear the one I originally bought.

I suspect that finding a dress for a Christmas party would be a lot like an agent trying to find a manuscript that they like. Some look good at first, but once they start reading them - not so much. Others are alright, but they would have to do a lot of work to make it fit. Then they find the book that fits in all the right places only to have it go to another agent.

All I can say is I'm glad I only go dress shopping once a year.

Joining the Thankful Bandwagon

Even though I'm Canadian, I'm wanted to list a few things I'm thankful for, because I forgot to do when it was our Thanksgiving in October.

1. I am thankful for good friends. People who you can be yourself around.
2. I am thankful for my family. People who accept me flaws and all.
3. I am thankful that I don't have to be in top physical condition to write a book, so I don't have to worry about getting a book published before my knees give out on me.
4. I am thankful for chocolate and peanut butter on toast (2 of my favorite things)
5. I am thankful that even though there are days where I think I suck as a writer, I still think I'm better than I was a year ago.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends.

Do you ever feel like this?

Do you ever feel like this? Or is it just me?

My drama might not be your drama

So I've had a lot of drama over the past six months with my soccer team. At times it has felt like living in a bad clichéd sports movie. There's been secret meetings, hostile take overs, and definitely a few villians (in my opinion anyway). All my friends think I should write a book about it.

But just because I think it's interesting, doesn't mean other people would.

You often hear the saying - write what you know, but that doesn't mean we should tell our life story event for event (at least not when writing a novel). My life is actually really boring (work, carpool, kids sports, laundry) with a few stressful moments tossed in, not enough to write a novel (unless I embellished). One day I might write my soccer book, drawing on the experiences I've had over the past six months. But I think I’ll wait until I’m old enough to be able to laugh at everything that's happened and right now I'm not quite there.

How about you? Have you ever thought about writing a book about an event in your life?

Being Mean

I typically am not a mean person. It's in my genes to be a people pleaser. I blame my mother (or I should probably thank her).

Don't get me wrong, I've had my moments of being kind of ... (cough, cough), but I usually feel guilty about it and apologize afterwards.

I've been working on my current WIP and I got to 15K and realized something. I'm not being mean enough. I'm not throwing enough obstacles at my main character. I've made her life too easy.

So instead of doing a full NaNo, I'm going to do a half, because I'm going to start again and throw as many darts at my character as I can. They might not all stick, but I need to continually make her life harder, at least until the end.

How about you? Do you have a hard time putting your character is bad or awkward situations?

A book by any other cover...

I am terrible with names. When people mention authors and book titles, my eyes kind of glaze over and I politely nod so no one knows that I'm not quite who they're talking about.

But covers...

I remember covers.

If someone told me about the cover with the shirtless angel guy falling in a dark sky, I would know what book they were talking about.

If someone described a girl wearing a knitted toque, sitting on a swing, I would know what book they were talking about.

If someone talked about a book with a girl trapped in a green ball, I would know what book they were talking about.

I'm a very visual learner, so for me the cover is everything. When I read reviews, I remember the cover and that's what I look for when I go to the bookstore.

How about you? Do you remember author's names and titles, or do you remember the cover more?


PS: For those doing NaNo, how are you doing. I'm at 12K, so far so good.

Early Riser

I have never been a morning person.

A few years ago I tried to be friends with a lady who lived down the street by going for walks with her at 5:45am (that's right). I lasted for about two weeks before I told her I just couldn't do it anymore.

I used to write late at night, but as my kids got older and started staying up later, I'm finding I can't do that anymore.

I haven't tried writing early in the morning because I just never thought I could do it.

My CP Jessie has been writing early and has been getting a lot done, so she decided to have a blog fest and test out to see if maybe you function better in the morning.

Go here and sign up. It's for the third week in November and for everyone doing NaNo, this might be the push you need.

And if you're already a morning person then this would be an easy blogfest for you.

So what are you? Early morning, afternoon, or evening writer?