The Novelty Girls

Oh you know you want to, and hey! I see you over there trying to slink off. Don’t think you’re getting out of this conversation! Get back here!

So where was I?

Oh yeah, writer’s butt. You know, that inevitable spread that happens when you sit in front of a computer all day and snack on Honey BBQ Fritos instead of say celery sticks. Oh, wait. That’s my story. Whatever your poison is, the end result–extra padding on the rear–is the same.

I used to be such a fitness fanatic. Not health so much, cause hey, a girl cannot live without good food. Figuring out protien vs. carb vs. fat intake is so not for me. And I hate chicken. But working out? Running? That I can do. Strong is so sexy after all.

So I’ve been trying to get organized this week, to get a regular schedule of some kind that I can actually stick to in place, and I slotted working out right there first thing in the morning. Except for an unfornutate endometriosis-sucks-where’s-my-pain-pills episode this morning, this is going well. I’m afraid it’s going too well, but I am determined.

There’s a few reasons for this new determination. Being the obsessed list maker I am, I made one of the reasons I have to start losing weight/working out again.

I hate being out shape and I hate the way I feel.

I refuse to buy anymore new clothes. I have perfectly good clothes I need to get my ass back in.

I kinda feel like a hypocrite. My heroines are kick ass, in shape women. Something I can no longer claim.

So I’m getting a jump start on the upcoming Christmas madness binge (not to mention that moment in May when I’ll open my closet and say, holy crap I have nothing to wear in Dallas!) My goal is to work out five days a week and lose 15 pounds by the 25th. I even started a spreadsheet to keep up with my workouts. Noooo, I’m not even a little OCD lol.

So who’s with me? Anyone? Beuler??

Forgive my mangled colloquialisms, if you will. I’m a fan of dialect and sometimes I get carried away.

I have noticed an odd trend in myself and I wonder if it’s just me, so I’m going to mention and ask.

Am I the only one who gets more anxious the closer I get to writing ‘The End’ on a book? I’ve found that, when I have just a few pages left on a project, or just a couple more scenes to wrap the whole story up, my mind skips around like mad. I’m already racing ahead to the -next- project I have lined up. I’m thinking about plot and characters and I obsessively check wordcount as I write toward the resolution, thinking ‘how can I possibly have only written one hundred words? I need to be done!’

I don’t think it’s that I’m trying to avoid saying goodbye. I like my characters, don’t get me wrong, but after a while, I’m more than willing to let them go, send them off into the world and let them stand or fall without me. Is it fear of commitment? Am I a serial write-em-and-leave-em kind of girl?

I read about people who have that happy sigh when they finish a book. The post-orgasmic glow of having done something fun, and I look at myself and wonder if I’m missing parts. I don’t have parties when I finish books. I might buy myself something, but I don’t really celebrate. Mostly, I push up the sleeves and shout, “Next!”

It’s not just me, is it?

So…. I’m in Seattle and guess what? We’ve had snow three days in a row! SNOW!!! We rarely ever have snow. And the Seahawks were playing in the white stuff last night. It must’ve been our good luck charm, cause we won! But it’s so cold and there’s so much snow that all the schools over the state are cancelled and we’re 100% snowbound. Stuck inside.

Anyway, all this snow just reiterates one thing to me: the Christmas season has officially kicked off. And you know what? You were all so right. Last week I realized how insane it is to try and shop on black Friday. I couldn’t even get off the exit at the freeway to the mall. I even tried Amazon shopping online and that was hell, it froze the entire site. So…if it’s a really big amazing deal, then I need to accept that I don’t have a chance in hell at getting it. But, still, I’m nearly done with my Christmas shopping!

So with the shopping going on, the snow falling, I was just in the holiday mood. So we decided to put up the tree. And I started thinking about it as I hung up ornaments and glanced around the house. There is no rhyme or reason to our decorations. We have the most random shit out there. From glittery snowmen from the dollar store, to the freebie mini snowglobes you get on black friday at JC Penny’s, to chipping angels that belonged to my grandparents, and a knitted Mr. and Mrs. Clause my grams made. And it’s all just randomly tossed around the house.

And my Christmas tree ornaments? Don’t even get me started, just the most eclectic mix out there. And I started thinking about it. Are there people who really do the whole Martha Stewart thing? Like wrap their tree in cranberries, or only do silver and blue decorations. Or they’d keel over if someone hung a Ronald McDonald ornament on the tree? And if there are people like that, would they like my books? Cause they’re not classy, they don’t have a poetic elegance….it’s just completely random and a little nutty at times.

I don’t know, maybe it’s a strange comparison, but it got me thinking how much of who we are reflects in our writing. Are the people who believe in the artistic, Martha-ee style decorations th type that write those beautiful flowy books too?

What’s your decorating personality, and do you think it matches your writing style? Does this question make sense? Feel free to tell me to screw off.

Every now and then I think it’s good to take some time off. I didn’t write at all last week. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Nothing.

While I felt a bit guilty, like I was cheating on a diet, it completely recharged my batteries.

I spent the whole week enjoying my family, reading a good book, meeting new people, changing my hair color. You name it, I did it. Except write.

I wasn’t sure I could go that long without writing, but I managed. What resulted was a lot og subconscious plotting. I’d wake up with fabulous ideas, or watch a tv show and get a new series going in my head. I even revitalized an old story I discarded long ago. I think I can fix it. I think I know how now.

Right now, I have to call the break a good thing. Amazing.

What about you? Do you think it’s good to take breaks, or bad to let yourself get out of the habit of writing?

All of which I have been dealing with since the start of my holiday on Wednesday. I did absolutely nothing on Wednesday and when I mean nothing….I mean nothing. Totally vegged out, watched too much TV and just enjoyed having the day off.

I woke up Thursday morning and cooked, nothing super special, but it was good for a Thanksgiving feast. By that afternoon my baby (6 1/2 months) had a 103 fever and it was downhill from there. So, we didn’t do the family visit thing. I’ve spent the last two days and nights dropping a combination of Infant Motrin and Advil down his little throat to bring his fever down, slathering baby VapoRub on his chest for the conjestion, holding him, and yelling at the other two to keep the noise down so he/we could sleep.

Today is a better day, though. Plan to leave them all at home with the hubby and attempt a little Xmas shopping…maybe. What about the procrastination you ask? I have a one word answer for you - “writing.” Have I done any since Wednesday? Nope. Nada. Zilch. Am I going to win NaNo. Ha! Fat chance!

I hope you all had a great holiday.

It’s 6am and supposed to be a pretty nice day here at Ft Benning. It certainly started early. Army Guy had to go in to work at 4:30 and woke me up before he left. That’s 3:30 my time folks. It’s gonna be a loooong day. What started out as an ‘I’ll come up and cook for all y’all that have to work’ deal as morphed into something else entirely. Now there are wives and kids and soldiers and who knows else coming. Went from 10 to probably 20. I must be crazy.

Or maybe not. On the list of things I’m thankful for this year the fact my husband is in the states is real high up there. That I can afford to feed everyone is real high up there too. And frankly, it’s my turn. It’s funny how things work out. I remember being the single soldier going to someone else’s for holiday dinners and being a young enlisted wife and being invited to those dinners. I remember looking at the older wives and wondering how look it took till you got your act together like that–the knowing the ends and outs of the Army and grace under fire. And now I’m that wife. It’s damned strange. Half the time I look around and think, oh y’all made a mistake here! But life marches on, eh?

So today I got up thankful that my kids and husband are with me, and that we’ll spend the day with our Army family. Those of you who stop by TNG today please tell us what you’re thankful for in the comments!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Oh sure, as a kid, I dreaded the five hour trips to visit relatives, but that usually got lost in the happy haze of whatever new book Mom put in my travel bag. And I really did like seeing the relatives, after they got over telling me how much I’d grown, yadda yadda.

These days, Thanksgiving is usually just me and the Engineer. Occasionally we convince people to stop by and we feed them, but most years it’s just us and the cats. Which means I don’t get to play in the kitchen the way I’d like. There’s just no reason to cook an entire turkey for the two of us. Leftovers get old fast.

So it’ll be a little turkey roast and simple potatoes and apple pie. But we still take the time to say what we’re thankful for, and we actually eat at the table and watch parades and movies and it’s usually a good day. A little quieter than I might like, but quiet’s not always a bad thing.

To all of you traveling to friends or family, I wish you safe trips and good company. To those staying or hosting at home, I hope everything goes as you planned. To those not in the States, I send all good thoughts and wishes just the same. Don’t need a turkey to be thankful for something.

Thanks for reading along with us this year!

Okay, so the Christmas season has started early at my house. Yes you can gasp, or groan, or cheer because you do it too. But seriously. I’m in the mood for Christmas. I’ve been putting together holiday music cd’s, busted out the holiday DVD’s for Emma (Is it wrong that I think Barbie Nutcracker is way better than the ballet one?)

I’m literally trying to do everything holiday related that I can. I’ve been shopping for gifts for about a month now–to spread out the money. I’m currently in a search for a nice, christmasy top for my first signing of my Christmas Wishes book. There’s poinsettias around the house, and we put up some Christmas lights. (We’re trying to hold off on some of the bigger stuff.)

I know some people are like, wait, what about Thanksgiving? How can you possibly kick off the Christmas season when you haven’t yet celebrated Thanksgiving? Well, let me confess a few things. I should love T-day, my family’s got serious ties to it (I’ll blog about that on my blog tomorrow) but I’m not that crazy about it. I just don’t really like the food. I can eat turkey, but only on a sandwich. So really, it gets carved and I throw it on some bread to get it down. Then there’s mashed potatoes: hate them! Think they’re mushy and gross. Sure, the massive family gathering part is somewhat fun. Usually lots of football and beer. But then someone botches the laid back mood with a bitchy comment about the lumpy gravy.

So really, I’m not here to harp on Thanksgiving. I just want it to be over, so I can celebrate… THE BIGGEST SHOPPING DAY OF THE YEAR! The official kick off to the Christmas season. Yes, I’m talking all those sales at the ass crack of dawn on Friday morning. Love them! And the lighting ceremonies that happen in various cities. The day where it’s okay to come out of the Christmas celebrating closet.

So how about you? Are you one of those people who refuse to acknowledge the Christmas music in the mall until December? Or are you like me…one of the nutty ones who’d like to kick of the season the day after Halloween?

I got stranded in the Nevada desert for over 2 hours on Friday night. Remarkably, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Crazy, right? I won’t go into details because I fully intend to use these experiences (and exaggerate them like mad) and use them in my Valentine’s Day story Big Girls Don’t Die.

So, today I want to talk about using real life drama in books. In this case, I’ll talk specifically about paranormal or fantasy romance. Now these books would seem way outside the realm of real life experience, right? (For those of you who are real witches, ghosts, vamps or other paranormal creatures: turn back now, this does not apply to you)

They (the mysterious, powerful, all-knowing they) say that authors should write what they know, and for the most part I agree. The good news is, we already know just about everything we need to know. In any genre, the book is often about the people, the emotions. Everyone I know, no mattter how Pollyanna-meets-June-Cleaver their lifestyle has experienced pain, loss, joy, grief, love, understanding, triumph, defeat, etc. The idea in paranormal is to twist those emotions (i.e. what we know) into the crazy characters and wild situations for our paranormal stories. In the end, I think readers want a story and people they can relate to, no matter if they have fangs or wings or can talk to dieties.

What did I ask myself while I was stranded in the desert? How would a snarky vampire react if she were in my situation and as pissed off about it as I am now? And away that story went. Hey, I was stuck in the desert. I had to entertain myself somehow.

So, how do you use real life experience in your books? Do you like to know things are from the author’s experience while you’re reading?

I have been a busy bee today with beauty shop appointments for me and the girls, a birthday party, a purse party, and a party party, so this post is coming in way waaaay late as midnight approaches. But, while I was at one of these parties someone asked me a “writer” question.

Another friend of a friend has written a book and she had absolutely no clue what to do after that. She wasn’t sure if she needed to find an agent, if she wanted to self-publish or find a traditional publisher. Someone actually recommended me to her and I was like, wow…cool. Someone actually thinks (in my regular non-writing world) I know something about the field of writing and that I’m able to offer some much needed help and advice.

So, I gave her some, told her my opinions on the pros and cons of self-publishing, how to find an agent, etc. and we exchanged emails so we could keep in touch.

It was one, nice to get asked advice, and two, great for no one to look at me crazy when I tell them, yes, I’m a writer!

Hope you’re having a great weekend.