Quick Update

I haven't completely vanished, just waiting for February in hopes that it will bring my GREAT new year...

January is so not my friend this year. My grandma passed. I spent the first week and a half sick and here I am sick again. I was actually not even well for two weeks. Ugh. And to top it off, my laptop broke. With all of this going on, my blog and many other things have taken a backseat. I've already been out of it for a while and I'm to a point that I really hate it. I want to get my blog back up and running. I want to write, critique, query, tweet, etc etc...I want back to where I was and I will get there.

The geek squad guy told me 10-14 days for my laptop to be finished. It's already been 14 and they haven't even started it so I'm not sure when it will be done. I'm hoping it will happen by the beginning of February which is why I've decided to ignore January and wait for my new year to come next month.

Just wanted to give y'all an update, so there it is. I will see you soon and I hope you're all doing good. :)

IWSG

Today is the first Insecure Writer's Support Group post of 2013. Thanks Alex for keeping this great group going. All you writers who don't know about IWSG, go here now. And for anyone who has managed to not know the awesomeness that is Alex J Cavanaugh, go here now.

I wasn't sure if I'd get a post done because I've been sick and my grandma is in intensive care at the hospital. But I'm home for a bit because there's nothing I can do up there right now and I figured being sick I shouldn't hang around too much anyway.

So I am home and writing my post, although I don't really have a lot to say. I haven't written in a few weeks because of being sick. I still have three WIPs going, just a little stalled while I get better. I can say that I have high hopes for this new year. It may not have started out that great, but it's going to work out better.

Not that great of an IWSG post, but I got one up. I'm also realizing my blog posts keep turning out to sound a little sad/depressing...I am not sad and don't mean for my post to come across that way if it does.

I hope you all have a great day and a wonderful new year. :)

Happy 2013!

I wasn't going to write a post because I've been so sick the last three weeks and already know I need a post for tomorrow, but I can't not say something new year related...

I always look forward to a new year because it's opportunity, endless choices, moods, everything and anything. A new year gives hope to us all that we can improve and have a better year than the last, or continue to have a wonderful year that matches the greatness of the previous one. Or even the chance to make the new year even better than the fantastic last year. Endless possibilities.

My year was not so great in 2012. I had so many more downs than ups, too many. I cried more tears last year than I have any other year and I've lost loved ones in other years. My Lupus acted up way too much, when it wasn't acting up I was sick in general. I had moments that I wasn't too bad, but not enough. I was tired, so tired, all the time. Behind on work and lost in life. Lost in general.

In 2012 I made new friends, bonded closer with old friends, and drifted away from really great friends that I shouldn't have drifted away from. I finished a book-completely finished it-completed NaNo, and now have 3 WIPs in the works. I critiqued for over 10 people, read books over and over that I couldn't count toward my Goodreads goal because they're not published.

So much happiness and success was found in 2012. So many writers got agents and book deals-both even. It was the year of AQCers too. It was ridiculous (in a good way) how many success stories kept being posted. And not just AQCers though, so many writers were successful. Self-pubbers, Indie pubbed, Traditional, all had so much good news happening. I was YAY YAY YAYing left and right because not just getting signed, people were getting requests. Even if those requests were ultimately rejections, still awesome in general.

And I failed-over and over. But don't get all no don't say that! I'm okay with it. I know I struggled, fell so far behind I couldn't begin to see where to catch up. I know that I let people down who were expecting me to be there for them, to critique for them or just help on little things. I know because I know I hit a funk so bad that it ruined my mojo. Took that mojo, balled it up, burnt it, crumbled it, swept it into a jar, and tossed it out into the ocean where a shark chomped it down...Yeah, the funk was that bad, almost worse really. I still haven't come out of it completely. I'm still behind on critiques and reading, and writing, but I'll get there.

That's my resolution for the year-get back on point. I plan to get my head in the game and stay focused. My blog is neglected, my WIPs are neglected, my critique partners and group is neglected, I've got a doc that should have a query letter typed on it, and there is a book list a mile long waiting for me.

So, do you have a resolution(s) for 2013? Are you the kind of person who usually makes resolutions? Are you glad to see 2012 go and 2013 roll on in? (I am!)

Have an AWESOME Happy New Year! See you tomorrow. :)

Sadness

I titled my post Sadness because I honestly wasn't sure what to call it. Plus, I'm full of sadness tonight. I've posted many times after a tragedy and the one that happened in Connecticut yesterday is no exception.

It almost was. I mean, really, I don't want to hear about it anymore. Not because I'm so heartless that I don't care. No, quite the opposite. I care too much. It's too close and so wrong. I hate the bad things that exist in this world, hate that we have to have bad things happen all the time. I don't understand it, nor do I want to. I just want it to go away.

It hurts, it makes me cry and makes me want to know why. And it makes me thankful even more that I could go to my kids right now and hold them in my arms. Makes me so happy that I got to pick my kids up from school, take them to the movie they've been asking me to go to, put up a Christmas tree, wrap their presents, everything. I'm just thankful.

That's it really, I meant to only write something brief and then post a poem I wrote because I write when I'm emotional. Since my sadness does not belong in any of my three current WIPs at the moment, I wrote a poem. So, here it is.

Angels

Life unlived
Experiences missed
Milestones passed
Without chance
Knowledge ungained
Beauty unchanged
Graduations planned
Never allowed
Firsts unknown
Innocence stolen
Promises avowed
And unbroken
Unfair choices
Misplaced sorrow
Angels born
Who deserved a tomorrow.

That's it. And I'm actually hoping to have a special post coming up soon, so I'll see you again later this week. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a good weekend. ((((((hugs))))))) because I think hugs are really nice, especially right now. :)

NaNoTGIO and Ali Cross

Whew, November FLEW by. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was writing about starting NaNoWriMo. Now, here it is, 3 days into December and NaNo is over.

What was my first NaNoWriMo like? CRAZY. I didn't really have a lot of expectations for NaNo. I wanted to win, hoped I would win, but I wasn't expecting anything other than getting my motivation back.

So, did I get my motivation back? Yes and no. Yes because I want to write now. My NaNo WIP will be put aside for now and I'm going back to the WIP I was working on before I lost my motivation. But no because I'm still behind on things. I'm not caught up on critting and not sure when I will be. I need to read, need to write, need to catch up.

But am I happy I did NaNo? YES! And I'm planning to do it again next year. It was good for me and that is all that matters. I needed something to get me in gear and NaNo did it.

Let's get to the real question on everyone's mind. The one that matters most. Well, maybe not *most*, but the one that is up there...Did I win? Did I end the month of November with 50k words written or not? Well...YES! I did it. I barely made it, validated my word count at 11:59pm on Friday, November 30th. BUT, I MADE IT!

My NaNo novel isn't that great. It's going to take some major editing, especially on the last half, but it's done. I wanted to win, wanted to get it done, to reach the 50k goal, and get my motivation back. I did that, so I'm a winner. :)

I have more news I wanted to talk about today...I'm subscribed to Ali Cross' newsletter and I just got something in the email this past weekend that is very exciting. :) Coming in this month is the third installment in her Desolation series. WOOT! I haven't had a chance to get to the second book, but still very excited that there is a third one coming out soon.

Also, there is now a website for the series. Yay! Check it out: DesolationSeries.com. There's also a Tumblr and Pinterest for the series. Yay, yay, yay. Lol. Yes, I'm excited. This series is one of my favorites and Ali is too. :)

Here's something else, straight from Ali's newsletter :

December 1st-15th, I am participating in an online signing party! This means you can buy my paperback books at discounted prices, and pre-order your signed copy of Destined (Desolation #3). Just visit my blog and order using the Paypal button on the right sidebar. 

Desolation number three will be released on December 12th. So, check it out. If you haven't read Ali's books, go get them. And if you're not following Ali or didn't even know about her...Go to her blog now. It's great, the series is great, and Ali is greater than great...She's AWESOME!!

That's all for today. Hope you all have a wonderful Monday. :)