Horizons

On Sunday I was being spectacularly lazy. My son was with my sister and my husband had left town, and I was watching Sherlock Holmes Games of Shadows all by myself. I adore the two recent SH movies. Robert Downey Jr. plays the complex character brilliantly, with all his flaws and neuroses and the incredible way he sees the world. Then there's the intense love/hate relationship between him and Watson, and the dark, super cool 19th century setting, and a super loathsome villain you just want to sock in the face. And while the credits were rolling, I wished I could write something so fantastic. Then I had an epiphany.

I CAN.

I have the potential to come up with a mind-blowing story of many-layered richness. We all do. And then I had another epiphany (like a double rainbow, soooo intense).

I have unlimited creative possibilities before me, that I can explore for the rest of my life. How freaking cool is that???

I can come up with some awesome 19th century London tale, maybe something steampunk. I could be struck with inspiration for something involving lots of the things I find fascinating: Egypt, the 1920s, medieval history, uncharted space. Or, I could ignore all of that and just make something up, my very own world (one of the many rad things about writing fantasy). Or, I could do it all. That's the fun part: I don't know when and where inspiration will lead me. It's a lifetime of mysteries that will never stop unfolding.

Which is why I love writing.

Now, if you'll bear with me just a bit longer, I wanted to pass on some blog awards I got.

 

Thank you Medeia Sharif and Sabrina Fish! I'm honored to receive these. If you don't know these lovely ladies, pop over and say hi!

Now, the guidelines for the awards are that I share 7 facts about myself (for the One Lovely Blog) and my 5 fave books (The Booker). I'm also supposed to pick a limited number of people to pass them along to, but I'm just going to award them to all of my followers! I heart all of you.

7 Facts  - I'm going to add a twist and list the next 7 places on my world travel wish list:

1) Ireland 2) Greece 3) Bora Bora 4) The Great Barrier Reef 5) Seattle 6) Peru 7) France (again)

5 Fave Books - Wow, this is really hard.

1) The Hobbit 2) The DaVinci Code 3) Summon the Keeper 4) The Graveyard Book 5) Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake #1)

Let me know if you do a post of 7 facts/5 fave books on your blog so I can come check it out! And, what's your favorite thing about writing?

Friday Night Sabotage

It's amazing how fast one can move from writing many pages a day and having a perfect writing schedule to being completely.... I don't even know a good word for it. It's not writers block, because I know where the story is going and its flowing nicely. It's not exactly plain old procrastination either. I just don't feel like working on my WIP now.

I think maybe because everything was moving along so swimmingly, I'm having some sort of weird self-sabotage thing. I've never had a story with such strong voice, or one that just kind of poured out of my head like this one. I think I blew an inspiration gasket or something. That ever happen to anybody else, or am I going overboard with the neurotic writer thing?

Moving on to a fun topic (yay weekend, after all!), Michelle Fayard awarded me with the Saavy Sensation Award for my urban fantasy newsletter, Raven Moon.

Thanks, Michelle! This is a high honor coming from someone as saavy and sensational as you! The only criteria is to pass it on to someone who is amazing, inspiring and enthusiastic, so I would like to pass this award along to An Alleged Author and Lydia Kang of The Word is My Oyster. These ladies both write lots of delightful posts and I love to visit their blogs. Pop over and say hi for me!

Happy weekend, everyone!

100th Blog Post!

I just celebrated my blog birthday a few days ago, and now I've hit my 100th post. What an exciting month!

I figured this would be an excellent time to pass along an award I received a couple months ago from Rachna, the From Me To You Award. Rachna was one of my first blog followers, and has been a faithful blog friend ever since. Her blog posts have never failed to be insightful and thought-provoking and are always about a cool writing topic. I really adore her blog. Go check her out!

Thank you, Rachna!

So, to celebrate 100 blog posts (100 potential times you guys listened to me blab), I pass this award on to all of my followers! Thank you guys for stopping by and being my bloggy friends!

Have a great week, writer friends!

Writing for an MG/YA Audience

Happy Weekend! Before I get to my next installment of useful stuff I learned at the writing conference, I have some awards to share. Two I got quite some time ago and so am remiss in acknowledging. Two I just got in the last couple days. I love you guys!

Thanks, Heather and Abby!

Thanks, Colene and Abby!

Thanks, Abby!                 

Thanks, Margo!                

These four ladies have lovely blogs, which I encourage you to visit:

Heather Hellmann at Pen, Paper, Lots of Coffee
Colene Murphy at The Journey
Abby Minard at Above Water
Margo Kelly

I think I'm probably supposed to share 7 things about myself for at least one of these awards. So, here are the last 7 books I've read: Dead Witch Walking, Matched, The Hunger Games, Need, Alice in Wonderland, Glimmer Glass and I'm currently reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Also, if you click 'awards' over in the post label cloud, you'll get a lot more about me.

I so love to receive awards, and I love to pass them on, too. Sharing the love is fun, so I'd like to pass this on to all of my followers. Thanks for stopping by and validating my bloggy existence!

Now, on to fiction tips! I got the pleasure of meeting and listening to author Adrian Fogelin, a local Floridian who has won a lot of awards for her numerous books. She was really fun to listen to. Unfortunately I had to leave halfway through her presentation to go to my agent appointments, but I learned a lot in those 30 minutes I did have.

- Kids/teens live in the moment, there is no nostalgia for them
- Every little thing is critical to them (a zit might really seem like the end of the world)
- They have a constant conflict between wanting to individuate and wanting to belong to a group
- Fairness is very important to them
- Even if they are popular, there's always an underlying uncertainty
- They come up with unrealistic plans (that whole live in the moment, not looking ahead thing)
- First person is the main choice of MG/YA writers, with limited third person being the second most prevalent
- Lots of rich dialogue is an important ingredient
- Writing in the present tense is popular, going back to point one

I am planning on tackling my first book aimed for a younger audience later this year. I decided I wanted to write something my son and stepdaughter can read. I've always wanted to write something fun and whimsical like Harry Potter. It will be a light dystopian, and I haven't quite settled on MG or YA yet. It'll probably cross over, because I'll have characters ranging between 11 and 16. I'm excited!

How many of you have written or are planning to write MG or YA? Why did you choose that age? Any tips you'd like to share?

Have a great weekend, writer friends!

I've Been Tagged!!

The super cool Jennifer Hillier has tagged me to answer 19 questions about myself. I feel so loved! And I'm passing on the love to four bloggers below, per the question tagging rules.

But first, a quick reminder to check out me and Colene's SPD Blogfest! Linky sign-up thing here!

1). If you have pets, do you see them as animals, or are they members of the family?

I have two dogs, three cats, three horses, and if my son has his way, soon a lizard. They are definitely members of the family, my animal children.

2). If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?

Well, you guys can guess this one. I want to get an awesome agent and publisher and publish awesome books that become international bestsellers with movies made after them. That’s all :~)

3). What is the one thing most hated by you?

Hmmm. Haven’t really thought about the one thing I hate. Probably the utter lack of humanity shown by so many humans throughout the world that commit horrible atrocities on each other.

4). What would you do with a billion dollars?

This one I have totally thought about, in great detail. I’ll say the selfless stuff first so you feel all warm and fuzzy before I get to the selfish stuff. I’d probably contribute to or create organizations to assist with world hunger, the environment, women and children in third world countries, animal rescue, and political awareness. I’d give a ton to my family. I’d have fabulous homes in New York, Paris, France or Italy, somewhere tropical. I’d travel everywhere, really get to know the world. Go on some crazy shopping sprees. Definitely have a private jet for all that traveling.

5). What helps to pull you out of a bad mood?

Music often helps. I’ve had a pretty intense week already, so yesterday I turned on some Usher in my car really loud until it was vibrating through my skin and rattling my heart. I just let it wash away everything else.

6). Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?

Being loved is awesome, but having my son and experiencing truly unconditional love for the first time ever was and continues to be the most amazing thing in my whole life.

7). What is your bedtime routine?

I go to bed really late (11 or 12) even though I have to get up at 6:30 for work. I usually blog, write or read until I have to make myself go to bed.

8). If you are currently in a relationship, how did you meet your partner?

I met my husband when I was a bank teller and he was a financial crimes investigator for the local police. He came in to interview me about a customer opening up fraudulent accounts.

9). If you could watch a creative person in the act of the creative process, who would it be?

Wow, this is tough. Maybe Prince, Natalie Merchant or Quentin Tarantino?

10). What kinds of books do you read?

I'm trying to broaden my range of genres, but my faves are what I write: urban fantasy. Something with a kickass heroine and magic.

11). How would you see yourself in ten years time?

Well, I’d like to be writing full time and earning a decent living doing it. I want to have traveled to a lot of cool places. I want to still be healthy and happy and have a healthy, happy family.

12). What's your fear?

Death. Mine or a close family member.

13). Would you give up all the junk food for the rest of your life for the opportunity to visit space?

I don’t really eat much junk food, so sure.

14). Would you rather be single and rich, or married and poor?

Married and poor. Relationships have always meant more to me than money.

15). What's the first thing you do when you wake up?

Let the dogs out, then check my Droid for emails from you guys!

16). If you could change one thing about your spouse/partner, what would it be?

For his sake, I wish he could relax and enjoy life more.

17). If you could pick a new name for yourself, what would it be?

I love V names, so maybe Victoria or Verona. Or a cool hippy name like Raven (which also has a V!).

18). Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?

No. I start out with a pretty open heart with everyone; I’m overly trusting and optimistic about human nature. But if someone screws me over, while I may or may not keep them in my life, I don’t tend to forget or trust them again.

19). If you could only eat one thing for the next six months, what would it be?

Fruit. Strawberries, mangos, pineapples, raspberries, kiwis. Ha, see how I got away with all that under the umbrella of fruit?

Alright, I'm passing the torch to:

Colene Murphy at The Journey
B.E. Sanderson at The Writing Spectacle
Joann Swanson at It's Dark, Dark In Here
Jai at Jai Joshi's Tulsi Tree

And I'd love to have everyone share their answer to what creative person they'd love to observe in the creative process!

Also, I want to say thank you to N.R. Williams for the You Make Me Smile Award and Maria McKenzie for the Making Smiles on Faces Award!

Yay! I guess I'm doing decent in the smile department. Maria and N.R. both rock in this department, too, so go give them a visit! To all of my followers, I pass these lovely awards on to you! Please choose one or both.

Happy Wednesday writer friends! We're over the hump now :-)

Happy Tuesday/Monday

So, all day I've been fairly confused since yesterday was MLK Day.  I kept thinking I needed to take my son to boyscouts after work, forgetting that it was Tuesday and not Monday.  And I kept thinking since it was Monday, it was only two days since I'd done a blogpost, when really it's been three.  Btw, I've been super busy at work lately and have not had the time to be as good a blog commenter as I like to be... I am trying to catch up, so please bear with me!

Over the weekend I came across several really great blogposts that I wanted to share.  The first was from the ever awesome Guide to Literary Agents, which I adore.  It is an amazing story about an author who self published and was crazy successful.  But her process for how she did it is extremely relevant for any of us, whether we want to self publish, find an e-publisher, or get an agent and traditional publisher.  Go check it out now!  You won't regret it.

The other one is also from GTLA, and it's a really awesome example of a synopsis - wait, let me say that again - THE DREADED, TERROR-INDUCING, GUT WRENCHING SYNOPSIS!!  I hate them, you hate them, I've even heard an agent say they're truly evil.  But this article was terrific.  Read it!

Finally, I re-came across this fantastically informative post from Pimp My Novel, which is full of much needed info for after we actually get books deals.  I know I personally am guilty of knowing far more about agents than I do about publishers and that whole process.  Lots of stuff us writery creatures need to know.  Let's go ahead and plan for getting that kick-ass book deal.

Also, I must have been a good girl lately because I received two new awards!! Double yay!  Thank you so much to Liz at Novel Moments for a new Versatile Blogger Award and to Abby at Above Water for the Making Smiles on Faces Blog Award!  They both have lovely and addictive blogs, so pop over, say hello, and enjoy yourself.

Okay, so the Versatile Blogger Award requires me to share 7 things about myself, so here you go (warning: highly random zone ahead):

1) I love strawberries.  When they are in season, I buy huge boxes and eat them every night as my before-bed snack.

2) Although I love chic flicks, most of my favorite movies are action/adventure types.  I love LOTR, Star Wars, Kill Bill, The Matrix, Transformers, Fight Club, X-Men, and a ton more I am forgetting at the moment.

3) I dress either preppy or sort of funky Boho chic.  It depends on my mood.  I think I give people fashion whiplash.

4) My son just starting reading the first Harry Potter book.  He loves it, and I love sharing it with him and enjoying it all over again from his perspective (he loves the part where Scabbers bites Crabbe's finger - or was it Goyle?). 

5) I like red and white wine.  Nothing too dry or too sweet.

6) I love gardening, but I kill most of what I try to grow.  I call it Darwinian gardening.

7) I have these hurt-your-eyes grape purple rain boots that I got to go out and feed the horse friends in, so I don't get all muddy and whatnot.  They rock.

So, blog friends, since I dearly love you all, please choose an award for yourself.  Really!  Pass it along, share about yourself, spread the joy.  You all rock, and you deserve it.

Happy almost Wednesday!



Yay Weekend! and Other Randomness

I am so grateful for the long weekend... I finally recovered completely from my cold about midweek, and was so delighted just to sleep in this morning.  I hope this Saturday finds all of you having a glorious time, staying warm and safe from January's bite and maybe making productive headway on your WIPs?  *cough* I have been procrastinating myself, which I'm going to talk about more in a minute.

But first! A few bits of random writing/blogging news.  My first piece of news is that there is no news yet on the partial request on my novel.  Alas, waiting is the writer's bane.  Second, I wanted to draw your attention to all the pretty blogfest buttons to the right - yes, I am participating in 3 fests in one week! Kind of like a blogfest triathlon or something.  My first blogfest was the Be Jolly By Golly last month, and it was so much fun I decided I wanted to do more. 

Third, I have been awarded the Fair Dinkum Award by Rachna!  I am really stoked about this one because of its Australian goodness.  Rachna, thanks, you rock so hard!  If you are not familiar with Rachna, please go check out her blog.  She always has great posts about writing, very educational and uplifting!

I am passing along the Aussie joy to:

Carol at Artzicarol Ramblings
Lydia at The Word is My Oyster
Joann at It's Dark, Dark in Here
Shayda at Shayda Writes
Erica and Christy

So, now we come to procrastination.  Notice I managed to talk about lots of other stuff and procrastinate talking about procrastination? Now that's skill. 

Is procrastination part of your writing process?  In one of my favorite movies of all time, Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances describes her writing process as thus:  "The procrastination is coming along fabulously. Soon it will breed abject self loathing, and then I'll become a writing machine."

I tend to procrastinate a lot.  Especially since I started blogging!  For me, it works to set deadlines, because I work better with a clear goal in mind.  When I first started writing my current novel, I was working full time and taking online classes to finish my degree, so I wrote pretty sporadically for a year or so.  My characters and story were constantly pounding in my head to come out, but I was just too busy most of the time.  Then, when I finished my last semester, all of that pent up writing desire came pouring out, and I went from 70 pages to 300 pages in a month.  I had decided I wanted to finish it by March 1, 2010, but ended up finishing at the end of January.  Having a goal in mind really helped me focus my energy and get it done.  For editing, I tend to make lists of things I need to work on and then tackle them one at a time.

So, do you procrastinate?  If so, what helps you beat it?

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!

In the wee hours of the day after Thanksgiving...

Okay, well I started writing this in the wee hours of the day after Thanksgiving, but at about 2 am I gave up. All of my creative juices of the evening went into making a new blog titlebar picture or whatever you call it. I used pictures I've taken (well, one was taken by my husband) on different travels about the globe. Except for the sunset pic, that was from our front yard. Now that I've spent all the time making it, I can't decide whether I really like it or not, so if it comes down in a few days you'll know which side of the argument prevailed.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a lovely and delicious Thanksgiving. I did (my Tofurkey was scrumptious as usual). Speaking of giving thanks, I was honored and delighted to receive the Honest Scrap Award from Colene Murphy at The Journey! Thanks, Colene! I started out this blog with the intent of writing a completely honest account of my adventures in writing and trying to get an agent, and I'm glad that I'm doing my job. Colene's blog is super awesome. I haunt it with regularity. And if you need more reasons to visit, I put a link below to a hilarious Harry Potter interview she posted.  Check it out!

So, the award rules state that I am to share 10 things about myself. Here goes:

1) I like to talk about myself. I don't think I am overly narcissistic (for a writer), but I'm just an open book and like to share my stories (again, writer).
2) I live on five acres in the country with two horses, a pony, a dog and three cats, two children, and one husband. My neighbor has cows and a vineyard (interesting combo, right?).
3) My 'real' job (the full-time one that pays the bills) is for an educational non-profit corp. I'm a manager, and seriously hope I am not like Michael Scott in real life (like I was for Halloween).
4) None of my coworkers know how serious I am about writing. I amuse myself with the thought that it's my secret life.
5) I'm kind of like Garfield. I love food and sleeping. I don't cook much, but I like to eat the delicious things my husband makes, and could go nuts in Fresh Market or Whole Foods. I've never even been in a Whole Foods, but I am waiting for them to bring one to my city.
6) I used to bleach my hair blonde, and then accidently went pink for a weekend while I was changing to red, which lasted for a while, and then eventually I went back to my natural brown. Black hair has always been my favorite, but I've never been brave enough to go there.
7) I'm a major crier. I cry when I'm happy, sad, angry, or when something just makes me emotional (something beautiful, triumphant, sweet). Seeing other people cry makes me cry. Sometimes I really annoy myself with it.
8) One day, I'd like to become really involved in some sort of global project. I'm passionate about protecting the environment, and stopping animal cruelty, and women's rights. My degree in Sociology, while pretty much useless in my day job, added a lot of fuel to my save-the-world fire.
9) I am a certified equine sports massage therapist. When I was in my teens, I used to compete with my horses, and flew out to Colorado to learn how to massage them. I actually had quite a few paying clients at one point. I haven't done it in years, though I still get the occasional request.
10) When I was 15, I started working at this awesome cafe run by hippies and earned the nicknames 'Lex-Ann' and 'Lexicon'. I find the Lexicon one amusing since I am a writer and considered fitting that into my blog title, but then figured I wasn't really quite fantastic enough of a word smith to get away with it (I should be; but since we’re still being honest and stuff…).

So, now that you know 10 random things about me, I'd like to pass on this lovely award to five fellow bloggers that I think have honest and delightful blogs full of great writery stuff:

Lola Sharp at Sharp Pen/Dull Sword
Jai Joshi at Jai Joshi's Tulsi Tree
Melissa at Through the Looking Glass
Donea Lea at Queen of Procrastination
Shallee McArthur at Life, the Universe, and Writing

Check out their blogs, they rock!

Now, as a bonus for everyone, here are a few things that caught my attention on my blogging adventures this week. The Rejectionist is having a New Year's Pre-Resolution Uncontest, and she also had a hilarious Harry Potter music video that had me LMAO. For more on Harry Potter, check out this interview on Colene's blog. More LMAO. And, to wrap things up on an educational note, here's a really good post on query letters by the ever-awesome Nate Bransford. A cool way to look at writing them if you are in the mood to revamp yours.

Blogosphere etiquette

Happy weekend, writing friends!  It is finally getting cold here in Florida, and being a native of the sunshine state I am already wishing it was Spring so I could wear tank tops again... not that I won't be able to sneak in a few here and there throughout the winter.  I am regularly chastised by my friends from the north that it is actually not cold in Florida and I should quit my complaining, which I'm sure is a valid argument.

So, this week I've been thinking about how much I don't know about blogging.  I got my first blog award from the lovely Rachna of Rachna's Scriptorium and realized I didn't know the deal with awards and etiquette.  Before I get into all that, I'd like to say a big thank you to Rachna for giving me my first award.  Rachna is a fellow writer and always has delightful, knowledgeable and inspiring posts about writing.

Back to my dilemma - I did a great deal of Googling and wasn't having much luck finding rules on giving and receiving awards. I've seen some blog posts where accepting an award involves sharing things about yourself and then passing the award on to others, but then some don't seem to follow that same format. Then ironically enough I found some posts on the subject on Rachna's own blog, which was really helpful!

I still have a few questions though, so I'm asking for everyone's help.  Do you have to receive one in order to pass one on?  How do you know which blog awards you can use and which ones are copyrighted or whatever?  For instance, if you use Google images you can find a ton of awesome awards, but can you just pick one and use it?  And, can I design my own award to give to my writing peeps?

Any input anyone has would be awesome!