Hello There, I'm still here.

This week has been exhausting. I'm sure a few of you have wondered where on earth I've been. Well, join the club. I've been wondering that myself. My family had quite a scare this week. We nearly lost a very near and dear uncle to a heart attack on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, he was out of town working at the time and nearly ten hours away from his family. Fortunately, he survived. We are still on our knees, thanking the good Lord for hearing our prayers. I don't speak of praying often, nor do I pray often enough, but this week my entire family was heard and answered. My uncle is recovering and he is now back home with us.

Now when this tragedy occurred, my cousin, his wife, and my aunt left town in a hurry to rush to my uncle's side, leaving their four year old daughter Gracie, in the care of her other grandmother and myself. My kids are 16 and 17. Its been awhile. This brought on more praying as I asked God if she was ever going to stop talking and if he could please send someone to work the (redacted) car seat. Then I asked him to forgive me for saying a curse word in the middle of a prayer because I don't think you're supposed to do that.

My parents used to let us ride on top of the back seat, ya know, right there in the back windshield where we could make faces at the cars behind us and try to talk Dad into slamming on the brakes so we could roll down the seat and into the floor. With the exception of my brother who seems to space out from time to time, we turned out fine. This weeks experience with a child safety seat was like trying to buckle Danica Patrick into a Hans device for the Indy 500, and I doubt her pit crew has to do that as she counts to one hundred while holding a fresh cup of chocolate milk. When did they put cup holders on safety seats? I think I have a bruise on my hip. Needless to say, I've not been blog hopping, haven't written a single word or read hardly a line of anything. I don't know whats gone on throughout the world this week, but I do know my uncle is alive. When he's ready, I'll have to tell him how me and his granddaughter Gracie managed to replace a unicorns horn with a half eaten pickle during our game of "make up a story" in the car. Maybe a little laughter will heal his heart, it sure healed mine.

And It Continues

Well its been a whole week. I haven't blogged and I haven't visited either. Guess you guys already knew that. I'm going to make my rounds this week, see what you've all been up to.  So I thought I'd give you the run down of how the week went. Let you know what I've been up to. I worked all day on Monday then came home and stared at a blank word document for hours. If you're one of those who counts the words "chapter eleven" as progress then the day was a total success. Everyday after that went on in the same fashion. Work, work, work, stare, stare, stare. Then it hit me. I don't just write anymore. I spend more time over thinking it way too much.

Remember back in the day before you read all those books that told you how to write, before all the examples, the countless hours you've spent reading articles or blogs written by literary agents who opine about plot structure and proper beginnings, acceptable endings. After awhile, all that information starts to do two things. First, you learn an enormous amount of much needed information that will undoubtedly make you a better writer. You will see results over time. From every book you read whether its directed at the craft or just some awesome paranormal romance you can't put down, either way, it will all put you one step closer to being a better writer. But, BUT, it will also make you think about every word you write. That's a good thing kinda sorta. But its a bad thing because now you're not just focused on your story, the characters, all the good stuff that's made you that half crazed lunatic holed up at the kitchen table, typing away like you're rain man with a laptop. No, now you're in a personal struggle with every single word. At least that's how I've felt. And I must say, I miss the way I used to just write. However, I do not care for the countless hours of revisions I've had to endure and am still having to endure due to my devil may care way of writing. It was fun the first time around, definitely not the second, third or even the fourth. So, I let myself off the hook. I just started writing. I'll think about fixing things later. I just want to be back in my story. The rest I'll work out when I have to.

What about you? How's it going?

Feeling the Disconnect.

I think I need to take my characters out to dinner. Or, I could send the real characters within my home out to dinner, fix a sandwich for me, and have a long overdo meeting with my imaginary friends, which may be a meet and greet seeing as how so much time has passed. Just yesterday I was in the shower trying to think about my WIS (work in suspension). I gasped when I realized I couldn't recall the last name of one of my characters. Ack! Omigosh, how awful is that? Nothing like getting that faraway, glazed over look while reaching for the razor. Not cool. My would be novel has now turned dangerous. To not recall your own characters could only mean one of two things: too much time has lapsed since I've worked on my WIS, or I'm in the early stages of Dementia.  Progress is supposed to be watching as something moves forward. That is clearly not happening.

I'm also struggling with my blog. As a writing blog, you can only cover so much, and lets face it, most of it has already been covered. I'd like to mix things up a bit. I just don't know how to do that just yet, so I think  I'm gonna take the week off. Think about it. Get to know my characters again, catch up, visit everyone, and make some changes. Any ideas? What should I change about my blog? What do you like or dislike about it? I'd love to know your thoughts.

The Italian Hangover

Okay, so yesterday was my anniversary. I woke with a smile, remembering our vows. I kept my eyes closed as I got lost in sweet kisses. Wet kisses, very wet kisses, morning breath that should be addressed, and then I opened my eyes, sighed, and tried to remove the dog from my face. I had no idea he'd be so into celebrating the anniversary of the day I married the human. Who knew? After that, everything is but a memory. See, we decided to go to Carrabbas Italian Grill to celebrate. Then we were gonna come home, have a few drinks, and I was going to work on a few projects. Instead, we ended up asleep. Totally stuffed with Italian goodies. How sad is that? So, I'm behind again and a little hungover from all the food. Ah, good times. Tell me what you're up to? What did I miss while I was lost in a cannelloni dream that turned out to be more of a memory?

What Would Elana Johnson Do?

Happy Mother's Day! Hope all the mom's out there are being pampered beyond belief. You deserve it! I'm heading out to dinner later with my parents and kids, but for now, I'm living it up in my pajamas. I feel so jacked up, course that could be due to the four cups of coffee I've had so far. So anyways, I wanted to brag about my mail bag and another Momma.

Just last week, I was graced with an envelope that contained a little bundle of bookmarks from the ever awesome Elana Johnson. Yes, I am that important. Hello, where have you people been? Actually, I sent her an email awhile back and offered to strong arm a few librarians around my little hometown and make them order her book. Several drop offs, and one restraining order later, the deed is done. Her book, POSSESSION comes out on June 7th and I am so excited for her and even more excited to read this book. But wait, there's more. Elana was sweet enough to send me an autographed bookmark for my keeping, but after a week of having such a gem in my possession (no pun intended), I had to ask myself, what would Elana do? I mean, if I sent her the bookmark of my up and coming novel, (laughs hysterically, sobs) graced with my very own signature, what would she do? Would she carry it around with her, bragging to everyone how she knows me, would she treasure it as though it were the key to some exotic city, talk to it when no one was around? We all know she would, but then, she'd pass it on because she's just that cool. So I'm gonna do the same. All you have to do, in honor of Mother's Day, is tell me the funniest thing your kid ever said. If you're not a  mother, just tell me something you said as a child or something you heard from somebody else's kid. Whoever makes me snort the most, gets the bookmark. And, you'll get to play a part in something else, but you'll have to win before I tell you what it is. In Elana's words, it's gonna be filled with "AWSOMESAUCE". Contest ends on Tuesday.

Happy rest of the weekend, people.

Simple Synopsis.

So I've been thinking a lot lately about the ever dreaded synopsis. I'm doing this in the car because I have no time otherwise, and truth be told, I'm only thinking about it as a diversion. I should be thinking about finishing my revisions long before I think about the synopsis, but it keeps me from having to do revisions. I know some writers use their synopsis as an outline. Me, not so much. I can't figure out if I'm truly struggling with it, or if I'm too intimidated by the whole concept. My story is so complex, at least it feels that way to me. The story spans three hundred years. How am I supposed to sum that up? Girl meets boy. Boy seems weird. Boy turns out to be weird. Girl meets other boy who is also weird. Falls for second weird guy, only to discover she's sort of weird too. Girl uncovers a dark family secret that leads to another weird discovery. Fairies show up that may have once upon a time caused such weirdness. Girl accepts herself for being weird, defeats other weird adversaries then goes on to live happily ever  after with weird boy number two. It's of course a little more to it than that but I think it works. Oh God.

Maybe I'll just stick to beta reading.

My Next WIP.

Its Spring time all around. The weather is warming up outside. We're all painting our toes, tanning our bodies, and exercising to look better in those bathing suits this summer (some of us are looking up the word exercise, and cursing over misspelling it three times, but I'm not naming names). I'm stoked its getting warmer. I am sooo not a cold weather kind of girl, but does everything else have to come with it. I can hardly beta read for the pollen. Seriously, I took the dog out for a walk last night and made the mistake of shining the flashlight into the yard. It was like watching microscopic aliens attack my body. My wedding anniversary is next week and I made my husband promise not to put a flower on my pillow. I'd view such an act on the same level of finding a  severed horses head sharing my pillow. Not cool. Concentrating is hard, but to those who make Puffs...You're welcome. Hope your profit sharing checks are awesome this year. If you're feeling generous, I could use another box of Claritin. To my followers, worry not. I've been inspired by this turn of events. There is always a silver lining my friends. I'm feeling a new project coming on. I've tentatively dubbed it DEATH BY DAFFODILS. You guessed it, its a horror.  Rant over.

Um...You have to read this.

I wasn't going to post today and I'm not.  Jenn Johansson said it all.

Z-End

This too is a day late, but hey, nothing like making sure the A-Z challenge continues on for one more day. For me, the A-Z was a lot of fun. I had the opportunity to meet some really great bloggers, add a few to my list, and collect a few followers. But I have to say, the blogging every day thing was not for me. I tried to hang in there but sometimes the posts felt a little forced and planned and that's not me. I'm too random for all that. So I'm taking a day or two off to stalk my way around the blogosphere and find out what everybody's been up to while I've been on the challenge. I should be back to my random little posts and rants by Wednesday, or who knows, maybe even tomorrow;)