Thursday, December 9, 2010

Winter is here!

It is freezing in Florida.  So says the native Floridian who's never lived through a 'real' winter.  Seriously though, it makes me very unhappy when it doesn't get above 40 degrees in the middle of the day and in the morning when I have to feed my equine friends it is 20 degrees.  Yuck.  And we don't get any nifty snow or anything.  Those of you that have survived colder temperatures are welcome to chastise me :)

On to writerly stuff, I have received a delightful award from the super cool Joann Swanson!!  Thanks, Joann!  Joann is one of the Killer Chicks, and I haunt her personal blog and the Killer blog on an extremely frequent basis.  Both blogs have really great writerly topics and plus Joann's has ravens (or are they crows?) which I love.

So, award recipients are asked to share 7 things about themselves.  My last sharing was random stuff, so this time I decided to do a theme on my writing life.  Here goes:

1) I started writing at such an early age I can't remember, but it was roughly 5 or 6.  I wrote a poem about a white Christmas pony, which was specifically designed to manipulate my parents. It was unsuccessful.
2) The first novel I started writing was when I was about 12.  It was also about horses.  I never finished it.
3) The third (I think) novel I started writing was when I was about 14 or 15.  It was high fantasy, because I was big in my Tolkien/Tad Williams/Dragonlance phase.  It was pretty unoriginal but I got to about 150 pages I think. 
4) I started a bunch of other books and wrote a lot of random poems (one was about being pissed off at traffic and eating peaches in my car) while in my teens.
5) Life intervened!  I became a young mother and didn't do much writing as I spent my early twenties chasing after a very rambunctious and completely awesome kid who I'm proud to call my son.  He is almost nine now and reads 300 page middle grade novels.  Yes, I'm totally bragging.  He rocks.
6) My current WIP starting percolating in my brain a really long time ago.  Like 7 or 8 years.  I finally started writing it about 2 years ago, finished the first draft about 10 months ago, and have been editing and getting rejected by agents ever since.
7) I've started the second book in the series, as well as a couple other future projects which I switch to when I get bored or need a break from my main WIP.

I guess that was sort of a timeline really... anyhow, here are the new recipients of the Versatile Blogger Award - they all have lovely blogs which I encourage you to stalk:

Nomes at inkcrush
Lisa at Read, Write, Repeat
Maria at Read, Write, Romance
David at The Cosmic Laire
Ivy at The Happy Whisk
Writing Nut at Writing in a Nutshell
 
For those of you that didn't see my last post, I was in a tizzy about this really cool agent auction over at Miss Snark's First Victim.  People got to post their first 250 words and be critiqued by fellow writers and agents, and then the agents bid for pages, and it was super fun and informative.  Would anyone be interested in doing a similar thing here, posting your first 250 words and getting feedback from everybody?  Obviously there won't be any agents so it won't be as exciting, but I thought the feedback could be helpful.  Let me know your vote!
 
Finally, I just wanted to apologize ahead of time if I am not visiting everyone's blogs as much in the next couple weeks or so.  I have been insanely busy at work, and even though I met my deadline that I was sweating about last week, I am consistently finding myself in a zombie-like state upon arrival at home and probably will be like that until the end of the year since this is our busiest time. 
 
Stay warm writer friends!!  Use the mind numbing cold to drift on new planes of thought and have inspired feverish writing sessions!

16 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for the award! I love it! I'm posting it on my sidebar right now!

    I'm in Ohio, so I envy your mild Florida winters. I've had enough snow to last for a lifetime up here!

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  2. Ugh...I miss those temperatures. Native south Alabamian-where the air is so thick with humidity it takes a great effort to breath-I miss it. Ah...to be in the 40s and have 1% chance of snow the whole winter long...those were the days.

    Congrats on your award!!

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  3. loved reading all of this and thanks for the tag!

    love your first story about the christmas pony :)

    i have a 9 year old son too :) (and an 8 year old son, 6 yr old daughter) i wish i had more time to write but in between family anf work and general laziness...

    :)

    oh - and SO SO HOT here. envious of winter right now.

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  4. Congrats for the award, Alexia. Loved reading those 7 things about you. Congrats to the awardees.

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  5. Eh, it all depends on what you're acclimated to. 40 in FL is friggin' freezin'. And when it hits 58 here today like it's supposed to, it'll feel hot. :shrug: Congrats on your award. It was fun reading your 7 writerly things. =o)

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  6. Thanks so much for the award. Shall I ship you some snow? We have plenty.

    Thanks again. Very cool.

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  7. Congrats on the award, and thanks for sharing more about you and your writing journey! I love the way you put #6--"...and have been editing and getting rejected by agents ever since." I can so relate. ;o)

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  8. Your timeline looks something like my own, though my first "book" was about butterflies. I LOVE that yours was meant to be manipulative. How adorable.

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  9. Congrats on your award, Alexia, and thank you for passing it in to me! That made my day, especially since I got another rejection letter today:(. I enjoyed reading your 7 things:). Sounds like you've been a writer your whole life!

    I envy you living in Forida. I live in Ohio; two days ago it was 8 degrees! Have a great weekend!

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  10. Maybe it does get colder elsewhere, but Florida's Florida, right? It's supposed to be warm. I live in Washington and I get anxious when it's not always raining! Just kidding. I'm sick of the rain!
    Thanks for giving the Cosmic Laire a nod. David's a good guy.

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  11. Congrats on the award! Oh, that would be nice...for the 40's to be the coldest we get...sigh...forcast of single digits this weekend for us!

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  12. Congrats on your award and to the new recipients! It's snowing here, so I'm suffering too. Yuck. Hate the cold.
    I am a total wimp about posting my stuff online, even if it's anonymous. Sorry, too chicken!

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  13. I had no idea that Florida got so cold. Fascinating. And I'm glad to learn so many new things about you--that's very cool that you started writing so early on.

    I didn't know about Miss Snark's contest; sounds like a great opportunity! Thanks for sharing and writing about that.

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  14. Congrats on your award! You should come visit Sydney -- It's a lot warmer down here at the moment. I could do with some cool.

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  15. Congratulations on your award! Sounds like you were meant to be a writer. Keep at it. It'll happen for you!

    It's freezing here! Snow, temps in the teens (F), and the wind is blowing like made. It's horrid out. A perfect day to stay indoors and keep warm and cozy. 40 degrees does seem awfully chilly for Florida though.

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