Friday Five: Looking for the Positive

1. This week has been full of ups and downs. It involved a car repair, walking in the rain and just general back and forth. Isn't it funny how things can swing from one side to another depending on what you hear. Fortunately this week I've had a positive attitude the entire week.Walking my son to preschool was a chance for exercise, not a burden. And we were blessed that though it rained throughout the day, the times I had to be out walking it was sunny. It was just that kind of week. We got a bit of bad news, but then good news would show up a little bit later to make up for it. So this week my glass was a little more than half full.

2. On the writer front, I still just don't know Jason very well. I don't know what scares me so much about writing him. Maybe it's the name. I've actually been friends with a few different Jasons. All nice guys. This Jason is a nice guy as well, but something isn't working. I may need to change the name. So I'm up for suggestions--seriously if you have any that'd be great. The other main character names are Lexy, and Kaden if that helps. On the other hand I've been able to work out some major information surrounding Jason and Lexy and their relationship to make it much more believable. Really neat stuff--still I can't seem to get inside of Jason's head enough.

3. I've already begun planning on how to entertain my kids over the summer. The goal is to wear them out as quickly as I can at the beginning of each and every day. I really want them to have a fun summer, soI'm going to schedule play dates, and take them to the parks. But we have to go out early, and be done by 11:00 or the heat will kill us. It should be a good summer.

4. When we moved a few months ago we went ahead and got T.V when we had the Internet hooked up. This was to save us money, since we would get rebates back that would pay for the t.v. portion of the bill for a few months. I grew up in a cable free home. At the time it didn't seem like a big deal. Most of my friends didn't have cable when I was young, so I didn't realize that I had missed out on so much until I was in college and people would talk about that show or this show. But I didn't really feel like I'd missed out on anything. So I'm torn on the whole T.V. thing now. I like having a DVR, but I was using Hulu to do that. Basically now we are trying to decide whether or not to cancel the cable. The kids like it, but I think they watch too much T.V. Rob is torn as well--since he is very media obsessed, but he's not positive it's worth the money, which is actually really something coming from him. We'll have to see what to do.

5. Strangely enough I started this post in the morning, and now it's midnight. So I guess I'm slow or something. But that's okay, as least it got written today. That's better than most things I've managed to try to do today.

Happy Writing!

Friday Five: Finally!

1. So I almost didn't do another Friday five this week. Shameful I know, but today has been one of THOSE days. I haven't showered yet, and it's 10:30. I didn't do it this morning because I was going to exercise, but things kept coming up, again, and again and again. The biggest of which was running Caleb, my five year old, in for a breathing treatment. He should be fine, and it's not the first time I've taken him in--though it has been three years. We are stocked up on Albuterol for awhile, and hopefully he won't need it. Talk about hyper!

2. Last week I gave myself the week off--completely off from my writing. The reason I was feeling a little burned out, a bit stuck and just frustrated in general. Was my plot not the awesome I thought it was? Was I overextending my current writing capabilities? That is still up for debate, but I came back, and I flew through some of my best first draft writing ever! So it felt good. I used to be afraid of breaks, but now I think they are good every now and then.

3. One of the best things about critique groups is how much you learn. I learn from reading and other people's work, and recognizing weaknesses and strengths. Sometimes it's easier to find a problem in someone else's writing, and then look to see if you have it in yours. I don't know if that makes sense, but I learn just as much from the critiques I give to others as I do from the critiques people give to me. It's great to stretch and work, and grow as a writer.

4. So there has been some crazy news this week. The fireball that flew over the midwest (you've got to watch the footage), the ash cloud shutting down travel in a large part of Europe, another earthquake, (well two actually, though one was quite small in comparison.) And I can come up with three to four plot ideas for each one of them. Wow! Awesome stories too. The thing i like to remember that these events aren't much except for the way that they affect the people. Choose a few, throw them into the scenario and bam the perfect story plot.

5. And now I'm off to get to know my zombie. His name is Jason, he is seventeen years old. He likes the color blue, and his favorite sport is football. He works out on a regular basis and he is madly in love with Lexy. But he is also infected. Let's see what I can come up with.

Happy Writing!

Contest!

I know I've been missing in action. I gave myself some time off to get refocused. So expect a good post from me on Friday. In the meantime, here's a great contest that you may want to enter. It invovles critiques of queries and pages, twizzlers and books. Should be fun! Go check it out at Sarah Wylie's blog.

Contest and Bojangles

First I wanted to share a great contest over at Moonrat's blog Editorial Ass, which is a 20 page crit. Her blog is great, if you don't already follow it, you should. I'm sure that her critique would be a huge help to anyone in the midst of submitting/writing a novel.

And I wanted to explain Bojangles to my non-Southern readers. It's a fried chicken store, that specializes in Southern style food. Like sweet potato pie, sausage biscuits, gravy and biscuits, and other stuff. They have dirty rice, which is spicy rice. As adventurous as it all sounds, all I get is the Chicken Strip snack pack. The chicken strips are a bit spicier than any I've ever had, and the honey mustard sauce is the best that I've had. Plus the biscuits are good--really good and I don't normally like biscuits.

Anyway go enter the contest!

Saturday Six

1. Since I missed posting yesterday, I'm going to give you six wonderfully random bits of information. Well I don't know about wonderful. I missed posting yesterday because my daughter missed her bus, and then I ran, and ran, and ran. And then we ended up visiting family. Basically yesterday was a no computer day and I didn't get much done. I did catch up on sleep while we were on the road.

2. In order to motivate myself to write my Zombie/Werewolf novel super fast, I'm mailing one chapter at a time to my darling sister. She's not a writer, and is wonderful at telling me good job, and I want the next chapter, and telling me that I'm being a slacker when I don't get a chapter to her. Sometimes it helps to just have someone to be accountable to, but I feel like by letting her read it, I'm not ruining writing the whole first draft without anyone seeing it, because she's not sending me comments back. Does that make sense? I hope so, because it does to me.

3. I really enjoyed Elana Johnson's posts on how to get more traffic to your blog. Anyway, you should totally read the series. I enjoyed them, and I think she had a lot of really good points. I blog and write for another site that is not related to writing, and I some of what she says over there. I know I need to do it here, but I really need to figure out a way to find the focus. Sometime soon it will start.

4. This week I've learned about swords, fences, guns and other things I never once thought that I'd ever need to know about. I was fascinated as I watched my nephew load a Nerf shotgun, and the way the bullet casings would fly out on to the ground, and pulling the muzzle (if that is even the right part of the gun) up before shooting. It made me picture things differently, and also think about how I describe certain things in person. It also made me decide I need to go pick up a real sword somewhere and hold it. And maybe pretend to fight someone. I've done it with a plastic sword with my boys, but I think a heavy sword would make a difference in the fighting.

5. Looking back at what I've written this week, I'm still so excited about this story. I'm still in love with the story idea, and the entire plot, and the whole triangle, and all of the little things that I'm uncovering, but even more exciting I feel like that I'm a much better writer than I was. It makes me want to rethink everything I've written. So that is exciting. Of course I don't have any feedback, but it's okay to love my story at the beginning. I'm sure that I will hate it several times along the way.

6. I'm going to go and eat me some Bojangles. The first time my husband brought me out to North Carolina, he made me eat some Bojangles. This was a time when I was eating hardly any meat, but man it was good. I'm getting ready to go more vegetarian, and I really think that Bojangles is something that I'm going to miss. I could eat it every week, just like pizza, but fortunately I don't have one close to my house. I love their chicken strips and honey mustard sauce!

Happy Writing!

Friday Five: Spring is Almost Here!

1. The weather this last week has been beautiful. Unfortunately we haven't enjoyed it. My two little boys had an awful cold all week long! And they are still worn out and barely making it through the day. I feel so sad for them. They didn't even ask to go anywhere the whole week. That's how sick they were. Hopefully by Monday we will be able to get out and enjoy the weather.

2. I had a wonderful birthday this week. My husband made me dinner, mopped the floor, got me a gift card to Barnes and Noble and a new crock pot. I love crock pots, but my last one nearly started a fire after being on for only four hours. It had been shutting off randomly (which I was wondering if the kids were messing with it), but anyway this doesn't need to be a crock pot post. Needless to say the crock pot is my friend, because I often have the most energy in the morning, and I love making dinner then and just eating it in the evening. I'm looking for good vegetarian crock pot recipes if you have any ideas.

3. Last night I had a major breakthrough idea on my zombie plot so I'm very excited. The plot is a love triangle, and I know who I'm rooting for, and of course I know who ultimately wins, but I was worried that I was introducing one of the two guys too late in the novel. Yeah, totally fixed that last night. Well not it's not technically written yet, but it should be before I go to bed tonight.

4. I went to Barnes and Noble tonight and wandered through the store with my youngest looking for books. I couldn't find anything that spoke to me. One of the reasons is that I really wanted to get a writing book--but I hate to buy those books without reading reviews and everything. I had a specific one in mind, but they didn't have it. So then I just looked at them all. Ones that seemed interesting were writing your novel in a month--since I am attempting this first draft in a month. Revising your novel in a month--which I just don't know if it is possible. And The Idiot's Guide to Writing a Young Adult Novel. Actually that didn't look interesting--honestly I'm put off by the Idiot and Dummie books. Frankly I don't consider myself either, and I think it is kind of demeaning, even though I've looked through a few on topics besides writing and learned stuff. I like the title Everything You Need to Know type books, but frankly I wouldn't buy those on writing either. I want a book written by someone that has consistently published and been successful or that comes to me highly recommended or that Rob buys for me because he does his research. So if you have any recommendations let me know. I did see the Portable MFA book and considered it for a short time, and might still be considering it. My favorites are On Writing by Stephen King, Plot and Structure, Hooked and The First Five Pages.

5. I've been thinking about craft lately. I take my writing seriously. I think that there things that I can specifically work on to become better. I think you can learn about craft from reading both books on writing and just books in general. Sometimes it takes attending a specific workshop or hearing a specific critique that can really solve everything for you. The thing is that as a writer it's a continuous evolution. Every day, every chapter, every word I write helps me to come a little bit better and I can incorporate it into the next novel I write. How do you improve your craft?

Happy Writing!

Wonderful Contest and News

So on Monday night I was very excited to read Beth Revis's news that she had a book deal (and what a book deal I might add). congrats to her! I've been reading Beth's blog for more than a year, and I really have enjoyed. She's from Western NC, and I lived out that way for a few years (we've never met or anything), but when she'd talk about the Biltmore House, I could think I've been there--stuff like that. And her student comment blogs never failed to make me laugh. I was excited and felt I must share.

Me: Rob, that blog I follow, you know the one where she's a teacher in Western NC, she just got a really good book deal.

Rob: Huh?

Me: I've talked about the blog a lot. You know funny things happen in her class. She lives out in Western NC. I've talked about this to you.

Rob: Huh?

Me: Point is that she got an awesome book deal.

Rob: Well that's great.

Shows how much he really listens when I talk writing.

Anyway Beth's having an awesome contest to celebrate, and if you don't already follow her blog you really should. Every post is worth reading.