Friday Favorites

A few favorites this week.

1) In January I pulled a muscle in my calf, so I've kind of been weekend warrioring it a bit. I only ran when I played soccer, which caused me to really get out of shape fast. So this week I started running again in an attempt to prepare myself for outdoor soccer. Thankfully the weather has been nice because I really hate running on a track or a treadmill.

2) We've also been a one car family for the last three weeks and it's starting to wear thin. So tomorrow we get a new vehicle.

3) I saw this on a friends Facebook and totally loved it. Photo removed

How about you? What has been your favorite thing week?

Also I know I just started blogging again, but it's spring break next week where I live. I'll be back on April 10th. Good luck to everyone doing the A-Z challenge.

Carrying your Orange

Last post I mentioned putting myself out there to great critiqued, but now the time has come to use that feedback to make my query stronger.

This is a great community, full of encouragement and understanding, but writing is a solitary endeavour. In the end, I am the only one who can write the book. And even though it's great to have others believe in you, it's more important to believe in myself.

That took longer than I thought

It's been three weeks since I last posted. I don't really have a great reason for the extended absence. I did have a deadline the first week and after that, I feel like I kind of lost my voice. Every time I went to write something, I didn't have much to say.

So I went about living life. Laundry, cooking, shopping for a new car, going to my boys provincial basketball tournaments, cleaning and more cleaning. In between it all I took a few moments to write, but more importantly I put myself out there a bit.

I entered a few contests where the first line of my WIP and my query were critiqued. I thought both were good, but no one else really agreed with me. Once I got over the sting of not getting glowing reviews and vowing that I was done writing, I looked more closely at the advice I was getting. You know what? They were right?

My first line didn't' set the tone for the book. It was cliched, had too much information, and was confusing. My query did sound like it was telling two different stories and needed to be more clear.

I've always been quite shy about putting myself out there to be judged. It has always felt like standing on the edge of a cliff where one word can send you tumbling down the cliff or back to safety. It's definitely not my favorite thing, but hopefully I can learn from it.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back and look forward to catching up with all of you.

How about you? Do you feel comfortable putting your work out there for all to see?

The clock's a ticking'

In December I decided to make my son a toque for Christmas. Of course I decided this a week before the 25th. Luckily my sister had these knitting looms to make things a lot easier. After a few quick lessons and a more than a couple of mistakes, I was able to knit a few rows.


Since I was on a time limit, I had to knit fast and in about two - two and a a half hours, I had a toque. After Christmas I decided to knit myself one and it's still not done.

Where am I going with this? I think you know.

Sometimes having a firm deadline helps motivate me. So this week I have a deadline. I need to write a chapter and have it edited by Thursday, so I'm signing off until next Monday. Wish me luck. Have a good week.

How about you? Does a deadline help light a fire under you know what.

Friday Favorites

This week it has nothing to do with writing and everything to do with family. I don't want to state the obvious by saying that my kids are my favorite things this week. But . . . they are.


Actually my favorite thing is watching my kids play basketball.

Last week, I watched my daughter play her first play off game, ever and she was so excited. They won and are going to the gold medal game, which she is sure she's going to win because their uniforms are gold.

I absolutely love watching both of my boys play. I cheer their awesome plays and feel heartache when they make a mistake.

Two weeks ago, we didn't have any games because the kids were on a school break and we honestly didn't know what to do do with ourselves. So instead of complaining that we have four games to go to this weekend, I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.

How about you? Is there anything you enjoy watching your kids do? Or what's your favorite thing this week?

Keeping it Cool and a Congrats

I listened to an interview with Laini Taylor who wrote Daughter of Smoke and Bone. She talked about how she writes a scene. She went through her process and then said, "When I'm all done, I try to think of a way to make it cooler."

She used the word cool a lot in her interview.

I went to her blog and found these 7 general suggestions on things you can ask yourself when writing a scene.

1. What needs to happen?
2. Who needs to be there?
3. Where could it take place? How make it interesting? What activity could characters be doing? or What is the coolest way this information might be revealed?"
4. What’s the most surprising thing that could happen? Brainstorm three different ways it could begin.
5. Play it on the movie screen in your head.
6. Write a scribble version - five minutes to get the bare minimum down.
7. Write the full scene.

Lately I've been asking myself number one a lot. What needs to happen? I like the other suggestions, especially the scribble version. I'm going to try that. Maybe it will help me get over the hump and finally write that dragon scene I've been putting off for far too long.

How about you? Do you do anything specific when you sit down to write a scene. And what do you do when you're stuck?


Now for a congrats. Chantle Sedgwick, who is a great blogger, just signed a two book deal. So exciting.

A Common Theme

Last week when I was talking to my friend about all the ideas I had for books (yes she's very patient to listen to me), she made an interesting comment.

She said that it sounds like the common theme through out my books is being rescued in one way or another. I was taken a back at first, because all of them are quite different, but she was right. I did have that in common with all of the books I've written and want to write.

She admitted to me that her theme was all about being true to yourself no matter what.

How about you? Do you see a common theme in your writing?