Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I'm not sure that anyone is going to be thinking of reading blogs today, but I'm posting anyway.

First off, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you're having (or already had) a fantastic day. I'm going to an early black Friday sale unfortunately, actually two different stores. One in the AM and one at midnight. Really good deals, so I've got to brave the madness.

Anyway...This is day four of my week of thanks and today I am thankful for my family. We have our problems sometimes, but what family doesn't? And I love them even when they're not being very loveable. Family has always been really important to me and I'm spending my day with mine. I hope all of my online buddies celebrating Thanksgiving are getting to spend time with theirs as well.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :)

Thanks, Day 3

 (Late posting this. Just now realized I hadn't hit the publish button...)

Today I'm thankful for life. I've had and still have health issues, but I can move past those. It sucks to not feel well, but it's better than not feeling at all. I don't always have great days, but as long as I'm waking up each day, that's what counts.

Short and sweet I suppose. Nothing to really elaborate I, lol. So, day three of my week of thanks, I'm thankful to be alive.

I hope you're all having/had an awesome day. And I for anyone who will not be online tomorrow, Happy Thanksgiving. :)

Thankful Week, Day 2

I'm thankful for my CPs and crit group over at Agent Query Connect. If it weren't for them, all of them, there's a good chance I would've given up writing. They all showed me how to improve without tearing me down and making me feel worthless.

Caterina Torres is now the best friend I've ever had. She's there for me when I'm struggling with getting the words out. Even when I kept redoing my first MS, she kept recritiquing it. We talk every day and when we don't I feel lost. She picks me up when I'm down, knocks sense into me when I'm being stupid, makes me laugh, and everything else that a real friend is supposed to do. She's like a sister to me and I don't know what I'd do without her, but I know I never want to be. What makes her so much more than my CP is that she's there for me in general, not just writer stuff, but life stuff. I love you, chick and thank you. :)

Kendra Conine is a close second to Cat. It's funny that I call her a CP-she hasn't really critiqued critiqued my stuff, but she's given opinions and she's awesome. We BS about everything not writerly and we still manage to squeeze some writerly talk in. She also is there for me when I have silly requests that most people would find annoying. You're really awesome, Kendra. I'm glad I wasted time in the AQC chat room so that I got to meet you. :)

Lori Sjoberg, Gina, Jen, and Cami are my critique group and had it not been for them, that first MS wouldn't have been rewritten 500 times. And I'd be the idiot with a terrible MS, no conflict, no real plot, and no chance in this business. These ladies told it like it was, called my MS out for all the tons of flaws it had. I'm thankful for all the harsh words that need and needed to be said. I'm thankful that Gina sent me a message all those months ago telling me about the group because I need you ladies and I'm glad I met you. (The inspirational views that Lori posts for us are a fantastic bonus :P )

Okay, now that I've gushed on and on about these fabulous people. That's what I'm thankful for on day two of my week of thanks. CPs and friends are wonderful. Especially when they're both and can still shred your work without a second thought about it.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Tuesday. :)

A Week of Thanks...

I had a plan for the month of November for the blog, but it didn't happen. The plan was to write a post everyday leading up to Thanksgiving about what I'm thankful for. Since it didn't happen, I'm going to do a few this week.

Monday: I'm thankful for my followers and all my writer friends (all of which are online friends). Each of you have been there, helped out, made me laugh and smile, you notice when I'm MIA and you're all just so great.

I'm going to spotlight someone right now, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate everyone else just as much. But really, Alex J Cavanaugh deserves some special recognition on this thankful post. Even when I'm busy and having trouble getting to blogs, I still try to stop by and read his. But even then, I never get the chance to leave a comment. For all he ever knows, I just don't get over there at all. Yet, every time I post, he's here, commenting and supporting me, and to me that's beyond awesome. The fact that he still takes time to stop by my blog when he's got SO MANY, means a lot to me and I'm really thankful for that. I don't get a lot of comments, but when I see his, I feel like I've got thousands. He's such a special person and I'm thankful I found his blog and 'met' him. So, THANK YOU ALEX for being the AWESOME person that you are.

It's not a long thankful post, but I just wanted to let you all know that I'm thankful that you stop by to see me, tweet me, chat with me, and everything else. You're all wonderful.

Happy Monday everyone. :)

NaNoUhOh...

Well, I'm a little behind on the NaNo goal, but I'm working on pulling out of it and getting back ahead. I didn't post my update on Thursday like I planned because I was really hopeful that in a day or two I'd be back on track. I'm not yet, but I know I can do it.

I really don't have much else to update, so here's a poem to fill the space.

Emotions running high
The smell fills the night
Wondering where to place
Something so easily erased
Pain from the heartache
Sadness for all to take
Revel in the despair
Of it all, with no care
Hatred deeply rooted
Evil left unmuted
A seed that, once sprouted
Will spread outward
Lustful minds
Passionate times
Coming then going
And leaving you growing
Love in your heart
Adore from the start
Is it true that’s all we need
To overturn the misplaced seed

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend and that you have a great week. Happy Sunday :)

One Week Down

I intended on posting this yesterday, but I got busy and forgot. It sucks, not having time for the blog. I miss my blog, my followers, and the blogs I follow. NaNo is helping pull me out of my funk completely though. I'm writing, getting back to critiquing, and even doing better finding time just to read. Which means soon I'll be back to blogging more and reading blogs. Yay. :)

One week of NaNoWriMo gone and my total word count is 16,524. I'm slightly ahead, which is good because last night I fell asleep before I got any writing in. If I didn't have that cushion, I'd be disappointed, but I do, so it's all good. I'll be writing today and with any luck, maybe I'll gain even more cushion.

It took too long to come out of my funk and I'm still on the border of falling back into it and not. I don't want to be there again. Not writing wasn't good for me. The more I didn't write, or critique, or read, the more I couldn't motivate myself to do any of it. I don't like that place and I'm glad you all stuck with me. Everyone gave me good words of encouragement and you made me feel better, thank you. I have some pretty amazing online friends, you all rock.

Last thing, I realized that I forgot about the Insecure Writers Support Group, so let's call this update post, my IWSG post for this month. Better late than not at all.

I hope you all have an AWESOME weekend. :)

How about you...Are you writing? Revising/editing? Doing NaNo? What's going on in your life these days?

NaNoWriMo

Okay, for the first time ever, I've jumped in and decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. My hopes are that this will help me to be more motivated and that I'll finally get some decent writing in. Since I am doing NaNo, there's a good chance I will post on here even less than I thought. Originally I'd planned to start getting back to my blog, but I don't see it happening while I'm trying to write a 50K word novel in a month, lol.

So, just wanted to give a little update and tell y'all what my plan is for the month. I'll see you all soon.

And on a completely different note...

Yesterday morning, a seven year old boy was hit and killed by a car while he was walking to his bus stop. I didn't know him, and I don't know his family (and I hate to talk about something so sad), but I wanted to ask that everyone please pray for his family and friends (or whatever it is you do when someone has had a loss like this). Also, the driver honestly didn't see the little boy, and they've ruled that it was an accident...So please, pray for that driver. I can't even imagine what they must be going through and feeling. But I can imagine that it's not something that will go away easily. I'm sure it will be heavy on that driver's heart for many years, if not always. So please, send out some positive to the driver as well. And keep this tragedy in mind as a reminder that you just never know. You never know when someone will be gone, so hug them tight, love them with all you've got and more, and cherish every minute.

Sorry, for the sad note for a minute, I just wanted to get that out.

Thank you for coming by to see me. Have a great Thursday. :)