The Lure of School Supplies

Most of our children will be back in school this week if they aren't already.  My kids are long past the school age stage.  My youngest graduated from college last year and I think if he has to write another paper or read another book, he'd scream.  I myself get a little surge of glee when I see the new school supplies come out in the stores.  Just the feel of a new notebook or unblemished folder make my fingers yearn for a colorful pen between my thumb and pointer finger.

It's not the only thing that gets my heart to pumping.  The start of the school year always meant a new start for me with new projects.  Although my kids sometimes drove me crazy all summer, it was never about having the house to myself for a few hours.  No, for me it was more about a new start and new goals to accomplish.

Even though I don't have school supplies to buy for my kids, I still buy them.  It's the best time for sales and as a writer I need paper, pens, and such.  Maybe it's an excuse, but it works for me.  I normally write out my story in a notebook first.  A shiny colorful notebook tells me there is a story to be told.

Labor Day weekend also is a sign for me to get organized.  When kids start school, a schedule is needed for both your child's sanity and your own.  I vow every year to organize everything from the house to my writing.  Nothing bugs me more than wasted time trying to locate something in my home.  Then the holidays hit and everything goes out the window.  Still, this Labor Day I promised myself I will get organized before the end of the year.  This will be the year to do it.  Ask me come November how it's going for me.

The projects I plan to accomplish are getting my second book edited for my Love In Surplus series with Desert Breeze Publishing and turn it in before the deadline.  I will start the third and organize my thoughts for a new novel that has been buzzing around in my head.  I'll master the social media field and give back to my fellow writers.  This fall I'll reap my rewards from my finished projects instead of not finishing them.

Does back to school time give you a new lease on life?  Do you plan for a fresh start?  What new projects do you have on the horizon?

Learning to Dance

A few months ago we went to a dance program.  The people in this program range for tiny tots to adults.  The auditorium was filled to the brim.  What amazed me is how brave they were.  They danced in sync from Irish dancing to ballet to jazz to stomp.  With every precise step they carried a smile and appeared to be having a wonderful time.  Together they worked as a team.  Only one of them was my child but I couldn't have been more proud or in awe of the whole group.

My son concentrating while doing the stomp 

As I sat through the three hours of performances, I couldn't help but think how I could learn from each and every one of them.  As adults we tend to worry more of what others will think of us.  What status we have in the world.  What others have.  Yet these children had the guts to get up on stage and preform knowing they could fall or miss a step. 

Even my twenty-six year old son was on stage for the stomp version.  He got roped into it because his friend owns the dance studio and when he got married my son wouldn't dance.  At the wedding he didn't have the confidence to preform and basically act goofy in front of the wedding guests.  On this day he performed with a group and did quite well.  He also had a lot of fun.  It took months of training but he put himself out there and survived.  Turns out he doesn’t have two left feet after all if it's the right kind of dance.

If we step out of the box every once in a while, we may have a little fun and learn to let go no matter what anyone else may think of us.  Every once in a while we should celebrate life and leave the worries of not matching up behind.  We my even discover we have a talent for something we didn't know we had.  My son may not be a famous dancer, but he learned he had to try or he'd never know.  What will you do today and in the future to put yourself out there while learning your own dance in life?

Free Promo Wednesday-Share Your Log Line

The last promo went so well, I'm going to do it again today.  For this one you may post a log line of any of your books.  You can also post one buy link if you so choose. 

Winter Harvest is the first in my Love in Surplus series due out November 21, 2012 with Desert Breeze Publishing.  Here is it's log line.

A surprise kiss shared with Victoria O'Connor awakens Traye Petersen's desire but destroys his honorable intentions to never touch the bosses daughter.

Please leave yours below and be sure to tell everyone to stop by to get some exposure for your books.

The Olympics And Discipline

We all have been engrossed in the Olympics these last two weeks.  Amazing athletes and heroes hold our attention for hours.  They give us something or someone to root for.  I think of all the hard work they've done in their lives to get to this point to either be rewarded or disappointed.

I myself love the gymnastics.  The steadiness they used to remain on the beam as they do their jumps. How they circle around the uneven bars, fascinates me.  My favorite is the floor exercise mixing their athletic ability with grace.  Or the speed they must use to do their flips in the air and land steady on their feet. They hold a lot of guts and confidence.  The discipline they obtain to become the best and an Olympic gold winner consumes their whole life. 

We all have to have some discipline in our lives.  The level of discipline depends what is important to us.  Sometimes it'd be easier to let things go.  As writers we have to discipline ourselves with our time using every minute in a productive way.  I work a full-time job that can be a mental drain but I come home and do my second job of writing.  I'm not alone. There are many people out there doing whatever they can for a dream or to just get by.

Watching these Olympians gives me hope our dreams can come true.  They show us what hard work can do for us.  We watch because it gives us something or someone to root for in a world full of turmoil. For a while everything makes sense.

What sport is your favorite in the Olympics?  

Fate or Life?

Do you believe in fate?

Do you believe we control our lives or are our lives all planned out from the day we were born?  Do you sit around waiting for life to happen or do you take charge and make it happen.  I'm not sure what I believe.  As a romance writer I must believe in fate somewhat or I wouldn't be able to write the tale of a happy ending. 

It seems as if life sometimes just happens.  When it does, it is best to look at it as a good thing or it will tear you down.  One time my son asked me how I was able to go on when bad things keep happening to us.  I told him I really didn't know but everything always worked out.  It may not be the way you planned or vision it, but it always does.

Our lives can always be worse than what they are and we think we can't go on.  Sometimes I want to curl up and let life take me down, but for some reason I never do.  I put one foot in front of the other and because somewhere in the world, there is always someone else having it worse.  I may not do it gracefully but I do it.

How do you get by and keep going?  Share with us and maybe we all can find the will to go on when it appears it's not going to get any better. 

Promo Wednesday

We all need a little help in this world.  I would like to give this opportunity to writers new and established to promote either their work in progress or an already published book.  This is a new blog so there aren't many followers as of yet.  However in time, I hope to build a following.  For this Wednesday promo please leave a paragraph or sentence from page twenty-five. If you are not a writer but are reading something, you can also play by doing the same with the book you are reading.  Leave the name of the book and the author.  Please no erotic.

I will start it out with a paragraph from my book Guilty Hearts published with Desert Breeze Publishing.  Enjoy.

Dee's stomach did back flips, and she wished she'd never agreed to any of this. Since she
had, she needed to show all of them Matt didn't get under her skin. There was something about
Sandra that Dee couldn't put her finger on. Maybe she read it wrong. Otherwise, how would
Cody have turned out so well-behaved? Nate appeared quiet, as he let Sandra control the
conversation, while Matt teased the boys. It surprised Dee how well Matt handled the preteens.
She didn't remember him to be the type, or maybe he always was and she'd forgotten. After all,
wasn't he always the one to keep the peace between her and Steve? Dee watched him through
hooded eyes, while Matt appeared to ignore her. Was he slighting her? It made her edgy. She
didn't want to feel like this, but couldn't think of how to stop. Lori, her sister, insisted she still
had a thing for Matt, and those feelings hadn't died, or else she'd be married already. Dee didn't
know what to believe anymore. What she did know was seeing how he treated Cody and Jared
brought her a sense of peace. Whatever happened between them didn't appear to affect the way
he treated her son. If she could trust him to stick around for the two of them, she'd accept him
back with open arms. No matter how much she denied it, the resolve to keep him out of her heart
had weakened.

The Inner Critic

Like a lot of people, I have a voice in my head critiquing everything I do.  For writers the voice is sometimes  furious in telling us we don't match up, we write crap.  It's a constant battle to put the fingers to the keyboard and block out this voice.  If you try to ignore it, it gets louder and louder until you have to beat it down.

Even if you are not a writer, there may times when the annoying whinny voice is shouting at you.  I follow a blog by Kristen Lamb.  One of her blogs is to step out of your comfort zone.  She states if you feel uncomfortable, you are heading in the right direction.  We must be headed in the right direction when our inner critic is screaming in our ears.  If we are only hearing silence we might be too comfortable and need to change directions.

Embrace your inner critic but don't let it rule you.  When I get that tightening in my stomach, I tell myself to keep going.  Someday it will lead us to great things. If nothing else I'll end up with a finish product to submit to my editor.

What is your inner critic telling you?  Do you keep it quiet or do you let it push you forward?