IWSG Real Quick...

Oh man, I've been so busy with end of the school year stuff and vacation planning that I didn't realize it was the first Wednesday.

So, happy Insecure Writers Support Group Wednesday, everyone. :)

(Check out the awesome IWSG creator, Alex J Cavanaugh. Then make sure to check out the IWSG website)

My days are extra packed lately, today is no exception. I'm going to just give a quick little what's happening and what not and then I'll be on my way for this time.

I've caught up on crits, group and one on one. I've been editing and started posting chapters for my crit group again. I've found time to do these things plus read, play, clean, and all the other crap I've got to get done every day. I'm going on a weekend vacation this weekend and then my kids have end of year stuff at their school next week all the way to the last day. But once all this craziness balances out a little (hopefully in a couple weeks), I'll be back to visiting blogs, posting more on my blog, and acknowledging those of you who come here and visit me.

So, it's safe to say I'm secure for the moment. I may crash, but fingers crossed that I've finally balanced out and everything will keep going this way. If nothing else, my crazy all over the place ups and downs give any other writers plenty of comparisons for whatever they're feeling at the moment, or at least almost anything. :P

Btw, I do see all the comments from everyone who stops by. I appreciate each one even though I haven't been able to really find the time to return them. I'm going to work on that soon.

Now I've got to run. Have an awesome week and weekend, I'll see y'all soon! :D

Yay!

I got my bracelets today, yes that's plural. The awesomely fantastically wonderful Ali Cross sent me two bracelets! So now if one breaks, I'll have a back up. Thanks, Ali! :D

Honestly, I have nothing else to say, just excited about the bracelets lol.

It's Wednesday, and hot outside, plus I'm behind on critiques. Planning on catching up today, and maybe even finding some time to write. I have some cleaning to do though and getting caught up on crits are more important to me, so we'll see what happens. On the bright side, I'm anxious to get back into writerly stuff more. I think the nicer weather is picking me up.

I hope you all have/are having a wonderful Wednesday. :)

Progress

Last year, I won some nice prizes from contests I entered in. Many of the things I got were books that I've either read or they're still on the TBR, but one non-book item I won was a bracelet. I'm not sure exactly why, but I wore that bracelet every single day, all day long-never took it off. It broke last week and I was able to fix it enough to wear it for almost another week before it broke completely. Now, I must find a way to get another one...if that's even possible. I feel so naked without it, which is weird because I honestly am not quite sure why I was so attached to it in the first place.

I'm sure part of my attachment was just because it was something I won, and I don't win things very often. Plus, it was something from one of my now favorite authors and people. I'm going to email her and see if there's a way to get another...

Anyway, that was just something on my mind. Other than that, my goals are progressing okay. I just got caught up with my group, for now. There will be at least one new post very soon so I'll have to keep on it. I'm going to start one of my non-group related critiques sometime today. I can now put more focus into my writing too since I tend to force myself not to write when I'm behind on my group. Same with reading. Oh and I tweeted yesterday, only a couple tweets, but it's something. It'll take a bit for me to get used to that again, but I'm getting there.

I guess that's pretty much it. Hopefully I'll get back into my blogging groove and be able to write up some real posts. I mean, sure these are real posts, but I like to post about more than just what's going on with my life. It'll come though, I'm not going to stress over it.

Hope you all have a great Wednesday. :)

Thoughtful Tuesday - Motivation

Well, I've been barely posting lately, and I hate it. I like my schedule, but I honestly have trouble asking people to read and comment on my blog when I can't get to theirs. I've been so busy and it's my fault. I lost motivation somewhere in the last few weeks. Critiques are backed up, no writing has been happening, and of course-no blogging except Thursdays most of the time.

I don't know where my motivation went. This funk I've found myself in sucks and I don't know what to do to get out of it. I start to, I get a crit done and think, YES! One down. Then I look at the long list of crits and I'm done. I get lost in cleaning or organizing the house, browsing the internet, procrastinating on AQC. My friends have been supportive-even the ones who're waiting and waiting for their chapters to be critted. I've got some of the best cheerleaders and yet, I can't seem to just get things done.

I'm writing this post because I've neglected my blog and my readers, and I don't like that.

So, I ask you, my loyal readers, does this ever happen to you? Do you lose your motivation to do writerly things? Other non writerly things? Do you ever just feel like you've lost your mojo and have no clue how to get it back? What do you do (if anything) to help get yourself back on track?

So Busy...

I've been such a terrible blogger lately. I've skipped posts and slacked on visiting people and commenting. I also have a couple blog awards that I need to post about.

Unfortunately, today will not be the day for any of that. I'm not going to make up for lack of posting or visiting. I'm so sorry, I do appreciate each of my followers and the blogs I follow.

I'm so busy right now. It's crazy. Critiques, writing, revising, working on my query...Add that to regular non-writer stuff and I'm SO far behind. My plan is to get caught up on everything this weekend so I can get back on track.

Thank you for visiting me, even though I'm slacking. <3

I did post a TAG! this past Thursday if anyone missed it, go check it out. :)

Have a wonderful Saturday everyone. :D

Winning :D

Okay, I never, ever, ever say that, but that's actually kind of how I've felt (for the most part) all week. I don't know what it is exactly, but I had a pretty awesome week. (BTW-I fell behind on some replies to comments and visiting blogs, I'm sorry. You're not forgotten, I just needed to put my focus into my MS. I will be getting back to replying/commenting/visiting this week.)

I met awesome people.
I tweeted with several awesome people-some new some not.
I revised the shit out of my MS. I made it my beyotch and damn does it feel good. I haven't had so much success in revisions in a while. It was long overdue.
I read, a lot. I even checked out a ton of books from the library, something I haven't really had time to do in a while.
I got to announce the winners of my giveaway AND give some BONUS prizes.
My kids were wild, but they had more good moments than usual.
I'm critiquing a new book for one of my CPs and it's AWESOME!!!
I don't talk much about it, but I've been on a calorie counting diet and it's going great. Plus it's actually easy. I mean, I was worried it would be hard, or that I would give up. But it's easy and I'm feeling really good about it.
I'm pretty sure I could list so many more things, but I also think you get the point.

I felt AWESOME this week. And everyone is AWESOME. I've met so many new people lately (even before this week) and y'all are amazingly awesome!

Um, I usually try to impart something in my wrap ups, hmmm....

How about something I learned from my awesome week? You'll have days/weeks/months that suck. They will make you feel like crap. Revisions will go slow, writer's block will happen, kids will run wild, life will stress you out, etc etc. Point is shit will happen. But don't stop fighting for a week that doesn't suck. Don't get down about the things that are going wrong for you at that moment. If you start to get down then remember: It WILL pass, good days/weeks/months WILL come. It may not happen when you want it. It may suck that you have to wait for it. Just know that you're time is coming. Wait out the bad knowing that the good will soon come.

That's my week wrapped up. Happy Saturday Everyone! :D

Mention Monday - WINNERS!

So, today my shout out is for the winners of my first giveaway!!!

Congrats to E.M. LaBonte! She was my top enterer (yes, sure that is a word :D  ). And so she wins: Grasping At Eternity by Karen Amanda Hooper, Zombie Whisperer by Caterina Torres, AND a critique from me. WOOT! :D

Second winner is Sweety. She wins both books as well. Congrats Sweety! :D

Thank you for all your entries, Em and Sweety. Y'all are awesome! :)

And there's a SURPRISE BONUS for the other six critique winners. Not only have they been offered the critique from me, but also an ebook of Zombie Whisperer by Caterina Torres. WOOT! (What can I say, I love to give. Who knows what surprises may happen with my next giveaway ;)  )

Congratulations to:

Tia Bach
Jen
Jean Oram
Angel
Nicola
E.F. Jace

A huge thank you to Karen Amanda Hooper for offering her book as a prize. You're so awesome!

And a huge thank you to everyone who entered, tweeted, mentioned, etc the giveaway: You are all awesome!

Stay tuned because there will be another giveaway coming up soon and it's going to be AWESOME! Yes, I realize I'm saying that word a lot. But it's because I'm feeling like it's an awesome day and besides you all ARE awesome! :D

Happy Monday Everyone!!! :)

And The Moment...

...we've all been waiting for...because my followers are AWESOME!!!

I bring you the first ever....GIVEAWAY!

Okay, so maybe I'm the one who is EXTRA excited, but hey-oh well. It is exciting. :D

Yesterday's TAG! featured the super nice, super awesome, Karen Amanda Hooper. Along with being an awesome person, she's an awesome author.

EDIT: The awesome publisher of TANGLED TIDES (Rhemalda Publishing), has just put this book on Amazon for FREE! So, go to THIS LINK to download your FREE copy.


SO, now what can you win?


The amazingly awesome Karen Hooper is offering her newest book (out on May 25, 2012) in place of Tangled Tides. 

An ebook of GRASPING AT ETERNITY by Karen Amanda Hooper!!!

(Here's a description from Karen's website)

Before entering this life, Maryah did the unthinkable—she erased. Now, at seventeen years old, she’s clueless that her new adoptive family has known her for centuries, that they are perpetually reincarnated souls, and that they have supernatural abilities. Oh, and she’s supposed to love (not despise) Nathan, the green-eyed daredevil who saved her life.

X-MEN meets MY NAME IS MEMORY in Karen’s latest young adult release.

So, remember, go to the link I provided above and download Tangled Tides for FREE and when you enter the Rafflecopter, the first prize is Grasping At Eternity instead of Tangled Tides.


And of course, there's still more...

BONUS:

I'm also giving away an ebook of Zombie Whisperer by Caterina Torres

and five people will win a query critique or story critique (up to 20K words). I felt like only awarding one follower wasn't good enough. Those are some pretty awesome prizes too. Well, Zombie Whisperer is awesome, I'm not going to say how awesome my critiques are :p but I can say I know they're beneficial. :)

All you have to do is use the Rafflecopter entry form at the end of this post. This giveaway is open beginning now, Friday, May 11, 2012 @ 1201 AM Eastern Time and it will end Saturday, May 19, 2012 @ 1201 AM Eastern Time. There are several ways to earn entries, so have at it.

(Small sidenote because I want to make sure there's full disclosure....If you win Grasping At Eternity, your copy will not be sent until after it's published (May 25, 2012) since it isn't available yet. The winner will have to wait a very small amount of time, but they're getting first dibs on it and for free, so YAY ;)  )

I apologize for the last minute change and thanks again to all of my followers and anyone else stopping by :)

Happy Entering :D


a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Hunger Games, Spring Break, Revisions, A to Z

So I had a crazy week-what's new right? Yeah well...

BTW-Did you check out my Thursday TAG! this week? If not, you should!

The Hunger Games


I have never read The Hunger Games. *gasp* With the movie coming out and all the hype, I decided I should get it and see what all the fuss is about. So far I've only read through Chapter 3. I have to say-WOW that's a lot of details. For anyone who does not know-I HATE DETAILS/DESCRIPTIONS! They are soooooo boring. It makes it really hard for me to get into the book because all of the details, my goodness. I hate to not finish a book, so I will finish it. Maybe by the time I get into it more, I will like it better. So far-ch 1-3 get 2 stars, and that's pushing it.

Spring Break/Intersession


This week was Spring Break. *cheers* No, no cheers. My kids drove me crazy. They don't care about Spring Break so it was all my fault they couldn't go to school. It was even harder because my oldest goes to a year-round school so this week was her second week out of school and she still has one more week to go until they're back in session. Again, this is all my fault. Since it is me being mean and not letting them go to school, they decided to go wild. Not listening, tearing up the house, telling me no about everything...it was exciting...

Revisions & Writing & Critiques


Revisions were up and down this week. As of right now, they're up. *fingers crossed* I hope they stay that way. Also, I've been working on one of my WIPs. The ideas just started flooding out. It's a great feeling. What's not a great feeling? This week I post the ending chapters of my MS for my critique group. I already didn't care too much for the last two chapters (well, last chapter and an Epilogue). So, I was expecting some bad feedback. Thing is, I got a bit of bad feedback, plus a overall final thoughts sort of thing. Someone said they don't like how I write and that I write the way I want, and it's just not their style. Now, I honestly respect the truth and their opinion, BUT I don't write the way I want anymore. After all the critiques I started writing the way others think I should. The way I'm told people will want to read. I don't write how I want, just like I don't write for me. So-it hurt a little. I try really hard, rewrite my entire MS based on what advice I was given-and still not good. IDK, others like it, so who knows...


A to Z


Welp, I said I was going to talk about it every Saturday until time, so-here ya go. Sign up here. I have a semi-theme for mine and a semi-theme for my Friday posts since I took Friday posts away and will only be doing them for the challenge. I don't have much else to say about the challenge except I can't wait to see what everyone else is going to do. AND you should sign up!

Here's a fun Getting To Know Your Hosts with Alex J Cavanaugh. Go check it out :)
And you can go here to see the winning video and a list of ten tips for the challenge.

That's my week all wrapped up--Happy Saturday! :)

Have you read The Hunger Games? You like it, or don't? Why? Did you go see the movie/are you going to? Have you signed up for the challenge? How do you handle feedback from critique partners/groups? Anything else you want to talk about-go for it.

Birthday, Critiques, Schedule, A to Z

Okay, so this was a strange week for me. My mind was everywhere and nowhere and here and there....Crazy.

Monday my youngest daughter turned four. We had a party for her, invited a couple friends from her Headstart class (couple meaning literally two), and had pizza, cake and ice cream. I will freely admit, I am a pantser in writing and in regular life. Oh yeah, I love my to do lists, write them every day-even several times a day sometimes-but I suck at planning ahead. In fact, it was the morning of the party when I told the moms of those two kids what time the party would be. Yeah, go me, right? Ah well, it worked out. We had fun, although I had nothing planned to keep the kiddos entertained.

Something else that I did well with this week was critiques. I am usually so bad about it. I still have one crit for my group left, but typically, I still have almost  (or all) of them left even by now. (In my critique group we post a chapter or few on Sunday/Monday and then have a week to critique.) This week though, I was on point, for the most part. Something else that worked better this week...revisions! Yes, you read that right....my revisions were pretty good this week, YAY :)

My blog schedule has changed. Just to let you know:
Monday and Wednesday will still be the To Do List posts (we are now on the non writer to dos).
Tuesdays are now for poems OR random thoughts. Some days it's just easier to get some random things up.
Thursdays are still TAG!
Fridays are now open (except in April) I want to give my TAG! people more time to shine. Speaking of, Jacqueline Gardner was this weeks TAG! if you missed it-go here.
Saturdays are still the week wrapped up and Sundays are still Something Sundays.

And on to my last topic- the A to Z Challenge yep, talking about it again. :)  I decided I will have something I am doing for each letter. Not a theme exactly, just a little something. I will talk more about it either on March 31st or I will in my A post on April 1st (because that's the first day of the challenge in case you didn't know. Of course I'm sure you signed up, so you do know, right? If you haven't-go sign up).  I don't have a theme because I am not going to stray from my schedule and I have rules to posting more than once a day. I also wrote a couple more posts for April, YAY-I guess I do plan ahead sometimes.

So, there's the week wrapped up. Happy Saturday :)

Critiques, Revising, Writing, and Details

I have decided what I will do. My Saturdays will be for random thoughts that coincide with some topic that relates to my week. Exciting, right? Yes, of course it is. Read on: :D

This week I managed to complete some critiques, writing, and revising and I got some reading done. I also got some feedback from one beta reader, and two critiquers. It was helpful information and it has given me plenty of work to do. The feedback also gave me a topic to rant about. DETAILS!!!!

When I read a book, I only care about the story. What do the characters look like? You don't need to tell me, I will make it up with my own imagination-and will more than likely skim the details you provide. Sorry, I know you put a lot of thought into each character, but those details just take up my time. Time I want to spend reading the actual story. What does the room look like that they are in? I don't care! Again, nothing against you and your writing, but I just don't. That is just more detail that means nothing to me. I only want the story! What's their tone of voice? Their body language? Yep, you guessed it-I don't care. Seriously, the story is all that matters and those things will not move me through the story, they just won't. All they do is give me more words to skim over. Just give me the story, nothing else. I know other people want those details, I know they consider them important information to the story-I don't.

That being said though, I have to revise my story to include more details. All those details I hate reading, I have to add in to my MS. Regardless of how I feel about it, majority of readers want to read that stuff. It would be easier if I like them, but since I don't it's making it harder to write it. My story is flat because I'm struggling through revisions/writing, trying to add in details. Editing used to be my downfall, I hated editing. Right now though, I would rather be editing in general, rather than having to add in details. Details, is my new frenemy. We may not like each other, but I have to deal with it

I spent this past week, pouting about the details and I will be spending this week overcoming them. Details will not be the reason my story falls flat. I want to share my story (Eamon and Sheena's story) with everyone, if that means I need to add more details to the MS, then that is what I will do.

Happy Saturday! :)

To Do List: Critiques

Here is my first installment of the writer's to do list and how to get it done. If you want to see what's on the to do and/or if you have suggestions: Go Here.

Now, for the first thing up on the To Do:

Critiques:

Some of you may say, This isn't on my list, so it doesn't pertain to me. I say WHAT!? If you are a writer, you should also be a contributer. One way, and the best way, is to critique your fellow writers work(s). If we don't extend the olive branch, then how do we expand our fan base? (And if you even think a fan base doesn't matter...you need to rethink the whole writer thing) I'm a member of a critique group (which I'm sure I've mentioned) on AgentQueryConnect (which I know I've mentioned) and I love my group. We are a fairly new group, and each week we post a chapter or few for the others in the group to critique. Currently we are all beginning to wrap up our first MSs, and although I've been lucky enough to get to read each of their stories-I will buy them and read them again when they are published. In addition to my group, I swap chapters with two different people that I met on QueryTracker. And I recently began helping out with Caterina Torres' Short Stories. When I have time, I also critique queries on AQC. Through doing all this, I have gained: Friends and other writers to critique my work(s) and to give me opinions on my work(s). If that is not motivation enough for you to add critiques to your to do list, then you may not be ready to call yourself a writer.

Now that you are convinced, let me give you some tips on how to manage this task:


     1. Join some writer forums first and foremost-they will aid you in your journey and will become a very important part of it as well. This will help you network your work and yourself, it will help you connect with other people who are going through the same thing as you. This is a place that will help ground you. It will be somewhere you can go after you just got your first or thirtieth rejection letter, where there will be people to help lift you out of the funk and away from that feeling of failure. I have mentioned the best two in this post, but there are others out there. Find one, join it, and participate.

     2. Now that you have joined a forum, browse around. I don't know of other sites, but AQC and QT both have places you can put out a "Want Ad" that let's people know you want a critique partner. In addition, there are groups that you can join and places to post queries and synopsis to have critiqued. And it's going to give you the opportunity to begin critiquing others works.

     3. Once you've done those two things, you're set. Let it happen, let people find you and don't stop seeking out critique partners and groups until you've successfully found some.
Most groups are going to have a certain way of going about things. For example, in my group, we post a chapter or few each week. When I found my one on one partners, we decided what would work best for us, which ended up being 1-3 chapters/week as well. This pace works for me, and it's typically the best time-frame to use.

    4. You have your group(s)/partner(s) and you have your setup....Now what? Do it! Make that commitment, it will help you in many different ways. As long as you keep up your end of the critiquing, you will have a partner/group that will be useful and will be there for you in your journey-with each MS. If you agreed to one chapter a week...critique that one chapter a week. There may be weeks that you are swamped by other things, but you must set aside sometime to get your critique(s) done. No matter how much you have to do. Critique groups and partners are going to play a vital role in your writer life. They will be able to pick you up when you're down, they will be able to push you to do your best, they will be there to say your plot sucks or is great. Regardless, now that you have partners in your journey, you have support that you can only get from people who are going through the same things you are.

SO-Are you a writer? Then you find the time to check it off. I know I say it so simply, but that is only because somethings are just that simple. You need your critique partners and therefore, you need to find time to tend to them.

Happy Critiquing! :)

Fact Or Fiction?

I've been doing some thinking lately and it brought about a question: When you are a fiction writer, how literal do you take the facts?

When I sat down to write my first MS, I researched every aspect (which I'm sure most writers do, and if you don't, you should). I have Irish characters in my story, and they use Irish Gaelic words here and there. So, my first stop was to translate some words I wanted to use. I decided to find a good site, with Irish people, who would have first hand knowledge. After looking around, I found an amazing site with wonderful people who entertained my questions that ended up going way past translations.

My first question brought on many more. And each time,  I gained more knowledge about what really happens in Ireland vs what Google/Bing/etc said happens in Ireland. The people who responded to my inquires where so helpful, even when I asked a question they had no answer for. There were times that something I wanted to know was too far fetched, and in those instances-they flat out told me. The best answer I got was when I asked about checking into a hotel at a certain time-what would a room service order be?

When Does Your Opinion Cancel Out The Rest?

I am a member of a crit group on AQC and my group is fantastic-as is the site(writers-go check it out :) ) I also recently gained two crit partners from Query Tracker(another good site) and am swapping chapters with them. My purpose for wanting to have wonderful people to critique my MS is to make sure I have it polished as best I can.
I have been working with my group for a few months now and just recently began re-writing my beginning and adding more to my middle and end-based off feedback I got from my group. The re-write feels better then the way my MS was before, so I am glad I listened to them.

Query Critiques

Well, I ended up not taking the latest query and using it...I revised. I actually like my revision best of all of them. I am pretty sure I will begin sending it out starting tomorrow. It gets to the point when you have to just get out there and give it a go. If I continue getting critiques and revising who knows when I will really send a query. This takes me around to the topic at hand....

QUERY CRITIQUES:

So many writers(that I have noticed), especially just starting out, get so nervous about everything. Is my novel really ready? Maybe I should add this, or take this away, or maybe even rearrange. Is my synopsis right? Is my query letter good enough? Is it the right letter to get the agent I have been longing for? Point being, we get nervous and paranoid and then we begin to question everything we are doing. Sometimes the thing to do is just sit back and think-why am i doing this? Why did I just spend X ammount of months writing this novel? Why did i just spend another however more months(or years) reading through it and editing?
Personally I write for one MAIN reason-I love to do it. I know there are people out there who decide they know how to write and they do it well so why not just write a novel or five because they can. Those people may sell a book, hell they may even make it for a few more books, but they will never be a true AUTHOR, its impossible. There will come a book that, although it may be well written and thought out, they will not be able to write a compelling query or synopsis. The reason is this