Mother’s Day Eve

So my kids, knowing me as well as they do, decided they wanted to buy me a book for Mother’s Day. Rather than having them guess blindly what I wanted and didn’t already own we took a trip to Target to go book shopping. Don’t judge, our closest bookstore is B&N and it’s a good 25 minutes or more drive.

Anyway, I digress. So we’re looking at books and child the younger (who is 6) wanders around a bit then looks at me and says, “Mommy, what’s the name of the book you made?”

“Possession,” I say and wait for him to ask what that means. Instead he says, “Oh,” and continues to wander.

After a little longer he comes back up to me and says, “Mommy, what’s your book look like?”

That’s when I realized he’d been roaming looking for the book I’d written on the shelves. So I had to explain that mommy’s book isn’t published so he won’t be able to find it. He was horribly disappointed. And then my husband said, “Not yet. Mommy’s book isn’t published yet. You’ll see it one day.” (I knew there was a reason I loved him.)

As a side note, one of the books I picked up was Stephen King’s most recent short story collection. The first story is about a father and son who kill the mom. Irony at its best.

Happy Mother’s Day everyone. Hope its as great as my day before has been.

I have decided….

This week will be better than last week. It has to be. Last week, in case you couldn’t guess, was a horrible horrid thing that stunk right up until about Friday at 4:30. The weekend has been okay. I got my kitchen cleaned out and organized which is fantastic. I also am coming down with some sort of sinus crap (yes, again) but that’s okay.

So, everyone repeat after me: This week will be awesome. Beyond awesome even. It is decided.

Very good. Thank you.

I also got my hair done. I wanted bright red streaks, but my hair is dark enough that in order to do it, they would have to bleach and then put the color in. Needless to say I just got normal red highlights put in as I had no desire to spend $200 or 4 hours getting my hair done. Not to say it won’t ever happen, but it’s not on the agenda right now. That being said, she trimmed up my hair and thinned it out so it looks and feels better, and I like the highlights even if they weren’t precisely what I wanted when I went in.

Guess that’s it for now. What’s up with you?

A realization

I realized this evening that writing completely new words scares me. I’m not sure if this a new thing or something I just didn’t notice before. I’m afraid they won’t be any good. Scared that I’ll fail.

The upside to this is that when I read back over what I’ve written, I’m usually pleasantly surprised with the quality of my words.

I’ve also realized that I want nothing more in life than to tell my stories and have other people read them. Read them and love them. This however isn’t a new realization. I’ve known this since I was in school. Just restating it.

So what about you? Any old or new realizations about your writing or your life?

Yes takes longer than no

A friend of mine says that to me. A lot.

I keep repeating it to myself every time I check my inbox. I hope she’s right.

Okay, off to write a post-apocalyptic fairytale.

Holy smokes, people!

I feel like I’m being pulled a million different ways and at the moment I’m totally wired. This is not a good thing as I have court in the morning and I kind of have to be awake enough to know what’s going on. My writer’s brain has kicked in again. It’s imagining* things that may or may not be true and I’m sure I’ll be up all night wondering which. GAH!

On another note, I have decided not to renew my memberships to any of my “professional” writing groups. I have a very close knit writing group with several friends at various points in their writing careers and I feel I get the society with them that I need. I also feel that my money would be better spent subscribing to some industry publications. We’ll see how that works. I can always change my mind later and sign back up.

Let’s see…what else? I think that’s all for the moment. Talk to you soon.

*imagining is BY FAR the word I misspell the most. I always type imaging. Not quite the same thing there, Kathy. sigh.

First Lines

So I read an article about first lines the other day and it got me thinking. I’ve always loved first lines, not so much coming up with the perfect one, but flipping open books at random and reading the first line. It’s so much fun I’ve decided to do it here. Aren’t you excited?

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux – “The Opera ghost really existed.” How can you beat that opening, even if it is the Prologue?

The Iron Hunt by Marjorie M. Liu – “When I was eight, my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw.” I loved this line the moment I read it. It instantly pulls you into the world of the novel.

Storm Born by Richelle Mead – “I’d seen weirder things than a haunted shoe, but not many.” Again, a first line that immediately makes you want to read more. Also lets you know that there will be some dark humor ahead.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis – “Once there were four children called Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.” Meh, not great as first lines go. Okay, so there’s four kids but what do I care? But, of course, the book overcomes it’s mediocre first line to become a literary classic.

And last but not least, Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop – “I am Tersa the Weaver, Tersa the Liar, Tersa the Fool.” A simple first line but it makes you want to know why she is a liar and a fool.

That was fun. I think we’ll do this again. Maybe I’ll start having a first line friday and randomly pull books off my shelf and list their first lines.

So what about you? Have any favorite first lines?

Get Mail

I push the button and no new mail comes. What is up with that? I need new email now.

*twitch*

Oh, hi. Didn’t see you there. How are you? I’m on submission. Can you tell?

*clicks button again*

Must leave button. Have writing to do. and it is awesome.

 

Disclaimer: This post serves no purpose whatsoever other than to further convince y’all that I’m a little unbalanced. Laters!

Writer Brain

My fellow writers read the title to this post and immediately knew what I was talking about. The rest of you…well, I’m about to enlighten you. Writer brain is the blessing and the curse that all writers live with. It’s a blessing because it’s what helps us get past those sticky plot points or turn the story in a completely unexpected direction. It’s a curse because we take an ordinary every day situation and our brain twists it and twists it some more.

For example, when a normal person drives down the street and a car passes going the other direction its not a big deal. This is how my brain works. ‘What if he suddenly swerved over? I’d have to go down that embankment to get away from him. I wonder if that’s steep enough to make my car roll. Do I have my cell phone with me so they can call my husband when they find me?’ Fun, right? Morbid? yes. Can I help it? No.

Reading that, it really shouldn’t surprise you to discover that it is a very thin line that separates writers from schizophrenics. The main difference is writers know what’s in their brain isn’t real. It also shouldn’t surprise you that if you search ‘are writers crazy’ you get over 54,000,000 hits.

Unfortunately my son has inherited my brain and automatically thinks of the worst ten things that could happen in any given situation. But I know his brain and how it works so that helps me to understand him and helps me to explain to him why he does the things he does.

There isn’t really a point to this post other than to say I am surrounded by people one shade short of crazy and it makes me deliriously happy to be one of them.

Happy reading and writing, my friends.

I had this fantastic idea for a blog post

I thought about it for a day, came here to write it and promptly forgot it. That figures. So what else can I write about? I’m still out on submission. I’m also working on three projects: the second book in my Realm Walker series, and two paranormal romances that couldn’t be more different from each other if I tried.

I get to go to a friend’s book signing this weekend. That should be fun. Guess that’s about it. What’s going on with you all? Anything exciting?

Sometimes I’m just mean.

So my husband is not afraid of very many things in this world. Except bats. He loathes bats. So I showed him this picture.

Sometimes I’m just mean.