A Midwest Experience

Come one, come all! Storymakers Midwest is calling!

Storymakers is a one day event of fabulous writers and amazing information gifting to the brains of all us anxious conference attendees.

We hover like bees on a summer day ready go class to class, gathering all the info we can till our brains are so heavy with information we can hardly move. Then we set it all down in our lovely notebooks and take to the sky!

The best part is not a one of the other attendees will sting you!

It's either that or the networking with authors who have been throw the same wringer we're currently running ourselves through. Or the class options that seem to fit every level of writer and energize you to set off into that great honeycomb of book theories in your head, finally able to make sense of the glory that awaits the potential of that one special idea.

I think i need to get outside.

Perhaps at Storymakers!

This was most of the group last year! I really can't say enough about how great these authors are!

Details -

Date: Saturday, September 21st, 2013

Time: 8 am – 9 pm

Location: Holiday Inn in Overland Park, KS

So excited! The conference is only $105 dollars and my return was definitely worth the value! 

It's kinda like EFY for writers and only a day long, so, you get to go home and see your favorite cheerleaders sooner than later!

I say story, you say makers!

Story!

(makers)

Story!

(makers)

Yay! Rah, rah, sis boom bah!

OK now I'm just slipping into a sad little glory days moment only I never was a cheerleader. 

It's my Uncle Rico moment.

Oh and so you know, here's a link to the classes, and one for the registration and speaker's list as well!

I Love a Challenge!

While I was at the lake having my lovely vacation my phone had a rare moment of internet connectivity and I checked my email. Hmm, isn't that a strange thing to do. 

Well, I got a message that the lovely Tristi Pinkston was hosting another of Tristi's challenges!

Woohoo!

Well, I was excited see that email. I had signed up for one before, and then completely lost the site, I couldn't remember my goals, and it was just a complete bust!
This time I was determined to accomplish something and use this challenge to really do what I've been telling myself for the last year+ that I can.

So I signed up, bookmarked the page, and have been writing like a crazy girl, checking in and freaking out every time I hit another word count that I never thought I would make it to.

You know, I learned to speak positively to myself a long time ago, but telling myself something and really believing it is different, and a little tricky.
Now I can see it happening, and by golly I am eating that elephant, one bite at a time! Or in this guys case a giant strawberry larger than half your body, either way, it's goin' down baby!

My goals were to write 1,500 words 5 days a week with a total of 7,500 a week. So, far I've kept up or at least managed to catch up for each weeks goals and last week I hit 40,000 words! 

This week I've made it past 50,000!

I'm so excited!!!

I know it's only a first draft but this is my first first draft that's actually getting completed! And I'm freaking excited! I've already got plans for my first round of edits but I'm holding off till my last few chapters are written and I can officially say, "Why yes, of course I've written a book."

A Lake Of Inspiration

I get to spend the 4th of July here. 

Swimming.

Sleeping. 

Boating.
Loving my kiddos.

Hangin' with the cousins. 

Writing...

What could be better?

P.S. Yes that pic was taken tonight as I stared at the amazing sky and water, and sure you can come by anytime!

Scales of Goodness

My friend just posted a review scale that I love.
It's like the breath of heaven for my crazy stressed out brain!

Charity Bradford has a review up that I thouroughly love and at the bottom she rates it then gives a rating scale definition. 

Aaaaah!

The clouds part, angels sing, and golden light is shines down to bless us all!

Yes there's been a scale in my head but there's one in your's and your's and in that guys head over there too. So how do you know what my scale looks like. Well now it's written down and you can see it. Thank you everyone and thank you Charity. 

It's one of those why didn't I think of that moments. 

This is an insecure Writers post because that moment of posting a number to a review has always freaked me out. I want good numbers, they want good numbers. Please dear Father! Bless my fingers as they click the right ones! Now, at least, I get to explain myself :)

Here's the lovely scale I speak of -

1-5 scale and what it means:
1: I couldn’t even finish it / just plain bad
2: I hope I didn’t pay for this / disappointing
3:  I didn’t hate it, but it was still missing something / forgettable but inoffensive
3.5: On the line between good and ok / like, not love
4: Solid mind candy / worth reading
4.5: So very close to perfection! / must read
5: I could not put it down and I’m still thinking about it! / a true treasure

Fine I'll Read Another Book

So I love reading. Surprise :) 

My girls read and a couple have even been writing as well. (I so love this! When they read their work my chest puffs up and a batter from the world series couldn't knock the smile off my face.) 

Reading allows me to escape but writing swallows me whole. When I start writing I can't escape my story for days. My characters follow me around and every conversation inspires something. Unfortunately that inspiration can be less than focused and I usually get several new book ideas while listening to peoples own epiphanies, but, what's been strange for me, is when reading becomes work. 

I currently have a stack of books to read. Granted, much smaller than an editors, but way larger than I'm used to piling up and my rainy days are seriously lacking! So I've got to knock some of them out. Not to mention the fifteen million other things on my list such as, taxes, kid pick ups, kid drop offs, taxes (April is coming really fast this year), bills, dinner, lunch, breakfast, clean up from the previous three, etc. And, my kids like to imagine that some day I might stop and play with them! How dare they :) 

I don't know what people are talking about when they say that time flies! OK that's a lie, but how else am I supposed to justify sticking my kid in front of a video game or saying "Mommy will be down in a minute!" When I really mean a few hours, if I can escape the computer by then, and not have some other urgent to-do item come up. 

So what to do because the weather has taken a turn for the worse and I'm looking at some rainy days, and frankly I'd like to put the to-do list away, shove the stack of books behind the piano, and just write. 

The picture has no real tie to my post :) I just happen to love old bookstores, old bikes, the architecture. 

Well it looks kinda rainy, so there, I tied it in!

Remembering why I love to write

I had a great day Saturday! I attended a writers workshop in NW Arkansas! Just a one day thing but it was just what I needed!

I'm remembering how much I love to write! It brings me joy to sit down and let a story spill out onto paper! 

 Marilyn Collins gave a fantastic talk on getting the most you can from a writers conference. She had great advice on networking with editors & agents. Because of her the next thing on my list to do is to practice a 25 word pitch. Haha! I've known for awhile that I should do this, at the last writers conference I went to I remember wracking my brain for a description of what the heck I'm writing. It either came out incredibly vague or I'd watch a glazed expression that I couldn't seem to fix as I went chapter by chapter through my whole book.  It was sad. So, I've decided the 25 word pitch is for me, and for everyone!
This will not happen to me again :)

 The sisterhood of the traveling pen was a fun portion as well. They did  dramatized version of the pros and cons of large and small press publication. Can't say I completely agreed with all of it but it was lots of fun and makes you think about what you really want to do with your book.

Before the conference was over I was digging out my laptop feeling inspired all over again!  After my last conference well I'm feeling like this is a huge improvement! What's crazy is I know this has nothing to do with the actual conference but entirely to do with me and where I'm at. Last time I was overwhelmed with the information, and the knowledge that when I got home I was expected to write a book! Me?! The only time I'd ever said that before was while hiding in the closet with my laptop, trying to escape the 5 whining little people outside the door. This time the classes were excellent and I value the information I received, but this time I was ready to be inspired!

So thank you to the North West Arkansas Writers Group I loved it!

I had a lovely day Doug Kelley gave an excellent talk on research, and I just love listening to Velda Brotherton speak. Her knowledge astounds me and I'm grateful she is so willing to share! Dusty Richards did writing 101 and we all know how important the basics are. Learning them helps make the real writing so much less scary!

Over all, I had a fantastic inspiring time at a conference I will definitely be returning to!

Where Do I Hide My Inspiration?

I'm sitting on the beaches of Kauai this week. Sand on my toes, and in my swimsuit :) waves washing over my feet and pulling the sand out from under me. Sunsets and sunrises I haven't taken the time to watch in years and all my friends (who know) certain I'll get inspired by the setting and write nonstop.

Hmm, frankly, writing still feels about the same as sitting on my couch at home.

Don't get me wrong it's gorgeous and I've written more here than I have in the last month at home. I just don't think inspiration works like that.

You can't go somewhere beautiful and ask it to inspire you. You may be inspired just as easily in a damp basement, as you would on a sunny beach.

My comfy bed at home has served my inspiration purposes quite well thus far, sitting cuddled in my blankets, laptop open, with a bowl of cauliflower at my side. It makes me smile and thinking about it sighs are almost involuntary.

So I was kind of worried when I told a friend that I was going to try and write while I was here and the first words you hear are "Ooo, I hope you'll be inspired!" Nice thoughts and good wishes, but not very realistic. (I really didn't tell that many people it's just that everyone said that or a variation thereof)

My story is not based in Hawaii, though I can't help imagining my little girls running around in the surf and hanging out in the local shops and towns, so, who knows maybe someday or some point there will be some tropical settings showing up in my books, but for now I'm sitting in front of palm trees towering above me at five times my height (I swear they're huge), ocean waves crashing against rocks that and unable to keep my husband off of them (yes, dear, I do think the waves will come up and sweep me off of them), and surrounded by flowers, and vegetation you can't find anywhere else, but when I turn on my computer I'm still writing about surviving dungeons, and trolls.

It's not any easier or harder than it is at home.

I still push through, but

here I have no responsibilities and no timelines.

So, it's been amazing but the real difference is no kids. Being a stay at home mom I never get a break from my work. It's not all hard back breaking labor, unless you count carrying a huge two year old around a Walmart Supercenter because he refuses to sit in the cart but if allowed to walk he will pull everything you pass off the shelves and into your cart. It's a long and never ending job. So, to find myself with this much time where I only have to enjoy myself, is a previously unrealized treasure!

Yes, I'm still excited to get home to my kids (I always know my vacation has been long enough when I actually start missing my kids), I haven't started on some newly island inspired book, but I'm trying to take advantage of every moment here to write and relax, and vowing to find ways to continue this process in my own home. That's got to be my new trick, finding un-disturbed writing time at home :) I'm just not sure how.

That causes only a little confusion, but with my newly vacation refreshed outlook on life I'm feeling up to the challenge!