Liebster Award

Thanks you so much to  Mary Montague Sikes of Notes Along the Way on my nomination for a coveted Liebster Award. The Liebster Award is given to bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. It is such an honor just to be nominated. The rules are as follows:


Liebster Award Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who presented you with the Liebster Award, and link back to his or her blog.

2. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator; list 11 random facts about yourself, and create 11 questions for your nominees.

3. Present the Liebster Award to 11 bloggers, who have blogs with 200 followers or less, whom you feel deserve to be noticed. Leave a comment on the blogs letting the owners know they have been chosen. (No tag backs.)

4. Upload the Liebster Award image to your blog.

Eleven random facts about me

1. As a child, my grandmother used to singe my hair instead of cut it because she heard cutting ruins naturally curly hair.
2. I love to travel and would love to have been a globe trotting flight attendant.
3. I'm allergic to penicillin and mangoes.
4. I rode the Mindbender looping roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia 54 times without ever getting off.
5. I wrecked my mother's car 8 days before I had a driver's license. She was not amused.
6. I believe our souls life on past our physical death.
7. I've always been shy, which some people have mistaken for being a bitch.
8. My husband and I met at a gas station.
9. I have more books than bookshelves but I can't bear to part with any of them.
10. As a child I wanted to be a jockey.
11. I tend to sometimes be brutally honest, which again people mistake for bitchiness. 

Eleven Answers:
1. Knowing what you know today, what would you choose to be (profession)? Why? I would still be me, it's taken a long time to grow into a person I am comfortable with and get along with, why would I change that?

2. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would that be? Why? I would live several places: the beach, the mountains, wherever the mood takes me. The world is a constant adventure.

3. Would you rather visit the mountains or the sea? Why? Both. Each moves my soul in different ways.

4. Tell about your favorite dinner. Deep fried lobster with a hollandaise type sauce at Chops Lobster Bar in downtown Atlanta. Best. Lobster. Anywhere.

5. What part of your home most inspires you?  My family. No matter where they are, they are who I get out of bed for on a daily basis.
 
6. Do you like to read fiction or non-fiction? Both, it just depends on the subject.

7. What is your favorite book? I re-read "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy whenever I feel blue. I also re-read Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" whenever our fabulous government pisses me off.

8. Did you have a favorite subject in school? History. It fascinates me.

9. How many vacations would you like to take each year? Where? I would make my life a vacation if I could. In reality we take two, one in each of our off-seasons at work. In the summer we usually go to the beach and the winter always depends on the weather. Sometimes we ski, sometimes we visit family in warmer climates.

10. Do you prefer to fly or to drive? Fly, but I do love a good scenic car ride.

11. Are you an extrovert or an introvert? I am an introvert whose life and job have forced her to become an extrovert. 

Eleven New Questions for New Nominees:
1. What inspired you to start blogging?
2. Where do you spend most of your time when writing, developing the story or editing?
3. What childhood memory brings the biggest smile to your face?
4. If you were given three wishes, what would they be? Why?
5. Where is your favorite place to vacation? Why?
6. What are you most afraid of?
7. If you could redo one thing in your past, what would it be?
8. What is your favorite classic movie?
9. Where is the strangest place you ever found yourself?
10. If you could have one night with any person in the world, who would it be? Why?
11. Short hair or long hair?

I'm checking out blogs and gradually adding to make my list of 11. If you have time, I hope you will accept and follow the instructions for the award. I'll keep track of my growing list here, so check back often:
 

So Many Characters, So Little Space in My Head

If it's the first Wednesday in the month, then it is Insecure Writer's Support Group. Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about several different stories at once. The sounds in my head have been deafening. As a result nothing has gotten accomplish of any great magnitude. What do you do when the characters start intermingling and the stories get muddled?

I keep notebooks, I jot story lines, everything I have done for years, but since the New Year my thoughts have been splintered and unorganized. I can see story arcs, characters evolving, all the pieces of the puzzle lay themselves out then I notice - it's the wrong story! Frustration is settling into my brain.

The problem is probably me. With undiagnosed ADD, I am juggling 4 stories in various stages of development. For me, that's a lot! Other people may do more, but I'm not organized enough to entertain that large a cast of characters. I'm trying to wrap one up, but then I need to start writing on Book 3 of the Guardian Stories. Which brings me back around to the overcrowding issue.

For the rest of this week and most of next week I have to attend a convention. I actually hope the diversion and enormous changes of scenery provide a vast fodder of information to jump start the process. If that doesn't work, I might have to resort to alcohol (and I am a cheap drunk!).

Do all writer's overstretch their imagination or am I burning myself out? Does anyone else have suggestions for maintain all the individuals in their separate corrals? I''m tired of the stampede!

Wow, What a Rush!

Last weekend here in Georgia was magnificent. Clear blue skies, pleasant temperatures - all the right ingredients for contemplating my next story!

Actually, I have three that are battling for attention and it is becoming crowded in my head. Everyone is talking at once, all of them convinced their story is the most important, and I hoped taking last weekend off from writing and just wandering through the woods on horseback would put all the pieces in order. I was partly right.

Ever since childhood I have found solace in the forest. The lack of noise pollution, the quiet acceptance of the creatures, these are just two of the reasons I love the woods. As a teenager I would disappear into the trees behind our house (usually with a stolen pack of cigarettes I'm afraid), to spend hours staring up at the tall Georgia pines and majestic oaks; working out the mysteries of the universe in two hours or less before dark.

Riding through the property was awesome. The weather was just right, my mare figured out the way home and all I had to do was sit back and think. All my characters came forward and presented their cases.

I need to finish the synopsis for book 2 of the Guardian Stories. That is the first priority. Everything is ready for submission and waiting on me to finish the synopsis. But for some reason I am having a block against sitting down and writing, not just the synopsis but anything. My mind is full of snot, compliments of my children and husband, and I cannot put words together in any sort of sense.

There are two other stories vying for attention, who have also fallen victims to the mucus attack. I promised one the first crack when clean oxygen returns to my brain, but the other is going to have to wait, much to their consternation. I hate to say no to the voices in my head, but between making chicken soup for everyone, working two email accounts for work, picking up prescriptions, and blowing my own nose - something has to give.

All these things and more slogged through my densely crowded brain while Penny (the horse) and I tackled the woods and hills of Northwest Georgia. Wind from Superstorm Sandy the previous weekend had removed most of the leaves from the hardwoods. The sun was bright in a brilliant blue sky, with not a cloud to be seen and the air was warm until the light breeze stirred up a chill to brush the skin.

After a while it began to dawn on me to stop being so hard on myself. I need to just allow myself the time to care for my family and myself; something I tend not to do when I am in full on writing / working mode. September and October were crazy at my day job. My crews were out working more than 70 hours nine weeks in a row, which of course meant hubby and I were working those same hours. If my brain is overtaxed, there's a good reason for it.

So I've decided to spend some time doing nothing. I've worked hard, I owe myself downtime, and no one is going to deprive me of the opportunity to clean out the cobwebs and snot. I know many people are participating in the NaNo WrMo challenge of 50,000 words and more power to each of you! Believe me, I would if I could. But that's not where my head is at this moment. While the rest of you write, I'm going to relax, catch up on my reading and work on outlining my next book.

With that goal in mind, I make the pledge to not do any "serious" writing until after Thanksgiving, which is amazingly only one week away. So, for one week I am taking suggestion for books to read. I have a Nook and would like at least 5 books to choose from. If you know of something I should check out, leave me the title and author.

And with that, I'm off for the day. I think taking the pressure off might kick start the healing processes, and that might spread to the rest of my sickly family. And a healthy family for Thanksgiving is the best blessing of all!

Triumph and Tragedy

Why do women feel the constant need for cutting each other down?

That is a rhetorical question which has nothing (or everything) to do with this entry. Recently I received a publisher's response from a house I had honestly forgotten I had submitted to. The fact that is was a negative isn't the story. It's what they said that is the subject of my posting.

Once I read their comments I remembered why I sent a query to them. They promised a honest assessment of their rejection. Now, I'm getting used to the "no thank you" letters from publishers. However, what I am having a problem with is what they said next.

They told me I had no story development in the 50 pages I submitted.

Wow. Low blow.

Now, I will confess the opening is probably the only part of my book even I struggled with. My awesome editor (who shall remain nameless except to say that he is my hero) had me cut a lot of the opening right away. That ended up being about eighteen pages, which I am slowly working out my frustration concerning by blogging. But now, even he admits more needed to be lost. And that's probably my fault.

As a writer, I have a hard time separating myself from what I write. I have spent a long time developing this story. These characters have been living in my head for years and I feel a duty to tell their story as honestly and deeply as I hear it internally. To know that I have to separate myself from this and look at the story from a commercial side is hard.

Which in a very round about way brings me to the opening sentence. Girls, in a nutshell, can be very cruel. It is one reason I am not an extremely verbal person. I've never run in the popular group, most people think I am stuck up when I am actually only paralyzingly shy. Girls are like sharks. They swim around in packs looking for weaknesses they can exploit.

Currently my daughter is experiencing the painful lesson that teenage girls are two faced, and it is painful to see her bewilderment at the sudden changes in those she thought her friends. Why do others have to cut down the smallest in the herd? I tell her to try and let it go, but she is just like me. She takes everything way to personal.

Thin skinned people are in for a hard time in this highly competitive culture we live in . Whether they are writers or painters or poets or twelve year old girls, we have to choose what we allow to injure us and to always remember that it can only damage our souls if we let the barb penetrate that deep.

Women are cruel, publishers are even crueler, but teenage girls are killers.

If Patience is a Virtue, Then I Have None!

I have come to the conclusion that I HATE TO WAIT!!!

First, I am waiting to be published. That one single process alone would be enough to test the patience of a saint. Nothing I can think of compares to the long term agony of waiting to hear from a publisher whether they think you are good enough to take a chance upon. Granted, they get more requests in a day than I get spam emails, but still...

I spend half my day at my regular job waiting for the mail to come. Just to see if any of the many people who owe me money have sent any. I get tired of tell my creditors, "not today maybe tomorrow." I just want to be caught up again with all our bills. I want to be able to set some money aside to grow old on.

Right now, I am waiting on a customer to return a credit card authorization form. I sent it more than an hour ago. How long can it take to write down a few numbers and fax it back? Now I am going to be stuck in traffic on the way home, still have to drive to the barn (20 additional minutes in another direction) and I had told my daughter we might go out to the tack store in Roswell. CRAP!

That is the part of being a mom I have a hard time with. When I get home, all I really want to do is take a nap! Not drive all over creation running kids here and there. True, my son takes a good deal of this burden by picking up his sister when I ask, but right now his car is broken and I don't have the money or time to fix it.

Have you ever heard the expression, "Just when I got it all together..."? That's how I feel right now. Money is tight, my kids are demanding, my business is having a hard time, the economy stinks, my son needs a job, my daughter is whiny and everything seems like I need to tie a knot in my rope and hang on.

That's when I need to submerge myself the most in my writing. When everything seems to be falling apart, the stories flow. Is there a corollary between suffering and the creative process? Of course there is. Look at Van Gogh. Look at Michelangelo. When an artist is suffering in their own private morass is when the greatest creations are made. Look at the Sistine Chapel. Look at "Starry Night".

Into every one's life suffering comes. How you deal with it is what makes the difference. I need to turn my problems over to my Higher Power, the Living God. Only He will bring peace to my soul. He gave me a talent and I thank Him everyday for my blessings. Now, I need to learn to praise Him for the suffering.