Thursday, May 24, 2012

Friday Favorites

Okay, I'll admit, I watched bits and pieces of American Idol this season. Enough to know that I really liked Phillip. And I'm so glad he won. Mostly because I'm more of a guy and a guitar type of a person as opposed to a slow ballad type of person.

Was Phillip the best singer in the contest?

No

Was he the best entertainer?

Obviously most of America thought so and so did I.

It just goes to show that everyone's tastes are different. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that thought Jessica was robbed. But maybe you can be a little different, a little imperfect, and still succeed. There are lots of books out there that maybe aren't the best written but for some reason they have resonated with people.

I say just keep writing, learning your craft, and take advantage of the opportunities that might come up.

Have a good weekend.

I leave you with my favorite Phillip Phillips song.




Monday, May 21, 2012

The Double Ledge

Today my family spent the day in the mountains. We went to the river where my husband and oldest son went kayaking while I was on shore being a nervous mother. All the while thinking back to a video my husband showed me when we were first together.

It's of him when he was first learning to kayak. He had just come out of his boat and was trying to get away from a rapid, but the current kept sucking him back. His dad sat there calmly and filmed him while in the background you could hear his mom screaming (not too coherently - but I'm sure she was screaming her concern). Her family always made fun of her for it, but today I got a taste of what it would have been like. My son flipped on his first rapid and my heart turned to stone in my chest. Luckily he got out okay and back in his boat, so I didn't need to scream.

When I was a young adult, I used to think that I would never be a good writer because I had never really experienced anything tragic. I was an english major what can I say.

I think when we're writing we don't necessarily have to experience what our characters do, in fact I hope we don't. I'm pretty sure that I'll never have to rescue someone from a dragon, but I have experienced feelings of fear, inadequacy and trying to live up to your families expectations.

So even though we might put our characters in all kinds of horrible and sticky situations that we'll never experience, we can definitely draw on our own emotions when we're writing the scenes in our books.

How about you? Have you ever used a specific emotion when writing a scene?

PS: To finish the story, my husband got sucked into the rapid and popped up down stream. The picture is of the actual rapid called the Double Ledge.


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Friday Favorites

This week my favorite thing is renewed determination.

I'm more determined to lose weight, so I don't get injured playing soccer.

I'm more determined to cook better meals.

I'm more determined to watch my budget.

I'm more determined to stretch and drink more water.

I'm more determined to spend less time watching TV, (especially sports).

I'm more determined to finish this stupid chapter seven about rescuing a girl from a dragon. I did some research today (thank heavens for youtube), and got more of a sense of setting. So that's definitely a favorite thing this week.

Since it's a long weekend, I'll be back on Tuesday.

How about you what was your favorite thing this week and is there anything that you're feeling more determined to do?

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

RAOK continues

Yesterday was awesome. The outpouring of kindness was amazing.

Bookshelf Muse is continuing the love all this week with amazing prizes. Today is FOUR Scrivener Software packages and ONE Premium Membership to Query Tracker (1 year).

And there's lots more to come this week, so keep checking back.

Let the kindness continue.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ!

A smile. An encouraging word. A thoughtful gesture. Each day people interact with us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in the Writing Community.
Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice and inspiration when asked.

So many people take the time to make us feel special, don’t they? They comment on our blogs, re-tweet our posts, chat with us on forums and wish us Happy Birthday on Facebook.


Kindness ROCKS!


To commemorate the release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus, Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse are hosting a TITANIC Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ. And because I think KINDNESS is contagious, I'm participating too!


I am picking Jessie Oliveros, who has been my critique partner since the very beginning of this crazy journey. She was one of my first people to comment on my blog, and she readily accepted when I asked if she would read my book. For my RAOK gift, I'm going to send Jessie some uniquely Canadian clothes for her new baby.  (Okay, maybe not Canadian - but something cute). I'm also going to read her pirate book this summer, which I was going to do already so that doesn't really count. If you have a minute, go stop by Jessie's blog and tell her how awesome she is.


Do you know someone special that you'd like to randomly acknowledge? Don't be shy--come join us and celebrate! Send them an email, give them a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way. 


Kindness makes the world go round. :)


Becca and Angela have a special RAOK gift waiting for you as well, so hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to pick it up. And they are going to have some major awesome things happening all week, so keep checking back.


Have you ever participated in or been the recipient of a Random Act Of Kindness?  Let me know in the comments!



Thursday, May 10, 2012

Friday Favorites

My favorite thing this week is actually going to happen on Sunday.

It's going to be hot. It's Mothers Day. And I don't have to cook.

Also my mom gets back from vacation (she's been gone for a month). Can't wait.

I saw these two posters on pinterest. One was funny and the other sweet. You decide which is which.

Sorry took photos down 


How about you? Any plans for mothers day. What was your favorite thing this week?

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Half the Sugar

I make really good chocolate chip cookies. In fact they are legendary on my soccer team. We don't go to a tournament without them.

They call for 1 1/2 cups of sugar (half brown - half white). A couple of months I decided to slowly cut back on the sugar every time I made them to see if less sugar would effect the taste. I'm down to one cup and I haven't noticed a difference.

Analogy time:
When I finished my first draft of my book it sat at 100,000 words. With each read through I trimmed off some extra sugar, so to speak. Now after many revisions later, I'm down to 65,877 words.

The delete button has become my friend.

For the past two weeks I've been working on chapters one and two, yet again. My most recent critique pointed out something that I hadn't really heard of but tend to do a lot. We've all heard of word echoes, but how about scene echoes. Apparently, I tend to tell the reader something and then show it.

So I've been cutting all those paragraphs that tell and keeping the ones that show.

How about you? What do you look to cut when trying to trim down your book?

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Back a little early with a little spy action

I know I said I'd be back in two weeks, but I just had to come back early for this. 


In celebration of the official release of A Spy Like Me, Laura Pauling is hosting a three-week blog series: A Spies, Murder and Mystery Marathon. Woot! Woot!



Authors galore, guest posts and book giveaways almost every day!

Gemma Halliday, Cindy M. Hogan, Elizabeth Spann Craig,
Nova Ren Suma, Elisa Ludwig, and Anne R. Allen....Just to name a few!

And here's why she's celebrating!



Stripping your date down to his underwear has never been so dangerous.

After dodging bullets on a first date, Savvy must sneak, deceive and spy to save her family and friends and figure out if Malcolm is one of the bad guys before she completely falls for him.


Head on over to Laura’s blog for the start of the Spies, Murder and Mystery Marathon. You won’t want to miss this sizzling series as we head into summer. Stock up on some great thrilling reads! If you dare…