I am so stressed it's not even funny. Though for those who have been keeping track it seems like my financial aid problems might be over, I still have so much to do before school starts on Tuesday!
Add to that the fact that a dear friend of my husband's is in the hospital and that I can't find anything I'm looking for at home and I'm ready to explode...
or maybe pop people's heads like they are pimples...
I know this is a sign that I need to take some time for myself, but that's so very hard to do when everyone else seems to need a piece of you and you don't ever seem to manage to get anything done.
I haven't gone on my walk yet today, and probably won't get around to it with everything else that I have to do, which makes me a little sad. But if I can get other stuff taken care of, I will be very grateful that those are a few less things that I have weighing me down.
The program I'm about to start has the heaviest load of books, oh yay. But it will benefit me (and I'm determined to be able to incorporate it into my writing somehow!) So, that won't be fun. But I am looking forward to once again being back in school and learning.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Characters
Today I watched the movie that came out a couple years ago: Little Red Riding Hood. She has always been one of my favorite characters. I even wrote my own variation of her years and years ago. Lately I have been thinking if I can find the story, perhaps I should dust it off and see about publishing it. I really liked the premise for it.
It's pretty amazing how you can take one simple idea and suddenly have five different versions of it simply because it was written by five people. I think that's fabulous.
Being true my latest tastes in reading, I have begun Sir Author Conan Doyle's Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes. I have to say, I love the BBC version of Sherlock Holmes, where they've set it in a completely modern era. I have often considered trying to write a mystery myself (well, other than my first completed novel kept safely away from any eyes, lol) but though I do love to read them, I'm not sure that would be my forte, and I must admit as a reader, I don't always like it when my favorite authors try to veer into a different genre...
As I did a short walk today (one of my doggies went with me and well, having a doggy when you are just going around a jogging path over and over again is a definite recipe for a short walk), I considered possibilities for one of my Club Strigoi Characters. Now, the idea is very new and budding so I won't go into many details. But it really is a good thing that I am at least thinking about that series again.
It is a sign that I feel at least a bit more relaxed that I am able to feel my stories budding in my brain again, the characters beginning to whisper before they full out start screaming at me.
This is good...
It's pretty amazing how you can take one simple idea and suddenly have five different versions of it simply because it was written by five people. I think that's fabulous.
Being true my latest tastes in reading, I have begun Sir Author Conan Doyle's Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes. I have to say, I love the BBC version of Sherlock Holmes, where they've set it in a completely modern era. I have often considered trying to write a mystery myself (well, other than my first completed novel kept safely away from any eyes, lol) but though I do love to read them, I'm not sure that would be my forte, and I must admit as a reader, I don't always like it when my favorite authors try to veer into a different genre...
As I did a short walk today (one of my doggies went with me and well, having a doggy when you are just going around a jogging path over and over again is a definite recipe for a short walk), I considered possibilities for one of my Club Strigoi Characters. Now, the idea is very new and budding so I won't go into many details. But it really is a good thing that I am at least thinking about that series again.
It is a sign that I feel at least a bit more relaxed that I am able to feel my stories budding in my brain again, the characters beginning to whisper before they full out start screaming at me.
This is good...
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
rambles
I'm not really sure what to write today. So many things run through my mind, but none of them condusive to me being very productive.
I'm thinking about all the projects I still have to work on, and still stressing over the school situation which is beyond my control. I'm worried that despite all my hard work I won't be able to go back to school next week, and I wonder if I'm trying to do too much.
I have school, writing, keeping up my home, walking, being active in my daughter's girl's group, trying to figure out what is going on with her at school - since the information I was given didn't give me access to her grades, etc like it was supposed to, then I am joining a groups next month... wow. That's a lot. That doesn't leave much time for me to be able to do my crochet or knitting projects, or gaming, or...well, much of anything. But if I want to change my situations, the only person who is going to fight for it is me, so, what other choice do I have?
I think I will leave off my rambling for now. But I will leave with one of the coolest phrases I read today -or in a while. It was posted by someone I follow on twitter and though I'm not posting the picture, the saying was:
Negative people need drams like it is oxygen.
Stay positive... and take their breath away.
I'm thinking about all the projects I still have to work on, and still stressing over the school situation which is beyond my control. I'm worried that despite all my hard work I won't be able to go back to school next week, and I wonder if I'm trying to do too much.
I have school, writing, keeping up my home, walking, being active in my daughter's girl's group, trying to figure out what is going on with her at school - since the information I was given didn't give me access to her grades, etc like it was supposed to, then I am joining a groups next month... wow. That's a lot. That doesn't leave much time for me to be able to do my crochet or knitting projects, or gaming, or...well, much of anything. But if I want to change my situations, the only person who is going to fight for it is me, so, what other choice do I have?
I think I will leave off my rambling for now. But I will leave with one of the coolest phrases I read today -or in a while. It was posted by someone I follow on twitter and though I'm not posting the picture, the saying was:
Negative people need drams like it is oxygen.
Stay positive... and take their breath away.
Monday, January 7, 2013
a little about me
Okay, so I know this post is a bit overdue, but the last post I wrote about my muse and what locks me up creatively got me to thinking about interviews. In most interviews, you get the obvious question, what started you writing. So, I figured I'd go ahead and post that here for any who wanted to read it.
I've always dabbled at writing, for as long as I can remember. I remember earning award for Poetry when I was still in elementary school. Then in Middle school, well, to be honest, I became a little bit of a slacker -- especially on the subjects that I really wasn't interested in. I can still remember seeing the look of pure surprise on my 7th grade English teacher's face when I read one assignment aloud. She assigned us to each write the beginning of a story and we had to read it in front of the whole class.
Well, I wrote mine about a pre-teen girl who accidentally got bitten one day as she walked through the halls when another student tripped and fell into her. She didn't think anything of it -- okay, it was weird all right, but you know, it's middle school, weird things happen especially if you aren't a popular kid. By the end of my beginning, she finds out she was bitten by a vampire, and now some of the traits were passed to her. (Honest, and this was waaaaaay before the Twilight sensation! Though my vampire didn't sparkle.)
My teacher just looked at me in shock. My beginning had everything. I'd set the tone, I established the characters, and I had a hook. Now you wanted to continue reading to figure out what happened to this poor girl who got bitten and "infected". She held me to higher expectations after that. Sometimes I lived up to them, sometimes I failed miserably, but she always looked at me differently after that. And, to my dismay, she told my other teachers that I was capable of the work, and good work!, but was being a slacker, lol.
I straightened up my 8th grade year, but that is another story, lol.
I left writing alone for a while. I tried to write a story several times because I had the preface stuck in my head. It was about a girl who was orphaned, and had to live with her Aunt, Uncle and cousins. But she wasn't just orphaned...she actually SAW the person who killed her parents, she saw it happen. She was young when they died, so, of course she blocked most of it out. It was supposed to be a historical romance (since I was very into reading those, and back then I didn't know you could write contemporary romances). It took me a long time to write the story because, well, it's funny saying this now, but I blushed --badly!-- when I even wrote about my characters kissing!
That story was finally finished after my daughter was born. I allowed my mom and a friend to read it and since it has been safely hidden away (printed out and waiting-never to see the light of day). As soon as it was, it was as though the flood gates opened! I had all these ideas in my head, but no clue what to do with them. I stumbled on a Publisher's Message board (Romance at Heart) and was thrilled when they posted that they were going to have a writing contest. First through third place would get their story published. I never dreamed that I would win, but I hoped that by entering, I would be introduced to an editor, who would at least tell me what I was doing right and what I needed to work on.
Imagine my surprise when I actually placed to see my story published in the anthology.
From there, writing has been almost like an addiction. My friends and family can tell when I haven't had the chance to write, and though unfortunately sometimes it has to be put aside for a time, the stories haven't stopped. My characters get more demanding and I think you can see a serious tone difference between what I used to write and what I write now.
I don't think I will ever be able to truly give up writing...but from time to time life does force me to put it to the side. But even when that happens, I find myself opening files, looking at unfinished spreadsheets of characters or unfinished word doc and saying to myself, I need to get back to that. And when I do, and I can feel the words flowing through my fingertips....it's a feeling unlike any other.
I've always dabbled at writing, for as long as I can remember. I remember earning award for Poetry when I was still in elementary school. Then in Middle school, well, to be honest, I became a little bit of a slacker -- especially on the subjects that I really wasn't interested in. I can still remember seeing the look of pure surprise on my 7th grade English teacher's face when I read one assignment aloud. She assigned us to each write the beginning of a story and we had to read it in front of the whole class.
Well, I wrote mine about a pre-teen girl who accidentally got bitten one day as she walked through the halls when another student tripped and fell into her. She didn't think anything of it -- okay, it was weird all right, but you know, it's middle school, weird things happen especially if you aren't a popular kid. By the end of my beginning, she finds out she was bitten by a vampire, and now some of the traits were passed to her. (Honest, and this was waaaaaay before the Twilight sensation! Though my vampire didn't sparkle.)
My teacher just looked at me in shock. My beginning had everything. I'd set the tone, I established the characters, and I had a hook. Now you wanted to continue reading to figure out what happened to this poor girl who got bitten and "infected". She held me to higher expectations after that. Sometimes I lived up to them, sometimes I failed miserably, but she always looked at me differently after that. And, to my dismay, she told my other teachers that I was capable of the work, and good work!, but was being a slacker, lol.
I straightened up my 8th grade year, but that is another story, lol.
I left writing alone for a while. I tried to write a story several times because I had the preface stuck in my head. It was about a girl who was orphaned, and had to live with her Aunt, Uncle and cousins. But she wasn't just orphaned...she actually SAW the person who killed her parents, she saw it happen. She was young when they died, so, of course she blocked most of it out. It was supposed to be a historical romance (since I was very into reading those, and back then I didn't know you could write contemporary romances). It took me a long time to write the story because, well, it's funny saying this now, but I blushed --badly!-- when I even wrote about my characters kissing!
That story was finally finished after my daughter was born. I allowed my mom and a friend to read it and since it has been safely hidden away (printed out and waiting-never to see the light of day). As soon as it was, it was as though the flood gates opened! I had all these ideas in my head, but no clue what to do with them. I stumbled on a Publisher's Message board (Romance at Heart) and was thrilled when they posted that they were going to have a writing contest. First through third place would get their story published. I never dreamed that I would win, but I hoped that by entering, I would be introduced to an editor, who would at least tell me what I was doing right and what I needed to work on.
Imagine my surprise when I actually placed to see my story published in the anthology.
From there, writing has been almost like an addiction. My friends and family can tell when I haven't had the chance to write, and though unfortunately sometimes it has to be put aside for a time, the stories haven't stopped. My characters get more demanding and I think you can see a serious tone difference between what I used to write and what I write now.
I don't think I will ever be able to truly give up writing...but from time to time life does force me to put it to the side. But even when that happens, I find myself opening files, looking at unfinished spreadsheets of characters or unfinished word doc and saying to myself, I need to get back to that. And when I do, and I can feel the words flowing through my fingertips....it's a feeling unlike any other.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
long ramble
It's been a few days since I posted. I don't mean to be a bad blogger, but it was a little harder to do this while my kid was here. I love spending time with her and yesterday we were out of town from just after noon until after 11pm.
I have been good, I got my website updated (and simplified) but I still need to finish my books database. And I think after I post around online I'm going to go for my daily walk.
Financial aid has not been cooperating with me, and I will have to call them again tomorrow. It annoys me that they don't seem to understand that I can continue with school.
I'm not really feeling very organized here, but that usually happens when I have so much going on inside of my mind. Plus, to be honest, I'm not really sure what to post on this blog. I've been doing it, but do I keep it strictly business? Do I add bits of my personal life?
I got a message on Facebook from a lady who reads my books. I love getting emails or messages, or anything from readers. It usually makes my day a little brighter. I try to respond quickly, sometimes, it's a win and I can/do. Sometimes, epic fail when things slip through the cracks or get hijacked by the evil spam filter. But I do always try to respond.
I know many people say this, but it really is true that hearing one person say they enjoyed reading my book, it makes all the effort worth while. And I really hate having to say I'm still working on a book - especially when I've been saying that for so long.
It's really not code for anything but that I'm working on it. At least for me there are a few things that are involved when a book takes a long time to come out:
a)The characters have gotten mad at me for some error in the book and they don't want to talk to me until I figure it out. (I've seen this happen with something as simple as one of my characters wanted to sing a song but I missed it...)
b)Stress. Sorry to say it but sweating stuff in the everyday life (like health, kid, school, etc) can sometimes lock up my muse so tight, I gotta get multiple keys (and much Chamomile tea --- or English Toffee Coffee) to get her back out.
c) Fear. I worry that if I'm true to the story, there will be editors who turn down my book simply because it doesn't fit their style. And I know if I'm not true to the story, well, see a... This one is the most vicious of all the locks because it somehow manages to incorporate everything else.
Whew. Sometimes it's really scary being an author. But like I said before, hearing from readers really does make all my effort worth it.
I have been good, I got my website updated (and simplified) but I still need to finish my books database. And I think after I post around online I'm going to go for my daily walk.
Financial aid has not been cooperating with me, and I will have to call them again tomorrow. It annoys me that they don't seem to understand that I can continue with school.
I'm not really feeling very organized here, but that usually happens when I have so much going on inside of my mind. Plus, to be honest, I'm not really sure what to post on this blog. I've been doing it, but do I keep it strictly business? Do I add bits of my personal life?
I got a message on Facebook from a lady who reads my books. I love getting emails or messages, or anything from readers. It usually makes my day a little brighter. I try to respond quickly, sometimes, it's a win and I can/do. Sometimes, epic fail when things slip through the cracks or get hijacked by the evil spam filter. But I do always try to respond.
I know many people say this, but it really is true that hearing one person say they enjoyed reading my book, it makes all the effort worth while. And I really hate having to say I'm still working on a book - especially when I've been saying that for so long.
It's really not code for anything but that I'm working on it. At least for me there are a few things that are involved when a book takes a long time to come out:
a)The characters have gotten mad at me for some error in the book and they don't want to talk to me until I figure it out. (I've seen this happen with something as simple as one of my characters wanted to sing a song but I missed it...)
b)Stress. Sorry to say it but sweating stuff in the everyday life (like health, kid, school, etc) can sometimes lock up my muse so tight, I gotta get multiple keys (and much Chamomile tea --- or English Toffee Coffee) to get her back out.
c) Fear. I worry that if I'm true to the story, there will be editors who turn down my book simply because it doesn't fit their style. And I know if I'm not true to the story, well, see a... This one is the most vicious of all the locks because it somehow manages to incorporate everything else.
Whew. Sometimes it's really scary being an author. But like I said before, hearing from readers really does make all my effort worth it.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Websites and Migraines
Today has been a load of good news/bad news for me.
The Good News? I was able to work a really pretty streamlined site that I think is a little more what I want.
The Bad News? It won't let me upload the pages I created to my existing site, instead wanting me to buy another domain so I can show off my work.
Websites are incredibly frustrating now. I'm becoming increasingly certain that I want to have mine completely redone -- by someone else!!!
On the bright side I managed to go walking again today, though I did fall a little short of my goal. But I walked more than I did yesterday, so that's a plus.
Now, I need to go see if hot water can help relieve some of the knots I have from sitting over a computer and trying to code something that...well, pretty much only served to show me what I think I want my website to look like.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
New Year
I took a few days off from posting here. But today I tried to start getting things back to business. I didn't work on my book database like I originally intended. But I have updated several things. Tomorrow, I believe after my walk I will begin to work on my website. I'm not sure if I will begin with revamping and correcting as I go, or if I should just correct the pages that need to be fixed and then do a complete revamp...
Decisions, decisions...
I'm fighting a craving for sweet foods. Over the holidays I indulged a little too much and I need to fix that. One of my goals is to start walking between 4 and 5 miles everyday.
I will look for other options as well, but I will see about that as it comes up.
I hope everyone was safe on New Years. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Chinese New Year and the Year of the Snake...
Decisions, decisions...
I'm fighting a craving for sweet foods. Over the holidays I indulged a little too much and I need to fix that. One of my goals is to start walking between 4 and 5 miles everyday.
I will look for other options as well, but I will see about that as it comes up.
I hope everyone was safe on New Years. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Chinese New Year and the Year of the Snake...
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