Writers Helping Writers

I must start off by apologizing, as I have not been on to post a blog in quite some time. We had a bit of an upheaval late September with my husband having a stroke. He is just about fully recovered, but needless to say my writing was put on a hold for a bit.


With that said, I am excited about CRASHING HEARTS coming out in January. As I have been looking into different ways of promoting this, it come up time and time again how writers help writers.

I have recently just started putting together a blog tour to promote CRASHING HEARTS. In the process I have opened up my blog for guest bloggers to promote their own works. It’s an exciting process to reach out to other writers and invite them to guest on my blog. It’s open a whole new way to meet new authors.

So starting December 30th, my blog tour kicks off as a guest of Cynthia Woolf. Keep posted for other dates as they are filling in.

Join me on December 20th right here with Suzie Quint as she continues on her blog tour.

Don't Live With Regrets

My oldest daughter is now officially a resident of North Carolina. I listen to her enjoying her apartment, cooking for herself, working, going to school and I am filled with a pride that only a mother can have. She has worked through many adversaries and come out on top. She is hard working and someone I look up to.

As my other two children get ready to start high school, a junior and a freshman, I wonder where life will take them in the next few years. I see my other daughter, the junior, moving on and continuing with her education also. She is a lot like her older sister in the fact that she is driven and determined to succeed when she puts her mind to it. My son, well he is not a fan of school, I know that he will go far in his life.

I wish I had had the drive and determination for my life when I was their age. I spent my younger years not knowing what I wanted and when I did figure out what I wanted for my life, it took me years to gather the courage to finally doing it. That is when I started my journey as a writer.

Four and half short years after writing my first book, it will be released. I’m overwhelmed with emotions when I think of this release. This first book was therapeutic for me to write as, although it is fiction, a lot of emotion and obstacles that I had faced in my own life are portrayed in this book. In writing it through someone else's eyes, my heart healed and I was able to put a lot of regret behind me.

My new motto – Face life head on and don’t live with regrets. This motto I hope I can convey to my children as they pursue their life dreams whether it be as a speech/language pathologist, into forensics, playing basketball for a living, joining the Air Force or getting into the health field, my dream is for my children to pursue whatever desire they have wholeheartedly and without regret.

How many of us pursue our life desires this way? How long has it taken you to achieve something that has been a lifelong goal?

Walking For Breast Cancer

Once again my oldest daughter has undertaken the task of walking for the cure of breast cancer. Last year she walked for 3 days in Boston, MA. This year she has decided to walk it in Washington, DC.

Here is her message:

Please support me as I take an amazing journey in the fight to end breast cancer! The Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure™ is a 60-mile walk over the course of three days. Net proceeds from the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure™ are invested in breast cancer research and community programs.

I did this walk last year in Boston, MA and instantly became addicted. Every ounce of sweat and every bit of hard work is worth it! After months of fundraising, training, and hard work, it was all paid off after finishing the 60 miles! I have never felt to accomplished and doing something so great for an amazing cause! I can't wait to share this experience with my friend Brian Flowers this year in Washington DC in September! Thanks for your support.

Last year I got past my goal of $2300 and hope to pass my goal this year of $3000! Please visit my personal page, check it out, and donate!

Donate Here

Thanks in advance! :)


Every little bit helps. We have all been touched in someway by this disease whether it be family or friends.

Writer's Block

What is writer’s block? Is it truly something that happens or is it merely something we talk ourselves into believing. Writer’s block has afflicted me lately. However, the more I think about it, the more I throw aside the idea of writer’s blocker.

My thoughts are blocked from what I want to write. I have a solid plot. I have run through different scenes in my mind while I’m driving. However, when I open up my laptop my mind shuts down from what I know needs to be typed. Is that writer’s block or simply a procrastination technique?

Life gets in the way. We all know that. Not one of us lives the life that we paint in our books. I know I have used life as an excuse many times to not put the fingers to the keyboard. Life will never change – there will be stressors, crises, changes. A writer writes through them.

So for now I sit at the keyboard and if I can put all the words I want out there, I write partial thoughts. They will blossom fully as the story unfolds. The excuse of writer’s block has been banned from my vocabulary.

What about you? Do you believe in writer’s block? If so, how do you push through it?

Grandparents

I have written before about lives taking different stages. My husband and I are entering a new stage as we prepare to be grandparents for the first time. The gammet of emotions that we felt when we were first told -- from we're too young, to worry for our daughter, to excitement.

We had talked about being grandparents, yet had thought we had years to go before that thought became a reality. But as the days pass since being told, our excitement grows. My husband has decided he is too young for the title grandpa, and has researched names to be called, finally deciding upon Lolo. As for myself, I have looked, but haven't decided on what I would want to be called.

As you're children grow, you worry about them, but it is a totally different feeling to suddenly be worried about your grandchild. Although we are young, I look forward to fall when our new grandbaby arrives and we move into that next phase of life.

Feel free to let me know what you have called your parents, or if you are grandparents what you are called? Would love to hear the variety we have out there.

Trusting Your Instincts

Trusting your instincts. We all have gut instincts that tell us whether or not something feels right. Learning to trust those instincts can be difficult.

In my life I have found myself doubting my instincts, and then regretting, later finding out if I had gone with my gut instinct things would have been different, and better. Through the years after not trusting my instinct, I started doubting my judgment period. Wanting to put that behind me, I have resolved to start trusting my instincts. How can you start trusting instincts when past has proven you as not a good judge of what's right and wrong?

Hindsight is 20/20 they say and how true that is. Now entering a new phase in my life, I wonder if I can trust my instincts. I want to trust them when I feel that my life is getting better and better and I have to let down the walls and learn to trust others again. Is it that easy though? Not at all.

In my first manuscript, trusting someone with her heart, my heroine found was most difficult. After writing The End, I realized that allowing her to begin to trust the hero of the story, I found myself letting go of pieces of the walls surrounding my heart. As it was shattered in the near past, I realized that sometimes you don't trust your instincts and it brings more pain than is bearable.

So as I enter this new phase in my life, walls built up high around my heart, yet not letting go of the love of my life, I wonder if I can trust again. Can I allow those walls to crash down and can I allow my hero to help repair those shattered pieces. My instinct says yes. How well can I trust that instinct if in the past I have ignored it and regretted it.

If we can write happily ever after, why can't we live it? No, we can't write the hero to do exactly as we want, but can we write our life to be as free as conflict as possible and allow ourselves to be strong and instinctive. As parents we are instinctive on how to protect our children, yet with ourselves we don't always trust our instincts and instead shut ourselves away, or hurt people we love just to get the first hurt in thinking it will save us from being hurt. In the end it only hurts us more deeply than we could have imagined.

Renewed Goals

I just finished the Winter Writing Festival from the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood. It was a fabulous time with writing sprints, supportive writers and meeting new friends. Participating in a writing festival like this pushed me to get on my writing again, setting new goals and working towards them.

I find setting monthly goals more workable than the yearly goals. Short term goals have a light at the end, easier (for me) to fulfill, which in turn brings me a renewed sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Upon finishing the WWF at the end of February, I was able to jump in with some writing friends to do an informal March Madness. Keeping each other accountable during these monthly goals/sprints makes me more aware of my goals and somehow the competitiveness in my kicks in and the writing pours out.

So my goal for March -- finish my current novel Mirrored Deception. I have already started the process of editing with my critique group, which also gives me a push to finish it as they want to know more of what is going on, and what will happen next.

What are you March goals -- writing or just life related?