Birthday Traditions

I hope everyone is recovering from a wonderful holiday season, and/or gearing up for a great New Year!

I am one of the unfortunate many who have a birthday very close to Christmas... today in fact. As a child I hated this, but as an adult writer I recognize that many, many people just got new Kindles for Christmas and are looking for something to read.

Enter my birthday tradition of giving away my books!

That's right. Today and tomorrow only both of my YA novels are available free on Kindle by clicking one of the links below:

• Naliyah: The Vetala Chronicles Book One
• Max and Menna

I hope you will consider downloading these, and maybe giving me a birthday gift back in the form of...

1. Reading my work, which makes me very, very happy
2. Reviewing my work on Amazon or Goodreads, which will make me ecstatic! 
3. Sharing a link to this blog or either title in your Facebook feed so others can do #1 or #2 

Happy Boxing Day to all, and Happy Birthday to me. Sleep, stare longingly at the tree, and perhaps start reading a new book. 

2014 is underway....

And had a rough start out of the gate but is very much looking up! Between head colds, stomach bugs, and lots of travel, I am very behind on putting together my 2014 goal list. However, better late than never, right?

Here is what I plan to do this year:

1. Visit 2-3 new states. I am at 41 now and hope to very soon reach 44 this year.
2. Get married... and not stress about the small stuff related to wedding planning (or at least avoid it as much as possible)
3. Write the sequel to Naliyah, the novel I finished in December
4. Work on getting Naliyah out there for the world to read
5. Read 22 books (2 more than last year)
6. Figure out what all of the buzz over Doctor Who is
7. Tackle some new cooking challenges, like duck and lamb
8. Get my four year weight loss total to at least 75 lbs (at 55 now)

Thus far, I am well underway on edits for the book, read 3 books in January, and have a trip to Mobile, Alabama planned to cross off one new state. Not bad for a lady that's been sick more than not so far this year.

How is everyone else's 2014 progressing?

Wrapping up the year, Part II

I am finding it hard to follow my own plan of reviewing my 2013 resolutions before the years end because I have had my head so immersed in the book I am working on. Seriously, my fiancé just had to call and beg me to go buy toilet paper while he is at work (since he is at work and I have the week off).

But, I do appreciate both personal hygiene and that it is important to me to keep reviewing all that 2013 has brought. So on to four more of the resolutions I posted just about a year ago here.

Resolution Review:

3. Go to at least 2 of the 11 states I haven't visited. Check, and thank you Kansas and Wisconsin. Only 9 left...

4. Read 20 book. Check and a smirk. At the beginning of December, I was at a pathetic 13 for the year (though one was 1Q84, which is about a million pages long). When the semester ended and I got my weekends back, I ripped through 8 books in a month. Thank you The Mortal Instruments.

5. Lost 18 pounds in 2013, just like the 18 I lost in 2012 and 2011. Check. Actually, as of two weeks ago (I have strict rules about weighing oneself during the holidays), I had lost 19. I am doing it slowly through good ole fashioned diet and exercise, but for those of you who are math challenged like me, that is 55 pounds in three years. I still have a bit to go, but this is a major victory for me in terms of taking better care of my body.

6. Redefine what "being a writer" means to me to mean having my stuff read instead of the nebulous idea of "making it". I will give myself a check minus here. I still wave my hand dismissively when asked about my writing, and offer some lame preemptive "its just a hobby." BUT, even though I sold a meager number of books this year, I did have more than 300 downloads of Max and Menna, and I will call that getting my stuff read.

Another thing I am proud of

I became a homeowner this year. It took a decade of trying and saving, but I finally achieved a very big dream, and it feels great!

Wrapping up the year, part 1

Thanks to everyone who took advantage of my birthday giveaway yesterday and downloaded Max and Menna. If you missed it, good news-- the free promotion goes through today, so there is still time to snatch it up for that new Kindle.

I've spent a lot of time this month  talking about books and authors I love. For the rest of the year, I am going to talk a bit about me. on January 1, 2013, I posted on my 2013 resolutions and then promptly forgot about it, as is my custom with resolutions. However, while digging through some old posts yesterday, I revisited this one and was rather surprised to discover that I actually did an OK job on meeting my goals. Thus, I want to talk a little bit about successes and failures, and share some links for the things that helped me along the way.

Resolution Review:

1. Make great yeast bread. SUCCESS! Well, I made good yeast bread. Given my recently discovered milk allergy/intolerance/whatever-its-called, I went with Almond Milk bread. I used this recipe as a basis, but then went all health nut and used whole wheat flour. It went very well with my new favorite beef stew recipe
2. Actually crochet an adult sized blanket. SUCCESS! I underestimated myself... I made FIVE. These are my two favorites. I am now that much closer to becoming the crazy crochet lady. YES!

 Another Thing I Am Proud Of:

On of the things I am worst at is letting myself be proud of my accomplishments. It's something I want to be better at next year. And so, in addition to celebrating the goals I met, I also want to celebrate the other good stuff.

So another thing I am proud of from this year... I became a community college teacher. This was something I just wanted to try, but have found myself loving. I don't ever see myself becoming the inspiration for the next Dead Poet's Society or anything, but I have learned a lot and love working with my students.

Stay tuned for more of my self-indulgent blogging :)

Write by Wednesday… November is my MOST Insecure Writing Month

November, inevitably, makes me an even more insecure writer. Why? Because there is no way in heck I could write even an awful, terrible, mistake-riddled manuscript for a novel in a month. Even if I quit my job and holed up in my office, it just would not happen.

I recently read  Tia Bach’s Chasing Memories (you can read my review here) which was born out of a NANO project.  I loved so many things about this book, but the whole time I read it I was in awe of Tia’s ability to write that draft  in a month.

Max and Menna took me ten years to write-- I started it at 16 and finished it at 26, so they were 10 formative years. I grew up with those characters, and they grew out of my own life learning. When reviews for the book started coming in and many people mentioned that the characters felt so real to them,  I was ecstatic… because they are real to me, too.

And then my good friend Tia writes a character like Reagan from Chasing Memories… in a month! Reagan was almost as real to me as my Menna, vaulting off the page and feeling as though she were sitting right next to you telling you her story.

Fundamentally, I understand that we all write at different speeds and paces. I should not be comparing myself to those that can write faster than I can as necessarily being an indicator that they are “better writers.”  Nonetheless, I will remain in slightly-envious awe of all of you NANO writers. My November goal is to finish a whole chapter of my third novel.

Write By Wednesday... dealing with the meanies

I’ve gone back and forth about this, but a recent post byNathan Bransford on author bullying prompted me to finally post on this. I just took eight months off from blogging, writing, and doing anything related to being an author. While 90% of the motivation for this was my schedule and some problems I had with my health, I am embarrassed to say that 10% of it was because someone was mean.

Bransford talks about author bullying in the form of really vicious reviews, and I appreciated his candor on it, but it happens in other ways. Most members of our writing community encourage us, give us constructive criticism, and help us promote each other’s work, but what happens when they actually destroy our confidence?

Way back in December, I got some feedback from a fellow writer. While I respect this person’s opinion, the way the feedback was worded was just really awful, feebly cloaked in “I’m telling you this with the best of intentions.” And instantly, I was back in my Junior High cafeteria with mean girls making fun of my yard-sale earrings.

Honest feedback is so important to me, it really is. I want people to tell me what they truly think about my work, but I have decided that I don’t want them to be brutally honest. You can say “this just doesn’t work for me because I see some major structural flaws,” without saying “I’m physically repulsed by the way this is set up.” If you say the former, you’re a good reader and community member. If you say the latter, no matter what your intentions are, you’re being mean. 

I let myself take it too hard, and now that I finally started writing again, I am totally pissed at myself for that. I consider myself successful in many regards, and I am proud of my book. Why did I let one mean email make me feel so badly about myself that I stopped believing that I am a writer?

I have eight months of ideas that have been bubbling around and driving me crazy that are finally unleashed. I am going to hit the keyboard hard, and hope I’ve built a thicker skin. One thing is for sure, though: whenever I give anyone feedback, good or bad, I will read it twice so I know that I am not being a mean girl myself.

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?

Write by Wednesday- Your Writing Twin

I've mentioned a few times that I am currently reading Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult. I decided to delve into Picoult after a small press owner rejected Don't Wake Up because he was taking the press in a different direction, but shared that he was upset to do so because my style reminded him of hers.

Prior to picking up Keeping Faith, all I knew of Picoult was what I had learned by watching the film version of My Sister's Keeper, which was shockingly real and such a bad Friday night movie choice for me. At the time, I was a caregiver for my Mom while she fought a similar battle with cancer. I cried through that entire movie, and think it placed some kind of Picoult stigma in my head.

I will never read My Sister's Keeper. Ever. Memories of seeing that movie and its impact on me can still make me morose for hours. However, I was enthralled by this notion that I write like her and sought out Keeping Faith.

I am about halfway through. I cannot put it down. The insinuation that I have anywhere near this woman's talent is perhaps the best compliment I have received as a writer.  I don't think I am Picoult's writing twin; however, I have written two novels and she has written dozens. Maybe one day I could boast to have her talent, though I want a style all my own-- perhaps fraternal writing twins.

Who is your fraternal writing twin wanna be?

And while you mull that over, for the second day in a row I share a picture of my sister and me, fitting only because we are often mistaken for twins even though I am much older.

Write by Wednesday- Self and Vanity Publishing

Following my recent series on self publishing, I was extremely interested to see the recent Huffington Post article on self publishing. It says a lot of the things many of us on the blogosphere have been saying about self-publishing, but one quote that really jumped out to me:

"Self-publishing has not only democratized publishing, it has opened up the opportunity for authors to publish at low or no cost, own all the rights, control the pricing and timetable for publishing and get their books listed for sale and distribution on major outlets and platforms..."

The "democratizing" function of self-publishing instantly grabbed me-- the MBA in me immediately hears this as "a true free market economy." That's right, we've created a true economy based on supply and demand. As readers, we can absolutely own the direction of the market in self-publishing.

You should check out the whole article: http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-New-Vanity-Publishing-by-Bernard-Starr-120824-731.html