Friday’s Ramblings…

Good Friday morning! Yay… It’s finally Friday!

So, we’ve worked all week to get to this day, but what are we planning? Why might I ask? Well, someone made a good point the other day and I’ve taken it to heart. They said that we look forward to the weekend, but why if we just do more work and don’t get in a little fun time? It made me think…

On Saturday morning, I spend the morning cleaning my house but wouldn’t it be nice if I incorporated the cleaning into my weekday mornings so that on Saturday morning I could, let’s say, write… So, with that in mind, I made a list of my cleaning duties and have separated them by the weekdays. With it separated it actually makes for less time each day. Then I can spend my Saturday mornings doing something fun. Oh, and don’t forget to spend some time with your family, it’s important for our mental health.

So, what about you? How can you make your weekends more fun and relaxing? Writing perhaps?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Cleaning up a mess…

Have you ever started an edit on your manuscript and wondered what happened? It’s the weirdest thing when you’re writing it sounds good and then you start to edit and wonder who wrote it. You know it’s happened to you before. I sometimes think that maybe I write in my sleep. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it…

I was working on one of my WIP and got a little sidetracked, well maybe a lot sidetracked. I couldn’t seem to keep the story in my head. So, I decided to do a read through. I reached a section that I know I wrote several nights ago and I was really tired that night. Well, it was going well and all of a sudden it was like, What? I laughed out loud at my own mistakes. Several words were not even recognizable and some of the sentences were just plain out horrible. They didn’t make sense and a couple of times I just drifted off into lala land.

Well, to say the least, I spent a lot of time rewriting and I’m glad I did. While cleaning up the mess I made I actually had a ah ha moment and changed a whole scene in the middle of the book. It flows so much better and I’m happy with it. It makes the ending seem so much clearer. Funny how our clean up edits can bring about a whole new outlook on a story.

So, as I sit here writing this cold Saturday morning, I hope all of you are writing or doing something you enjoy. It’s Saturday. Give yourself a break and enjoy yourself.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Good morning after…

Well, all’s said and done on this Christmas season. The gifts are opened and the food consumed (Sighing heavily)… As I walked into my den this morning I groaned. I was met with the mess that I ignored last night. It looks like Rudolph and all his reindeer trampled through my den and did the two step.

I quietly poured a cup of coffee and waded through the empty gift bags, wadded up wrapping paper, Christmas balls and sat down. Sighing I took a long sip of coffee and clicked the heating pad on for my back. It’s over. The hustle and bustle of Christmas is behind us. Now for the clean up and return lines. Yeah, did I mention I didn’t read my sons new wireless controller for his game system. I bought the wrong one. I’m not game savvy ok…

Now’s time to get things in order and get back to work on my manuscripts. Especially since I have one with a deadline of January and two February. YIKES!!! So much for resting til New Year’s. HEHEHEHEHEHE…

What’s your plans for the next couple of days? Are you writing, cleaning, or a combo of both? I’ll be doing both as I ponder the new year. I wonder what the new year will hold for my writing career. I have some plans for submitting a couple of manuscripts to Avon. We’ll see how that goes.

Last week I was surprised by a wonderfully sweet card from a reader who received one of the giveaways in December. She was very appreciative and said she couldn’t wait for the rest of the Saga to come out. Of course I’m talking about the giveaway of “Victoria”. The next book will be coming out in the Spring, so keep an eye out for updates.

I do hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Early Saturday musings…

Well it’s Saturday morning and I’m up. I had planned on sleeping in this morning, but my body refuses to sleep past six and the characters in my mind speak loudly.

As I sip on my coffee and ponder the days activities I wonder. What do I wonder about? Well, I wonder what would happen if I put the manuscripts that need to be finished aside and start a totally new one that’s plaguing my mind? Why is it when a writer has a manuscript deadline, there’s always another story getting in the way.

I’m going to push the new storyline aside until at least one of my manuscripts is finished. Of course I will feed the musing with a quick outline to make sure the storyline stays fresh inmy mind. Hopefully that will make the musing step aside for a little while at least.

What are you up to this Saturday? Something wonder filled or maybe a house cleaning, or possibly working on your beloved manuscript? As for me I’ll be doing a little of both. My house needs a good scrubbing and my manuscript screams for attention, so I’ll work on both.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Cleaning out and clearing the mind…

Now that tax season is mostly over, I’m consumed with cleaning my office. Of course I have a lot of filing to do and general cleaning. My office literally looks like a storm blew through and that’s being nice 🙂

When I do a thorough cleaning it always makes me think clearer. As I clean and listen to songs on Pandora I think of the manuscripts that have been crying out for attention for a couple of months. Things pop up in my head and I keep my trusty notebook handy for just that reason. As I listen to songs they give me a feeling of nostalgia over the past year. I’m coming up on the anniversary of my first books publishing. It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole year almost.

I’m excited about having the time to write now. It’s high time I finish my works in progress and clear out my mind for new projects. So if you’re having writers block or feel overwhelmed, then clean out an area that has been haunting you for a while. See if it doesn’t give you a clearer head. Just seeing the top of my desk makes me smile 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Boy it feels good to be back 🙂

While looking through the attic…

Saturday afternoon I ventured into my attic which is taking your life in your own hands. I’m, how would you say it, a pack rat. I confess, it’s a thing I inherited. When I was younger I had a book issue. I’d buy books everywhere I went. Needles to say I have a lot of books. Yes actual physical books. You remember those right?

I noticed that the pasteboard boxes that contained my books were looking a little worse for wear. So I had some extra plastic bins so I decided to take on the task of going through my books and putting them neatly in the bins. It was like a journey through my history. I laughed as I went through the different types of romance genres I’ve gone through in my 44 years. I love history, so I went through a rather lengthy historical romance stage. Everything I bought was a historical romance.

There are a couple of books that I hold close to my heart and have been known to reread several times. One of those was a book named “Violet Fire” by Jo Goodman that was published around 1987. It’s an awesome romance. It’s actually the second copy of that book I’ve owned. The first one I let an old family member borrow it. She passed away not long after that and the book never resurfaced. Not sure what happened there. I was lucky to find a copy a couple of years later in a second hand book store. You would have thought I’d found the Ark of the Covenant. I squealed and danced. Needless to say I was happy.

Well, I thought I’d lost it again as I couldn’t find it a couple years ago when I wanted to read it again. I thought I was just destined to not get to read it again. I picked up one of the boxes at the bottom of the stack and guess what, there it was with a couple of other books I thought I’d lost. I let out a whoop and my son came to the bottom of the attic steps. I assured him that I was fine and did a little silent dance. I’ve read every small moment I had. Funny how your hand cramps when trying to hold an actual book. I love it… My Kindle feels a little left out, but it will get some loving real soon.

It’s crazy how you find a book that you love and you just have to read it every once in a while. If you ever find this book on Amazon or in a book store I suggest reading it. It’s rather lengthy, but really good. I like Jo Goodman’s writing and this is one of my favorites.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you!

Testing and Undecorating…What a Saturday!

Well, I spent my morning taking the decorations down from every corner of the house. It was sad to see it all go. I love Christmas and every aspect of it. The Christmas tree just lights up the room. As I took each ornament off the tree I smiled. Especially the ones my son Hunter has made over his 13 years of life.

It was then that I looked at the mangled boxes littering my living room floor and I sighed. Well, it’s over and I’ve got to get this mess up before I go nuts. So I pushed forward and managed in a couple of hours to have everything packed in boxes and put into the attic. I looked at my clean house after much vacuuming and dusting. Amazing how dusty everything gets when it’s covered with Christmas things. Even the artificial tree had shed all over the carpet. Go figure…

Well on to other less exciting things. Since I’m an Accountant I have to meet my requirements set forth by the IRS. This year they set forth new testing deadlines late in the year. I have to complete 15 credit hours of testing before the end of 2012. I spent a good part of Friday and today finishing that up. Wow, I had forgot how much I hate taking tests. Especially tests on Tax law and regulations, many of which I will never have to deal with.

Needless to say I’ve had to push my writing aside for a couple of days, but no worry. I’m back in the groove and ready to finish the novel that was supposed to be finished over a week ago. Yeah I know, get with the program Stephanie. Well, hopefully everything will come together tonight and Monday morning my editor will have it out and ready to go. Fingers cross 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You!