Hope the holidays were fun and safe for everyone! How many of you did Nano? I attempted, but failed. The story I was writing just wasn't speaking to me. I could get stuff out, but it was sooo boring! I did not want to associate writing with something boring and mandatory. On the upside, I had a whole month to sit back from my main novel. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. While I was away from my beloved characters, I was able to do some more plotting and outlining and get over my writer's block. Woo-hoo! I threw myself back in on December 1st and have made some headway. I also let two of my sisters read it. Talk about stress! The only people I have ever let read my writing have been complete strangers. While I am now critique partners with a few of those people and very much trust and appreciate their feedback, having two people I love read my story and offer their input was terrifying. If they said they hated it, I would feel like a total failure, hide out for a week, and stuff myself full of candy and pizza. Luckily, they loved it! They are both asking when they get to read more, which is motivation for me to get writing more.

The New Year is peeking around the corner. Time for resolutions. Weight loss. Check. Exercise more. Check. Be totally awesome. Check. HaHa. Okay, in all seriousness, I hate New Year's resolutions. Tons of people make these empty promises to themselves or others, but as soon as the excitement is gone, aka Jan. 7, the resolutions are gone, too. As much as I hate them, I have already made two resolutions. One is to read 52 books this year and do book reviews on at least half of them. (Little secret on me: I haven't done any book reviews since high school because I have no idea what I'm supposed to say.) My second one is to finish my novel by the end of January. Not to the point where I'm ready to query it, but to the point that I can focus on editing it. Do you have any resolutions this year? What are they?

I have been a naughty and absent blogger. Again. I've warned you all how unorganized I can be! While I was gone, Paula from Pen 2 Paper gifted me with the Liebster Blog Award. Isn't she the sweetest! Go check out her blog. I love how honest and honest and real she is!

 

Here are the rules for winning a Liebster Blog award:

1. Answer the presenter's 11 questions

2. Formulate 11 questions for them to answer

3. Plaster the award on your blog

4. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog
5. Link back to the blogger who awarded you
6. Copy & Paste the award to your blog
7. Nominate 11 blogs that you enjoy to receive the award who have less than 200 followers
8. Inform them of their nomination by leaving a comment on their blog

Pretty simple, right? Let's get started!

1.What monster would you choose to be for a Halloween costume?
I would be a zombie faery!

2.What is the number one played song on your iPod?
It's a tie between Apologize by Luke Bryan and Payphone and One More Night by Maroon 5.

3.What chore do you hate doing?
The dishes. Mainly pots and pans.

4.If you could throw any kind of party (money is no object) what would it be?
A masquerade ball! Complete with fancy dresses, venetian masks, waiters, etc.

5.Which superpower would you pick if they were up for grabs?
Super speed. Then I could get those darn dishes done quick!

6.What is your favorite holiday and why?
Halloween. It's during my favorite season and has so many options. It can be fun, scary, silly, cute, whatever you want!

7.What is one of your favorite quotes?
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you. -Maya Angelou

8.What is your favorite genre, reading and/or writing?
Romance for both!

9.What is your favorite day of the week and why?
Saturday. It's the one day I can get my little family all to myself without work or anything else to interfere.

10.What is your favorite month of the year?
September. It's the beginning of Fall and my birth month.

11.If you could have any talent in the whole world, which one would you choose?
I would love to be able to sing.


Now for eleven other bloggers!

21st Centure Bluestockings
From the Desk of Laura Stephenson
Hopelessly Hopeful
Iain's Inspiration
Into the Cuckoo's Nest
Jennifer Comeaux
Lindsey Frydman
Munchkins and Manuscripts
Muse, Rant, Rave
Read is the New Black
Reading for Refuge


Be sure to check out these amazing bloggers! A few of them are even my critique partners, and let me tell you, they rock! Here are the questions they will be answering:

1. What author inspired you to start writing?
2. If you could bring any one of your fictional boyfriends to life (I know you have one!) who would it be?
3. What's your favorite color and why?
4. What came first, the chicken or the egg?
5. Where would your ideal writing spot be?
6. What is your favorite type of pizza?
7. You're up for karaoke, what song do you sing?
8. Which power ranger would you have been?
9. What is your favorite book==>movie/tv show?
10. What is your favorite paranormal being to read about?
11. What book are you currently reading?

Candy corn, mini princesses, chocolate, pumpkins, tiny super heroes... Yup, it's my favorite time of year! It's Halloween! Dani of Entertaining Interests and Jackie of Bouquet of Books have put together an exciting contest they have dubbed 'Spooktoberfest'. They gave us five (5) words we had to use in a 300 word flash fiction story. Here's my attempt:

 Sexy costume, sky high heels, smoky, mesmerizing eyes. I was ready for the annual Halloween Masquerade Ball that was held every year at the chicest club in the city.  I put on my gold mask that was as light and lacy as cobwebs when I exited the taxi. It was anonymity from here on out.

The music was already bumping when I went in. Ghosts and ghouls were writhing against Arabian princesses. Frankenstein was leading a Playboy bunny to a dark corner. Everyone who was anyone was there, but no one knew who was who. Between the costumes and the masks, you couldn’t be sure who you were standing next to. That was the point of course, to be able to let go of your inhibitions and let your needs and desires out for one night. To be free without the rules and dictations of society to bring you down to reality.

Sporadically placed jack-o-lanterns were brought to life with the glow of a candle. Cauldrons overflowed with fog, making the floor disappear. I steered clear of the Halloween themed drinks. You couldn’t let your senses be dulled in a place as seductive as this. The tempo of the music changed from energizing and blaring to smooth, slow, and mysterious.

Someone took my hand and pulled me onto the dance floor. I looked up into the greenest eyes I had ever seen, surrounded by a solid black mask. His gaze was so intense, I felt as if he had used a razor to cut through and see into my soul. I let him mold himself to me as we swayed to the music. When the song finished, he took off his mask, revealing someone I never would have guessed in a million years.


Well, there's a mysterious Halloween romance for all of you! Have a fun and safe holiday!

I know right where your mind went, but thankfully we're so not going to go there! It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means:

Insecure Writers Support Group

 

This is such a great group. I love getting encouragement from other writers and seeing that other people struggle with the same things I do. Although writing is usually a solitary thing, it's nice to know we're not alone out there. If you are one of my lovely followers, you've probably noticed I've been absent from here for a few weeks. If you're popping over here from somewhere else, welcome and now you know I'm a slacker. Wonderful first impression, isn't it? While I've been gone, here's what has happened:

1. I celebrated my 25th birthday. Yay me, I'm a quarter of a century old. It was lots of fun. Hubby took the day off work, brought me 25 roses with presents from him and the kids. We took the kids out for a family date, then dropped them off with the inlaws so the hubby and I could have a date night. As our date night involved pizza, it was awesome.
2. My oldest had her first picture day at preschool. Not much of a milestone, but it was still exciting for us. She's had her outfit picked out for weeks.
3. The hubby is working on day shift for a couple of weeks, so we can actually have a social life again.
4. We took a leisurely drive up the colorful American Fork canyon. I love fall!

Yeah, September was a fun month for us. That's the main reason I've been MIA around here. The other reason is... I'm not sure what to write about. My novels are coming along, but I'm talking about my blog. Whenever I do something, I research the heck out of it. Sewing, crocheting, being pregnant, planting a garden, you name it. I'll spend hours pouring over different websites to figure out the best way to do things and the different ways you can do them. Since this is my method, I did the same for blogging. Let me tell you, the only thing consistent in the how-to-blog blogs, was to post consistently. Some say write strictly about writing. Others say don't focus too much on the writing aspect. Then another will pop up and say 'whatever, just write about anything'. I like having some sort of idea of what to do. If I don't have a plan, I tend to get overwhelmed then shut down. That's what happened here. When I read a fellow writer's blog, I like to read a little of everything. Their day at the amusement park with the kids, writing advice, their struggles with their novel, book reviews. I could easily go on and on about the crazy things my kids do or why my MC is about ready to get her neck strangled by me. But writing advice? When do you get to that point that you can give writing advice? For now, I'm content just listening to the advice. What insecurities have been bothering you lately?

 



I was tagged by two wonderful women that I have met through GUTGAA, Heather Riffle and Stacey Nash. Be sure to check out their tagged interviews. Wow, I haven't played tag in like.....okay, it was yesterday. I have a four year old and a two year old, so it happens often. Most of our versions involve a lot of screaming and running around. This probably won't. It's more of a I'm in the spotlight, then I tag someone else to be. If it does cause you to run around screaming, then please let me know! Or better yet, film it and show me! On to the fun stuff!

 

 

 

What is the working title of your book?

On my computer, it is filed under Faeries. It's about half a step up from Untitled. Hopefully the name will come to me soon!

 

Where did the idea come from for the book?

It came from the place almost my ideas come from, a dream. I really wish I can just film my dreams so I can watch them over and over. Some are pretty cool. Like the one I had about Adam Levine which ended up inspiring another novel.

 

What genre does your book fall under?

New Adult fantasy with romance sprinkled through. My MC starts out in college and turns twenty-one at the beginning of the book.

 

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I haven't even thought about it to be honest. Hmmm.....I think for Brock, who is the sexy bad boy, I would go with Ian Somerhalder. For Soren, the super hot almost gentleman, I'd pick Jensen Ackles. For fun loving, over protective Bree, Isla Fischer. Sweet, calm Nessa: Amanda Seyfried. And for my MC Carra *drum roll* Mandy Moore or Hayden Panettierre. Whoo! Thank you Google images.

 

What is a one sentence synopsis of your book?

Twenty-one year old Carra discovers she is a very special, very rare faery, and is the key to preventing or starting a war between the fae.

 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agent?

I'm crossing my fingers (and eyes, toes, legs, hair) that it will be represented by an agent.

 

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I'll have to get back to you on that, because I'm still not quite finished. I first started writing it November-ish of last year, got about a quarter of the way through and took a break because I was stuck. When I started it back up again February of this year, I scrapped it and started it from the beginning a couple times. My characters wanted to be older, more mature, and a little more self confident.

 

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

It's a new world, one that I'm hoping people will fall in love with. There's pixies, elves, and mermaids. There's love, lust, manipulation, and a thirst for power. Piqued yet?

 

Now it's time for me to tag someone. Excuse me while I stretch out my typing fingers.

 

Lindsey Frydman

Clare Dugmore

Heather Bryant

 

You're up ladies!

 

 

 





Sorry to those of you who have stopped over from IWSG and didn't have a post to read! It's great to mee you though! I've been putting off getting on the computer today, because I know that when I do, I need to work on my WIP. Well, duh, of course I do, but I'm sorta stuck. Shocking, I know. Does this ever happen to you? Are things going along great then all of a sudden your characters look at you and say, "There is no way I'm going to do what you think you want me to do." Or even worse, you have no idea what you want them to do next? I'm at the latter of the crossroads right now. My MC is stuck between two guys, but not sure if I should have her leaning towards one or the other right now. *Sigh* If my wonderful critique partners are reading this, you know who I'm talking about. HELP ME!!! Okay, I'm good now.

Hey all that are stopping by from GUTGAA! If you're not, click the linky on my side bar ----> and sign up! So, a little about me. I'm so glad Deana poster a list of questions, because I'm never quite sure what to say about myself.

-Where do you write?

Usually at my desktop in the front room. Occasionally I will try finger pecking on the iPad if my kids are insistent that I watch TV with them.

-Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see?

My son’s toy truck that plays ‘Funky Town’. J

-Favorite time to write?

After my husband leaves for work. By then, the kids are fed and off playing, so I can have some alone time. For about five minutes.

-Drink of choice while writing?

Either water or Squirt. If it’s been a rough day, then Squirt in a wine glass. Hey, it’s the thought that counts.

-When writing , do you listen to music or do you need complete silence?

I can work either way most of the time. If a scene is being particularly difficult, then I’ll hit up Pandora and pick a station to help set the mood.

-What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it?

The two that I am working on right now both came from dreams. My most recent one came from a dream involving Adam Levine from Maroon 5. No, it was not “one of those” kind of dreams!

-What's your most valuable writing tip?

Hmmm….that’s a good one. Get it all out on paper. Or screen for most people. You can go back and edit the crap out of it later. Even if you’re at a scene that you know you’ll probably cut or completely change, but you need filler to get to the next scene that you’re going to rock, put it on that screen.

Friday, Friday, gotta get down cause it's Friday. Ha, now you have that song stuck in your head! My favorite cover artist for that particular song is my four year old. :) She only knows the chourus, but it's so dang cute! Anyway, music on the brain. Obviously. Most the time I'm okay to write with whatever noise is blaring, honking, or squeaking in the background. As long as someone isn't talking to me, I'm good. Shut up, shut up, don't want to hear it! Every so often though, my characters aren't quite sure what to do, and I need some music to put them in the right mood. Notice I said my characters and not me? It's totally their fault. For example, the other day I was writing a scene in which my MC was out with a hot guy, but their dialogue just wasn't working. They were both being kind of quiet and boring. I wanted sexy and mysterious. So, I put on Haunted by Evanescence. Boom! Sexy and mysterious dialogue and it just escalated from there. You're unbelievable! What do you do when your characters aren't quite cooperating? Bonus points to whoever can name the artist for each of the songs I've quoted!

I'm doing a late post today! I had the craziest dream the other night. I won't go into detail because you will think I'm crazy. My husband and sister do when I tell them my dreams, but luckily, I convinced them how seriously awesome I am before I started telling them. So, the dream....It was crazy, but it planted the seed for another story. While my current WIP is more in the fantasy genre, this one is leaning to be in the more sex, drugs, and rock and roll drama. I'm still working out the kinks for the idea of it, then gotta work out the kinks for the first draft, and yada yada yada. Just know that there's a sexy musician, a sweet girl, drugs, and love, both wanted and unwanted involved. Oh yeah, I know you're intrigued. Now, when I get ideas, I want to write them down before I forget. Thank goodness there's an app for that! For quick notes like grocery store stuff, chores, and the likes, I use an app called 'Notes'. Pretty aptly named, right? When I get ideas for a story, there's usually a lot more to it than I can summarize in a quick sentance. For these kinda things, I use an app called 'A Novel Idea'. It's AWESOME! You can put in different characters and it asks you their height, age, skin tone, even their race! It also asks what external and internal conflicts and movtivations are. You can really break down these characters and see what makes them tick! If that's not cool enough, you can add settings, scenes, locations, and attach these to whichever book you want. Did I mention you can do all this for more than one book? I love it. Whenever a thought hits like, 'x can be y at z', I just whip my phone out, got to 'A Novel Idea' and put it in! No more forgotten ideas!

I already missed a post! Darn Mondays! As I've mentioned before, I'm not the most organized person and have a bit of a spaz-o personality. Oh well. On the upside, I did have a good reason for missing. I wrote 5,000+ in one day! If you're shrugging your shoulders and saying, 'so? I do that everyday.' Then please know I am sticking my tongue out at you. In insane jealousy. On my good days, I'll get a couple hundred words out. This is in large part thanks to my two wonderful kids who always need me for something. Like to settle a dispute between who gets to push the baby stroller around the house. Gotta love them though! No, really, you do. Well, I'm going to continue my happy dance until someone sticks a fork in an electrical outlet.

A baker's favorite tool may be their KitchenAid. A construction worker's favorite tool may be their hammer. A parent's favorite tool may be a portable gate. What about writers? My favorite tool to be armed with is a thesaurus. There's only so many times someone can smirk before you want slap it off their face. Or maybe you want to describe how happy someone is but excited doesn't cut it. You look it up in the thesaurus and decide ecstatic is a much better fit.  What's your favorite tool that you make sure is nearby your writing station at all time?

I know I haven't been posting long, but does anyone else notice how easily I get sidetracked? I remind myself of Dug from the movie UP, but instead of--- I had pizza for dinner. *Sigh* See what I mean? I really am like this a lot in my day to day life. It drives my husband nuts at times. Due to my lack of attention span, I don't ever keep to a schedule. While you may be thinking, "Wow, I wish I didn't have a schedule", let me tell you something, it kinda sucks. I never know when I'm going to be able to squeeze writing in, or what time I'll get around to doing dishes. Now you're probably thinking, "Ok, this lady is kinda weird". I totally agree with you! Aren't the weirdest people the most fun though? :) I wish I was one of those organized people who you know that from 10a-10:30a are eating their breakfast (Yeah, I believe in late to bed, late to rise), Monday mornings they will be gone for two hours to go grocery shopping, and every day from 3p-5p, they sit down in their nice comfy chair and let the words flow endlessly from their mind to their fingertips. There are days that I don't even get writing in *gasp* because I'm just meandering throughout my day. I've finally gotten to the point that I'm  okay with the fact that I will probably never be a particularly organized person. I'll probably always be one of the people who you call up at 2a and I'll say "Oh, I'm just cleaning the oven." Ok, that's a total lie.  It'll probably more along the lines of, "I'm biting my nails because Edward just asked Bella to marry!" Don't tell me you don't get excited even when you read it for the 20th time. What are some things you wish you could change about yourself at times?

Spelling has always come pretty easy to me. Great, now I know I'm going to end up misspelling a bunch of words in this post and be called out on it. Bear with me, ok? Every super hero has a flaw, something that can knock him (or her) down. Superman->kryptonite, you know that sort of thing. My super spelling powers always suffer when I have to spell definately, oops, I mean definitely. Gets me almost every darn time! My other kryptonite is people. I always want to spell it 'pepole'. My secret is out, let me have it! While you're laughing at me (admit it, you totally are), share in my embarrassment and tell me what words are your kryptonite.

One of my favorite movies is Down With Love with Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger. I love the sexual tension and twists and turns and conceiving antics of the the characters. (Plus Ewan and his sexy accent? Yum!) In a tiny nutshell, Barbara Novack (Zellweger) writes a best selling novel called Down With Love that teaches women how to take control of their own lives and be happy without needing men. Catcher Block (McGregor) is a playboy journalist who is determined to prove Barabara wrong. During a tv interview (not with Block), Barbara says her sales doubled when all the men snuck out to by her book to see what the female population was reading, and her sales tripled after a church group burned her books then snuck out to buy new copies to replace the old. Ok, now I'm at the point of the story I wanted to share. Go watch the movie to find out the rest! With 50 Shades of Grey as popular as it is now, I wonder how many people have snuck out, bought it and read it. I did at first. It wasn't until I read all 3 books that I admitted to reading them. I loved the books, don't get me wrong, but they're naughty, especially for Utah, in my opinion. I loved every minute of them. ;) For those of you that read them, are you biting your lip and proud of it? Or are you hiding in the playroom hoping no one finds you?

Ok, an unscheduled post, but Megan from Reading for Refuge is doing a giveaway on her blog for Chantelle Sedgwick's newly published book, Not Your Average Fairytale. This is totally meant for me because I just found out I missed the giveaway from Chantelle's blog and was totally bummed. Anywho, go here to read a bit about Not Your Average Fairytale and enter in the giveaway.

Do you prefer papyrus? Maybe banana leaves are more your style. Ok, so I may be a century or two off. Let's fast forward into the world of technology. Most people these days own a desk top computer. Mac or PC, that's all on you. I personally have a PC, but my husband wants to get a Mac next. I'm down with that, Justin Long is cuter than that other guy after all. Hey, maybe we're even related! Back to the subject....Do you write on your desk top? Or do you have a laptop that you've nicknamed Typo? I do most of my writing on my desk top. I'm used to the keyboard and I know how it works, but it's a bit hard to bring outside when the kids want me to watch them build their sand castles. A couple years ago, my husband got an iPad from work. Instead of giving into my begging and pleading and not so subtle hints for a laptop, he got me a keyboard for the iPad instead and saved us at least $200. Thanks to Dropbox and an app called CloudOn, I'm able to jump back and forth from my desktop to the iPad. The only problem is my new keyboard is a bit touchy and I end up double typing letters. A lot. I'm trying to get used to it, but may just spend $20 on a new keyboard. So, what do you write on?

Well, it doesn't make too much of a difference in this house. Both of our kids are still too young for school. Until this fall, then my big girl starts preschool! I don't know if I'm excited or sad. I'll let you know when she starts. For those of you with kids in school, does this mean more writing time because you're not running kids around and rushing forgotten pieces of homework "right this minute" to forgetful ones? Or does it mean less because the little monsters, oops, I mean angels, are home all day? What about ones like me or those without kids, does summer mean less or more writing? I'm hoping that I'll be able to say more, because I can send the kiddos outside to burn off the excess of energy. Fingers crossed that my dreams come true!