Quote of the Week

"Confidence is in preparation. Everything else is beyond your control."

Richard Kline

Quote of the Week

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems,

but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. "

Herm Albright

A Wednesday Resolution

I have come to terms with the fact that my characters are not interested in my self-imposed deadline. I don't think they want me to be finished with them just yet. I guess that's okay, it just irritates the crap out of me, but what do you do?

I'm guessing this has a great deal to do with this project being a summer book. It takes place from June to August. And it's not August yet, so I guess they don't want their summer to be over yet.

I respect that.

So I'm giving myself until the end of the summer. Just like the book's timeline.

I know I was just angsting about this yesterday, thank you so so much for all the support. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who goes through this. I just have to keep reminding myself that in the last 4 months, I've been through a lot and yet I was still able to get 50K words down for this book. That's major wordage considering...

I've decided my minor breakdown is because I'm a YA writer and mentally living as an angsty teenager. But we're good now.

I'm totally Zen.

Yeah, right.

So that's my resolution. What about you? Do you have any resolutions you want to cop to?

I've Decided

Yesterday was mostly okay, and then I was suddenly feeling very overwhelmed (by real life) and had a bit of a meltdown. But, I'm okay now. I think.

After I got home from a family birthday party last night I got to thinking about how the suck part of my day had ruined all the earlier good parts of my day. And then I decided, you know, it is only really sucking because I'm letting it. I'm letting my mood take over again. Man! Those moods, they're sneaky buggers, aren't they?

Today I've decided my mood can do whatever it pleases, as I AM going to have a good day.

On to other news, since I missed yesterday and didn't post a wip update, just an FYI on the Nano front: I'm behind. Somewhere in the 12,000 range, I think. But I've also decided, guess what? That's totally OK. I'm still writing. That's the part that counts.

And after a hug from my 4-year old, things are good. Because I've decided that so long as the important stuff's taken care of, the rest will work itself out. I'm gonna take a break and go meditate now, feeling like I need a little more Zen in my life.

Have a great Thursday!

Another Wordless Wednesday

Okay, I'm still in Baltimore for these meetings. And when I get home, I still, you know, have a real job to get caught up on too. Along with real life, and making sure my kidlets didn't forget me while I was gone.

So in an effort to try to maintain my semi-Zen-ness and try not to lose my mind trying to get more done than I possibly can in a day, I'll be a little M-I-A for a few days. Will still try to comment on other blogs where I can / when I get a chance.

See you soon!

Detours

As of 9:51 P.M. Thursday night I didn't have a blog post. I had no idea what to write about. I know I could've just skipped , but something in me wouldn't let me slack off. Not sure what it was, probably the "don't let her sleep-EVER" monster, but that is another post entirely.

So now that I've rambled my way into your Friday, let me just say TGIF! Holy cow, this felt like one of the longest weeks ever!

Okay, so this whole week I've been running with my driving / car / road construction theme. And today is no different. As I sit here and write this post I wonder about all the routes writers have taken to get to the beautiful land of the published. Did they just hop in the story car, pull out onto the road and drive on their merry way? You know, one of those boring trips where it's two points, straight line, yada, yada.

My road is not straight. Or flat. It's uphill, both ways, in the snow. . . oops, I am digressing again. In thinking about how long it has taken me to get to where I am today, I know I've hit a few detours along the way. I mean, I took a nearly 10-year break from writing! And detours aren't necessarily a bad thing. I think about all the other "stuff" I've accomplished in my life and, you know, I'm happy with it.

Writing is something I'm very passionate about. It's my vehicle to destress and leave behind a bad day, or the craziness of chasing after a preschooler and toddler. As much as I think about and worry over the process of getting published, I've decided that in the grand scheme of things, it's just another detour along my road of self-construction.

Way easier said than done.

So lay it on me, how do you feel about the road to publishing? How have you handled the stress of queries, waiting and (if you're one of the luckies!) THE CALL?

What's In The Bag??

Just something for you to think about today, as I'm (again) out of town with work. (I know you are all TOTALLY jealous I'm going to spend 2 days traveling for a 1 day meeting, but *sigh* what do ya do?)

Since I have this trip I'm currently on and another trip next week, I decided I'd clean out my purse so I could travel in a semi-Zen state, yanno, where I could find my passport at check-in and know where my wallet is and stuff. Wow, I couldn't believe the things in there. It was like a treasure chest, full of things I didn't even realize I had, a bunch of stuff I thought I'd lost and yanno, just stuff!

Maybe this is why so many of my thoughts were jumbled up and all over the place and I felt like I had writer's block on the current wip. My working notebook has to live in here! If I was my notebook, I'd be all jumbled up and easily confused too! (Not that I'm not anyway, but that's a whole other post.)

So I've decluttered and reorganized and determined what my MUST-Haves were. This is what was in my purse when I got onto the plane:

Sorry for literally dumping all that on ya, but wow, I can't tell you how much that helped clear my head.