Burrr!!!!!

Well the snow missed up in central Georgia last night. But we did get an arctic blast. It’s 29 degrees on my thermometer this morning. It was definitely a brisk walk to my office this morning.

It’s one of those mornings when I’d love to stay curled up by the fire either writing or reading. But it’s that time of year for us accountants. I have five hundred things to complete before the IRS releases us at the starting line. 

Hope everyone has a great Friday. By the way, yes it’s Friday and my son is out of school Monday for the MLK Holiday, so we will be sleeping in. Looking forward to a 3 day weekend, well somewhat of one. I don’t have the luxury of taking the whole day off Monday. I might lounge around in my pjs a little longer than normal Monday 🙂

As always, good writing and May God bless you!

Life: You’re the Author

In life we write our own stories. We determine how our life goes. God created us, but he gave us life choices. How do we choose? Which road do we go down? Is grass and dirt starting to take over your road?

In life we make the decisions that take us to the next part. Decisions we make mark the future for us. If you decide to drink and drive you’re deciding your life book could end on the drive home. If you decide not to take the job offer and then find out there’s nothing else available, then you made that decision to stay unemployed. (Sometimes that’s the best road to take.)

As an author I’ve thought about the life I’m writing for myself. Do I want to get to the end of my life and look back only to wonder what I accomplished? No, I believe in taking the bull by the horns and stepping out on faith. It’s just like a review on a book. Do you give your life a 5 star rating or does it fall flat at 1 or less?

Think of your life as a book you’re going to sell. Would you want to read about your life? Have you done anything remotely special? We all have moments in our life that are spectacular. Those moments can include marriage, the birth of your child, and vacations. But what about the in between moments. 

My challenge to you is to live life. Experience the moment. Don’t let life come to a close without enjoying what God has given you. Go ahead, write the great american novel, or try to. At least you can say I tried. Don’t come to the end and say I wish I would have…

As always good writing and May God bless you in all you decide to do in life. Remember to keep Him in your life and all will go well. 🙂

Losing a character…

I wonder sometimes why I write when I’m tired. I sit and stare at the screen and totally draw a blank. Sometimes I’m sitting in my accounting office and get the urge to write a paragraph or two but have no time. I quickly jot down the idea and go back to work.

Have you ever forgot your main characters name? Did you wonder why? While working on my latest manuscript I noticed something wrong when I started editing. I had to laugh because it was so ridiculous. Or was it? I had a child named Chance, which was to be after the father, but somewhere in the middle I started typing Chase and it stuck. Boy that was a fun edit. I could have did a find all entries for Chase and replace, but I learned a really hard lesson about hitting that replace all button. 😦

I have started putting a legal pad beside me when I write. As I introduce new characters I write down a short bio on that character and keep it beside me. That way I don’t spend half my precious writing time looking back for a characters name, hair color, or age.

My editor laughed while reading one of my manuscripts. She said ‘I thought your main character had blonde hair’. She smiled and made a note to change that entry. I just groaned and watched her grin. She knows me well. 

I have a horror of missing one of these details in my final read through. What if I publish a piece with a critical character flaw? Oh well, I guess that’s why I have an editor to look after me. I definitely need it. 🙂 If you’ve encountered this problem, try the legal pad bio system. So far it’s worked for me. ◊

As always, good writing and May God Bless.

Weighing the options…

Ok, so most of you are writers and have dealt with the issue I’m going to discuss, but those that haven’t here goes. This all started back in May of last year when I decided to publish the manuscripts I’d worked on for many, many years. I thought, hey, why not, their not making money sitting in a box gathering dust and fading ink. 

It all started so simple, I published on Amazon and went through the KDP Select program. Don’t know if you’ve tried that, but I was glad when my 3 month sentence was up. Amazon is great, I just didn’t care to have all my eggs in one basket so to speak. I then started publishing other books and gathering information on where I could self publish. 

Then I started the fun task of putting my name out there on any and all social media mediums. Boy was that a hoot. Me, country girl, simple accountant on Twitter, LinkedIn, and finally, yes can I say it, the dreaded Facebook page. Funny how publishing a book or six can change your life. 🙂

Well, the calls started coming in about October from different publishing companies. At first I’m thinking yeah, someone noticed me. Then I realized they weren’t in it for me, but for them. Well not all of them, but you get the picture. They were praising my work and saying we need you to publish under our name. Well, being an accountant, my analytical brain kicked it, “What’s the catch?” They usually laugh and say ‘Oh there’s no catch’. Funny how 2 to 3 thousand dollars is no catch to them, but to me that’s a whopper. They usually wanted to charge thousands of dollars to do the same exact thing I’ve been doing for a lot less and most of the times free. Not happening.

I then talked to some smaller publishers that said they would just take a cut of the royalties. Now we’re talking my language. But, who do you go with. I’ve researched the ones that have called me and some of the one’s other authors I know used. It’s a hard decision. Do I give my baby to just anybody? Will they protect it and not change it to where I don’t even recognize my own work? What now?

For me the decision is to put one of my works with a publisher and see how it goes. I don’t know if it will go well or not, but we will see. I will keep you guys updated on the progress and the ups and downs of traditional publishing vs. self publishing. Wish me luck…

As always good writing and May God Bless you…

Seven Line Challenge

Today I’m taking up the challenge sent to me by my friend Rosie Amber.

This is your mission; Go to line 7 on page 7 or page 77 of your manuscript and do a post with the next 7 lines. Tag 7 more people to keep the challenge going!

Here is 7 lines from the upcoming book “Rekindled Flame”, the 2nd in the series, “Flames of Love”.

“It’s up to you. I think I’ll go back to bed.” She walked down the hall and climbed into the bed.

A dog barked somewhere in the distance and woke him out of his memory fog. He cranked his truck and headed to Sara’s for dinner.

When he drove up at her house he smiled. This old house had always been so inviting. Their parent’s had been killed in a car wreck not long after she married Wes. It’d been horrible. She’d lost Zane and then their parent’s.

She walked out on the porch. She arched one eyebrow at his attire. “Well I take it you went to the

Have fun with this challenge!

Melissa R. Smith

Joanne Wadsworth

Jennifer Eaton

Paula Acton

Sean Macuisdin

Candace Knoebel

Felicia Myers

IMPORTANT…

Jennifer M Eaton's avatarJennifer M Eaton

Okay well, you knew I would do this… because it’s me… and if I have to go through this EVERYONE else should too.

Seriously… I’m wired as a teacher, and I figure if I can teach a few people about skin cancer and help a few people to NOT go through what I am going through, then this is all worth while.

First of all, thanks so much for the well-wishes and prayers.  I felt them.  Really, I did.

I had to go through two rounds of surgery on Thursday, and it took almost four hours.  Thank goodness it was nowhere as bad as last time.  (I didn’t pass out on the table)  Thank you Doctor P. for letting me have my Kindle!  I played a high-speed word game to keep my mind off what was happening. It did the trick!

I am giving permission to everyone to Twit and…

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Looking back, going forward…

I started a rather large project this weekend. I have a cabinet where I keep all of my photos. I have some in photo albums, but 100’s are not in albums yet. I decided Friday night to organize them and put in the remaining albums. 

It’s been a long while since I’ve actually looked at the photos. Usually I only open the cabinet to put more in. Well, being the sentimental person I am, I have laughed, cried and become thankful for all I’ve seen and done. I sat with my son and we looked through his lifetime of pictures. When he was small I took pictures of everything he did. He actually looked at me a couple of times like ‘really mom’. 

It’s funny what you take pictures of. I saw pictures of my dad, he’s been gone since June 2006. That brought tears to my eyes. It was nice to see him though. My son was quiet looking at his granddaddy. He was really close to him. I told him it is nice to have these memories printed for us to share. He only nodded and held the pictures closely.

Going through the emotional side of the pictures made me think about things for the future. We take so much for granted in out lives. There are so many from those photos not with us anymore. With my faith I know I will see them again some day, but at least I have their pictures to remind me of the love and happiness we shared.

As we go forward, let’s try to remember to live as though there is no tomorrow and love as though today is our last.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you.