Write by Wednesday- Diving back in

It's great to be back after months of silence. My lack of blogging has been nagging at me over and over thus far in 2013, but some other life events took precedence. For one, I have started teaching! I have been teaching an introductory business course online, and thus far loving it. It's really exciting, but takes a bunch of time and has thus eaten into writing time.

Unfortunately, my second distraction has been health. I am currently working on bouncing back from a prolonged illness. While finally starting to feel better, I have no energy!

All of that said, the nagging continues. The blessing and curse of being a writer-- when you don't write, its like an itch in your head. And it isn't just that I stopped blogging... unfortunately I haven't written a single sentence of fiction in the last six months.

And so now that I am finally feeling like I am getting back on my feet, it is time to get back on the keyboard as well.

This is, by far, the longest writing hiatus I have taken in my life and so I am spending today (part of a couple of weeks off of work to recouperate), to sort through and figure out what project to focus on.

So a question for all of you writers out there-- how do you dive back in?

Resolutions and Rewards

In my life, 2013 holds much promise: one of my best friends is getting married, I will get a new nephew, and I will begin teaching as an adjunct, something I have always, inexplicably wanted to do. I am thankful for 2012, which truly was a banner year, and have a few resolutions in mind to help make 2013 even brighter:

1. Make a delicious yeast bread (for context,  read about my battle with yeast breads here)
2. Actually finish crocheting an adult-sized blanket
3. Go to at least 2 of the 11 states I haven't yet visited
4. Read 20 books
5. Lose 18 more lbs, in line with the 18 I lost in both 2011 and 2012 
6. Redefine what "being a writer" means to me to mean having my stuff read instead of the nebulous idea of "making it"
7. Finish writing my third novel
8. Relax more
9. Learn to celebrate my accomplishments as readily as I do my failures

To meet my goal on number 6, check back soon for news of another Max and Menna giveaway

In line with number 9, I feel the need to remind myself in a very public way of the good things I did in 2012. The highlights (again, in ascending order) are things I gloss over too readily, but really should focus more on:

1. I crocheted blankets for five new babies
2. I got bread to rise 
3. I lost 18 lbs and made taking care of my body a priority in my life in a way it has never been before 
4. I went to five states I've never visited before
5. I republished my first novel after my publishers closed shop
6. I got over the hurt of some well-intended but very poorly worded criticism about my writing from someone I trusted. It shook me for weeks, but learning to let it go will serve me well.
7. I published my second novel
8. I finished my Master's degree
9. I wrote 50,000 words of my third book

All in all, 2012 has served me well. Saying good bye is bitter sweet, but I wish 2013 welcome, and wish everyone the best of luck and a banner year!

Writing as Work?

So every year, I have the same New Year's Resolution: Get back into the jeans size I wore in college. Thanks to random illness in 2011, I am starting 2012 a bit closer to that goal (about 1.5 sizes away), but since I never quite make it, I thought this year I would add a new resolution, one brought on my the experiences of the last week:

Starting April 1, I am going to start treating writing like work. (April 1 because I am then done with grad school and will actually have time).

Here is why...


Writing has always been my hobby- something I did to calm down, cool off, vacate the writing itch from my brain, etc. But I just had 12 days off work. I did not meet my 25,000 word goal for writing, but I did succeed in being disciplined. Excepting weekends, I got up, showered, and set to work. I wrote (or edited) just about every morning for anywhere from 2 to 6 hours. Then I worked on blogging, self-publishing Listening In, my short story collection on Kindle, promoting Max and Menna, pulling together records of last year's activities for the tax man, etc.

In short, last week, writing was my job.

And it is the best damned job I have ever had (and I say that despite mostly loving my actual job now). And I want it to maybe one day be my only job. And that takes more discipline than I typically have for writing.

So once I am a Master, I will pick up an official part time job-- my writing. In 2012, I hope it will finally and officially transcend hobby.

I'm never done!

I am an impassioned re-writer. Even now, with Max and Menna in print, and in my hands, I occasionally think of things I would have changed, would do differently, want to add, how to make it better, etc.

So, I don't pretend to be a writing expert by any stretch, but what I do know is this. At some point, it's got to be done. Write it. Read it. Edit it. Read it again. Edit it again. Put it away for a while. Ask a person or two to read it. Edit it based on their feedback. Give it a few more days. Read it one last time, edit it again, call it done!

And so, in that vein, I am debuting novel #2. It's done. I've said it was done before. I've read it and rewritten it again. This time it is done! Done, done, done! So here is the synopsis... and I am working on some possibilities for getting it in print. I will keep you posted on that. This is what Don't Wake Up is all about.

 Told from the perspective of Gillian, a plain, middle-aged woman, this story opens as she sits by the side of her comatose husband’s bed. As doctors and nurses rush to assure her that Ricky will recover well from this mysterious fall, Gillian muses over the years of cold silence and manipulation that have overshadowed their marriage, and her life.



While Gillian guiltily reveals that she hopes Ricky remains in his coma, leaving her to a delightfully empty house, his eyes open to reveal a man who claims to remember nothing of his former self. Gillian, convinced that this is only a furthering of the manipulations and cruel mind games that have filled most of her life, seeks to test this new Ricky. She invents a family they never had, and fills his head with stories of an imaginary life.


As she fabricates memories to give to this stranger husband, Gillian begins to reminisce about her sister Liza. The story of her Liza’s exodus from Gillian’s life unfolds in tandem with Ricky’s recovery, and holes in Gillian’s version of events become evident. How could a man so cold awaken so warm and caring? Why do the events leading up to Liza’s leaving continue to surface in her mind as she carries on an increasingly intricate charade?


As Ricky recovers and comes home, still sans his full memory, Gillian begins to question the validity of his illness, and subsequently the depravity of her actions. Constantly buoyed by memories of their loveless marriage, she progresses down a path that leaves her more and more resembling the deplorable man she describes in old Ricky. As new Ricky becomes increasingly soft and tender, Gillian must ask herself how far she will go to punish a man for sins he can’t remember committing.