Another Friend

Well I've been focused on writing these past three days since we last talked and a lot has been accomplished. I'm trying not to blog as much, because it takes time away from more important things, but I just couldn't not share this new blog I found.

How I found it: On Writer's Digest. Anne Gallager featured an article on writer's digest called The Five Stages of Querying. Of course, I read it cause that's kind of where I am at the moment. I don't have any new queries out in the world right now because both finished MSS are in the process of getting critiqued, but by the end of the summer (hopefully) I'll be back in the boat. The article is kind of funny, considering I remember the exact moment I went though all five stages with All Falls Down, then named All That I'm Living For. Read it.

The blog: Anne Gallager is an ASPIRING AUTHOR! Just like me :) She has a very optimistic view when it comes to writing and I envy her for it. Writing is hard some days and easy the others, but she keeps her amazing attitude throughout the blog. If you're new to the business, like me, check out her blog here. I'll be adding it to my "for writers" page. Plus you won't believe how many manuscripts she's working on.

Demon Angel by Meljean Brook

Lilith, a demon, has spent 2,000 years tempting men and guaranteeing their eventual damnation. That is, until she meets her greatest temptation: the man whose life mission has been to kill her.

I read this book for my own paranormal romance research, and while I was able to get a clear sense of the world these two are apart of, the novel in itself is very confusing. I'm not sure I will even keep it for my personal library.

Days Five, Six, and Seven

Still going strong except for one thing. I keep forgetting to take my vitamins! So hard to remember. I couldn't even remember to take birth control, but I was hoping this well-being experiment would get me to remember. No worries, I'm feeling great. No sugar = energetic me. Although I haven't been running in a week...my experiment is over, but I believe I will continue this no candy thing. I have to go back to FUSE drinks and LIFEWATER though. Plain water isn't bad, but I need flavor every once in a while.
I'm getting A LOT of writing done lately. Per the post below, you can see that I finished up my third and final novel in the Banvard series. I started ALL THREE of my next novels in my paranormal romance world. That won't last for long, but when I have an idea, I need to get it out before I lose it and I happened to have an idea for three of the next manuscripts. It's not much, just a couple pages on each. It'll be a while before I blog again. I need to focus. I'm glad you could follow me through this experience and want to say thanks to all those who forgave me for my bad moods!

Another Down

Revisions for All or Nothing are complete! Yay! I love this story. It was fun to write, fun to edit and revise and now my final product is finished. Such a good mood lifter. Now it's time to move onto the paranormal side of things.

Day Four

This no sugar thing is turning into a piece of cake. I feel SO much better. I'm not thinking about sugar at all. It's amazing, I can turn it down left and right now without temptation. Water goal is going well. I didn't really have a problem there. My creativity goal is coming along, keeping my drawing up and running. I find I like to sketch book covers. Not sure why, but all's good.

Still doing revisions on All or Nothing. Over half way through now. Getting so close! I've now added a new critic to my world and am loving her already. So many great tips coming my way for All Because of You.

I found a good article today, again for character development. See the entire article here.

1. How do you learn best? Observation? Participation? Trial and error? Rumination and cogitation? Consulting experts? Writing?
2. How open are you to new ideas and information? Do you change your mind frequently, based on what people have told you? Are you a traditionalist, deciding on the basis of what’s always been?
3. When you walk into a party, what do you notice first? The mood? The people? The decorations? The things that need to be fixed? The background music? The food on the buffet table? Whether or not you fit in?
4. Is one sense more highly developed than another? For instance, do you tend to take in the world primarily through vision? (“I’ll believe that when I see it!”) Or are you more auditory? Do you determine if a person is lying by the tone of voice? What about the sixth sense—intuition? How often do you rely on your “gut” and then have your feelings confirmed?
5. Do you usually notice problems around you? What is your response? Do you write an angry letter to the editor? Shrug and move on? Analyze what’s wrong and how to fix it? Take it as evidence that the world is falling apart? What about problems within yourself?
6. Would you say you are an optimist or a pessimist? Would your friends agree?
7. Are you more interested in the past, the future or living in the now? Are you one to keep holiday traditions? If you had to move tomorrow, how long would it take you to make new friends?
8. How do you decide if you can trust someone? By experience with this person? First impressions? Intuition? Do you test the person somehow? Or are you just generally disposed to trust or not to trust?
9. Are you a deliberate, careful speaker, or do you talk without thinking first? Do you use slang, or do you use diction your old English teacher would approve?

Day Two

Today was a little bit easier on me. First off, I wasn't trying to get through my day with chocolate, my day had me by the hair and was pulling me through. I didn't think about candy at all! Better that way. Second, I got into my creativity goal during downtime at work. I started sketching again. I wasn't sure what to draw, but there happen to be one of the books I'm reading next to me and I decided to sketch the cover. The scan didn't turn out too well so I'll have to do another one tomorrow to show you guys.

But since this is a writer's blog, I will update you on my progress in the writing world. So far revisions are going well for All or Nothing. I realized the reason I only made it to chapter 3 the first time around was there was so much to be fixed! This past couple of days, I hunkered down and rewrote nearly all of chapter 1 and edited up to chapter 5. Today was my goal of finishing revisions, but that's obviously not happening. This weekend is my new goal, and since it's a three day weekend, more time = better writing. Research is still being conducted for My Demon of Life and when I say research, I mean paranormal romance books that are written in the same type of world as mine. I've read A LOT of paranormal romance, but have never written one and I want my new world to be believable. Studying others work will help some, but in the end, it all comes down to my imagination.

Day One

Kill me now. Apparently, the way I've been getting through my days is by eating sugar throughout the day. Well, NOT TODAY! I haven't had a single gram of candy today and I swear I might kill someone! My husband probably hates me. I'm so tired, even after taking my B12 vitamins, but I'm determined to stick to my goal. I need to get my body clean or I'm going keep feeling crappy. I'm hoping tomorrow will be easier.

Creativity and Well-Being Experiment

Welcome to my experiment. For the past month, I've felt slow, heavy and uninspired. My solution: get all these negative feelings and toxins out of my body. How I'm going to do it:

1. Water only. And plenty of it. I don't drink soda or even carbonated water. I cut that out last February when I was trying to lose weight and it's just kind of stuck. Mostly it's lemonade or Gatorade, Lifewater, etc. I drink about 72 ounces of fluid everyday, but only about 48 ounces of that is plain good-ol' water. Well, now it's time to cut out all those synthetic flavorings and stick with H2O.

2. No sugar. I'm in LOVE with M&M's and I tend to eat at least (2) 2lb. bags a week. Yes, that's a lot. Now you know why I run so much. I love the taste, but not the after effects. I feel slow and, with the help of my hypoglycemia, crappy after I eat sugar. But I keep doing it! No more. I refuse to feel like this any longer. I'm writing this after I just finished a bag of M&M's.

3. Daily meditation. Not only does my body feel slow, so does my mind. It needs a rest every once in a while from work and writing. My goal is to dedicate at least 10 minutes a day just to my mind. This little tidbit came from GOOP, my new favorite blog.

4. Daily vitamins. I have cronic fatique and no one can figure out why. Therefore, I try to take B12, but forget most of the time. I also don't eat dairy. It's gross, I don't like it, and I refuse to put it in my mouth. I SHOULD be taking a calcium supplement or at least a multi-vitamin. I don't. Time to fix that. Vitamin D is also pretty important for prevention of cancer, bone strength and more. 15 minutes a day in the sun is all you need and since I live in Vegas, that shouldn't be hard to come by.

5. Find another artistic hobby. I write. I love to write, but there has to be SOMETHING else out there that will get my creative juices going. Answer: drawing. I'm good at it, I like it, I just haven't done it in a while. I'm not one of those painter types. Just give me a pencil, a piece of paper and an object and away I go. I do stills and am not very good at portraits, but you never know. Maybe something good will come of practicing.

I'm going to keep a daily update of my progress, my reactions, my new feelings and creative juices for the next week. Hope you can follow along and take something away from it!

Where's My Inspiration?

As many of you know, I'm a very active person. I rock climb (my one real hobby), I snowboard, I run like mad because I eat a lot of M&Ms and will try anything to get my adrenaline rush. During these periods of activity, I write. In my head. I've been running for about two years now, starting out just to lose weight, but after I managed to reach my goal it's become peaceful. You're probably wondering, "What the hell is she talking about? Peaceful?" Yes. After so much hard work building up my endurance, I've finally reached the point where I can just run and not think about it. So now I think about my writing. But occasionally that doesn't work. For instance, moving to a different elevation. That changes everything I've worked for over the past two years. Bummer. So now that I'm thinking about running again, while running mind you, I have to turn to other sources of creativity. GOOP by Gwyneth Paltrow for example. I've taken the advice of my friend, Cardin McKinney, and have started work on getting as immersed in creativity as much as I can. It's a very cleansing feeling. Something I can get motivated by. Something I can focus on during running...
What is your inspiration? What do you do to keep yourself motivated? What's your creative pleasure?

Starting Again

Well, I finally printed out All or Nothing and am starting on revisions all over again. I'm hoping within the next week I'll have a huge portion revised so I can finish up my research for my new novel, My Demon of Life.