My turn to blog—and boy, is it late.  Raine will be one grumpy  bitch  Chica come morning…

So what did you expect, you who are in, or just becoming involved with, this writing gig?  Be honest.  You had or still have illusions about it, yes?

I confess I did.  Still do.  For example, I hoped I could write well enough—sell well enough—to do it full-time.  And no, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.  After all, they’re seriously talking about life on Mars these days. 

Truths?

For those who’re just starting out, and dreaming of those six or seven-digit advances you hear trumpeted in market news…don’t hold your breath.  Asphyxiation is highly overrated.  The reason you hear about them is because they ARE unusual.  You don’t hear much about the average author sweating out 3-4 books a year for a five-digit figure—MAYBE.

If you’ve got your first e-book, print, or POD book out, and harbor a secret dream of being recognized as one of ‘the chosen ones’, the honest odds are against it.  Doesn’t mean it WON’T happen.  It DOES.  But again—when you hear about such cases, it’s the man-bites-dog thing.  Be thrilled, be happy, be encouraged.  Just don’t be impatient, try not to become discouraged, and don’t wonder why the editors aren’t knocking at your door like Publisher’s Clearing House.  They’re busy reading—you guessed it—other people’s manuscripts.

What CAN you expect?

You can expect that some readers will like you and some won’t.  You can expect to want to be better than you are, at whatever stage you’re at.  You can expect that the possiblity of more success is always there, whether it is where you’re looking or not.

And you can expect that, if writing is truly in your blood, you’ll nod, give a tip of the hat to all of this, sit your butt in a chair, and keep writing.

So excuse me, but I need to get a little sleep.  I’ve got writing to do tomorrow. 

I am such at a loss for something to blog about today. Maybe it was those two beers I had last night that fried my brain. I have no idea.

So, dear readers, here’s what I want you to do. Send me a list of words by commenting to this entry. They can be anything (but keep them somewhat rated PG-13 hehe). I will take them, use as many as I can and write a story/scene/something for NEXT Thursday’s entry.

Sound fun? :)

Okay, then. Ready, go!

With New Years, along with resolutions lists made, comes bowl games and parades. And watching the Rose Bowl Parade, I thought, I wanna work on a Rose Bowl float. How cool would that be? I watched the beautiful, intricate floats go by while I thought of my resolutions list. But my secret desire to work on a float got me thinking of another list. My “wanna do” list.

There are so many things I wanna do. Sky diving, okay no that I will leave for someone else – I can live without ever having jumped out of a plane. But my list of “wanna do” is long.

How does this relate to writing you might ask…

In so very many ways. I believe all that we do can color, flavor, enrich our work. It lends to little nuances. No, I know you can write without having done “things”. If you have read Deadly Mistakes, you know there are several bodies adding up by the end of the book. I have no criminal history whatsoever. Nope, did not write from experience thankyouverymuch.

But to do other less felonious acts, I think it would be neat to actually get to complete my list of “wanna do”. And imagine how much it can add to my writing if I ever do.

My list
 

            * work on Rose Bowl Float                                    * Go to Ireland

            * work on Broadway production                            * Go on Archeology dig

            * Go back to Alaska                                              * Join USO

            * Red Cross worker                                               * run for city council

            * Scuba dive                                                          * Learn ballroom dance

            * work in a zoo                                                      * learn sign language

I am and have always been uber-curious (we all know this by now) – there are so many things I want to be when I grow up: an archeologist, forensic pathologist, writer (lookie, got one done), psychologist, singer (yeah that is soooo not gonna happen – trust me on this) nurse… oh and so many more. All of this I try to incorporate into my work. If I can’t do all by golly, one of my characters will!

So I was sitting here stalling…er thinking I’d like to get to know a little more about our blog readers. Are you creative?

I like doing graphics and designing webpages. Denise knits. Raine paints. Mik’s more of a creative computer geekette like myself and does our newsletter for our RWA Chapter.

Do you have creative tendancies and if so, how do you express yourself creatively?

In other news, I’d like to mention that I’m totally disgusted with Target for having VALENTINES cards out before NEW YEAR!

Sooo, here it is, barely a few days old.

The New Year.

Yup.  That’s what it is alright.  Okay.  Um-hmmm.  Here we are.  

The problem with finding ourselves in a “new place” is that we’re usually still carrying baggage from our previous journey.  Some of it is important, of course.  Lessons learned.  They keep us from making the same mistakes again and again (hopefully!).  

But how do we walk away with the lessons learned while leaving as much of the negative crap behind as possible?  How do we maintain the optimism and hope, despite past failures, disappointments—even fear?  Is it ever really possible to start fresh?

How do you plan to make your New Year really new?

It’s rainy and gross here this morning and I don’t have much to blog about regarding WIPs or writing or anything related to that. So. Instead, I thought we could all do something fun.

What are your simple pleasures? It could be just reading your favorite book or watching a movie. It doesn’t cost you a dime to make your happy. What makes you smile when you least expect it? Here’s a few of mine.

1. Listening to the rain in the middle of the night
2. Warm towels from the dryer
3. The scent of a man
4. My son’s laughter
5. Bubble baths

Get the idea? :)

So? What are your’s? Feel free to add to this all day.

Ok so it’s actually Tuesday afternoon, but I’ve written 8 pages and I need a break. My good friend and fellow writer, Madison Chase, interviewed me.

It’s up on her blog so go check it out!

Or … Mad Libs Can be Your Friend!

I am always trying to think of a new way to wake up my muse…spice up my prose…get the mental juices flowing. Christmas, I received a Mad Libs card game in my stocking – okay I bought it and put it in there, but I NEVER get anything in MY stocking so yes, I did it myself!

Anyhoo, I digress. If you have ever played Mad Libs, it is similar, however you draw cards to form funny sentences rather than inserting words for a story. (If you have no knowledge of this ageless POP-culture game this reference may seem weird, but I think you’ll catch on.) The deck of cards comes with 24 cards each of verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives. (There are a couple of other cards specific to the game, but I didn’t use those.) What I did: without looking, I drew three cards randomly from each category and wrote them down. Then I used the words to create a scene in a WIP I am in desperate need to finish.

As a challenge, I loved it. As a scene builder it helped me past a block I had presented myself. And I plan on using the scene in the book. (Though I may take out the “ly” words, as I try not to use many in my work and the sentences work as well without them.)

Would you like to read what I came up with?
(more…)

All over the blog-o-sphere, people are talking New Years Resolutions and what they hope to accomplish in 2007. For me, my goal is to finish painting the house. :)

I firmly believe you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been. And that we too often dismiss our accomplishments as not enough, or don’t take the time to enjoy them the way we should.

Anyway I though I’d ask a different question as we usher in a new year (and can you BELIEVE it’s 2007? sheesh! this year is my 20 year class reunion).

Okay…okay….What did you accomplish in 2006 (whether it was a goal or not)?

I got healthy, something I’ll continue to work on probalby for years to come.
I sold and I signed with a new agent who I adore.
And even though it doesn’t seem like a lot, I read more.