The Big Scare

Yesterday was a pretty regular day. Ran errands in the morning, played with the baby, talked to hubby(he works the evening shift), just another day. That is until I left my husband and baby to head to the bank and pick our other two kids up from school. I was sitting at the bank taking care of some writing business and my phone rang. It was hubby and he said to come home right away, so I immediately started heading that way. You see, hubby is not one to kid around. In fact, he is probably the most serious 30 something I know.  Really. Grabbing my things I run out to the jeep and the phone rings again.
"Call an ambulance, something is wrong with my heart."
Oh God. I dialed 911 and headed for the house.He was pacing around when I got there, he looked grey, his hands were clammy. I freaked. We have just finished with some excitement surrounding his being diagnosed with high  blood pressure. It took ages for the ambulance to get here. After they came inside, they walked him out the the ambulance while we waited inside...
Luckily I was walking toward the ambulance when it started pulling out the driveway. It was easier for me run through my yard and chase the ambulance down so I could ask the driver where they were taking him.
Some hours(and several tests) later at the hospital, they told us it was only PVC or palpitations.
Phew! I felt relieved. As I am basking in my happiness of my hubby's diagnosis, he is apologizing to everyone for wasting their time and stressing out over the future hospital bills.  Me? Well, I'm just glad he's still here to stress about everything. Glad you're feeling better!

Writing Classes- Helpful or Waste of Cash?

Well, here's to another Monday! I'm getting ready to put together an article I'm writing on a local bluegrass festival, it's due next week. But before I get to work, I have a question for my fellow writers - have you ever taken a writing class? I've been throwing the idea around for awhile now... taking a class about writing fiction.

I've seen these classes offered at such places as Writer's Digest, Media Bistro and Gotham-often with a hefty price tag attached. Which leads me to my next question-is the class worth shelling out all that dough? Will it really help?

I am 20,000 words into my first YA novel(and stuck) and the proud owner of a picture book manuscript which has been rejected twice. It's not the rejection that bothers me(writing for magazines and newspapers, I'm used to it-I know it's part of the gig), it's wondering if taking a class is something I need to try to make my writing better.

So readers, let me  know-have you taken a writing class? Did it help or was it a waste of time? What other things do you do(besides writing) to improve your craft?

Sorry for the Interruption...

Hello everyone. It's been a few weeks since I have been able to update. Sorry for the absence, my husband has been sick and other things have required my attention. I have really enjoyed starting this blog and hope you will stick with me for awhile longer.  Hopefully, things will be back on track very soon. I'm planning to start posting again tomorrow evening. Thanks for your patience, and once again I'm sorry for the unexplained absence.

Gimme A Beat...

Welcome to the weekend! Next Friday, I plan to start something new - Freelance Friday - where I hope to offer freelance writing tips, book reviews, helpful links and "don't make the same mistake I did" posts(I have quite a few of those).

But for today, some additional thoughts on creativity and inspiration.

Was there a particular person who influenced your decision to become a writer?

Who inspires you? Maybe it's a writer you read at an early age, maybe your teen or college years or maybe you were inspired by someone new a few weeks ago. Those stories you can't put down, I love those.

Inspiration can come from other places - music, photography, scenes you take in during your day. Music really inspires me, especially when I'm working on my YA novel. I guess for me it's a little easier to plot things out if I've got a beat...

Have a great weekend!


Who or what inspires your writing?

Give Your Creative Process a Boost

Do other creative endeavors help you with your writing process? Most writers are creative people, not only in their writing but in other facets of their lives as well.  For instance, I like to paint. I have done it for years now. I’m not really good at it and I’m sure with the exception of my mother, no one would pay for one of my paintings. Being creative always makes me feel better, and somehow it also helps with my writing.



Self-portrait I painted in college



I think it can be good for writers to explore other creative avenues. For fiction writers it can take the edge off. Focusing your creative energy on something else may help move you past that nasty chapter that won’t come together. A non-fiction writer may happen upon a new idea for a story, or a new twist on an old one.  You don’t have to depart from writing completely to give your creative process a boost- maybe you don’t like to paint, draw, take pictures, play music, etc. Try writing something different; try a new genre, a short story, a news article, keep a journal.  It never hurts to try something new, you may find something you really like, or at least have fun doing it. Kind of like writing. It doesn't have to be great, but you have to do it.



Like I said, it doesn't have to be great...I painted this one with my dad some years back.

 What kinds of things do you do to get the creative juices flowing?

Bring on the New Year!

It's 11:01-do you know where you are? Just kidding. Almost time...just under an hour and we will ring in 2011. I have to say I'm a little excited about the new year. See, I have decided this is the year I take the bull by the horns and push forward with this whole writing career thing. Yep, no more of this fancy pant-sing around- I'm taking it to the next level. I will no longer look sheepishly down at my feet and whisper "I'm a writer" when someone asks me what I do.

To prove this newfound dedication to my craft, I will give you a brief rundown of my writing day. I sent out two queries, updated my list of story ideas, updated my blogs, updated twitter and Facebook, wrote an article and worked on my ebook. Not much you say? Well, for me between wrangling my three year old, entertaining his older brother and keeping up with my teenager-that's a pretty productive day.

So I welcome this new year. I'm going to try my best to write every day and learn everything I can from those in my writer community. But most of all I'm going to push forward and keep writing because writing,that's what I do. Happy New Year!





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Umm, Who Ordered the Blizzard?

Well good readers-I am so far behind and this last cold snap, it is not helping to ease the pain. Mounds of the beautiful white stuff is falling outside our window as we celebrate snow day #2(out of three-thank you Gov. Strickland-I'm glad I'll be spending my summer vacation at home so the kids can make up the extra snow days!) Tomorrow was to be the kids last day of school, but I don't think we'll be going then either considering the fact I cannot even tell there is a road in front of our house.

This ill-timed snowfall has produced much tension among the ranks here at our house. My daughter's cell phone stopped working yesterday-which means she cannot communicate with the outside world(her friends). She was counting on a trip to AT&T today to get a replacement-but we cannot get out of the driveway. This makes her...well..unhappy."There's nothing in this house to do!" Back in my day(80's), I told her, we read books and played board games on snow days. There were no cell phones, computers, Xbox360's or Wii...wow, what is she complaining about?  My son is bummed because no school means no "Santa's Workshop"( the PTO's way of collecting coin from parents by way of .50 items sold for $1.50) and if he's out tomorrow, it means no Christmas party, which I just realized I forgot to buy cookies for. Did I mention I was in the running for mother of the year? Yes, the cabin fever is running a little high this afternoon-and no snow plow in sight! At least the little guy is happy, give him a jelly sandwich and he's good to go.

Hopefully everyone will calm down soon and enjoy their day off school. I have a food article to write and then maybe we'll make some holiday cookies...yeah who am I kidding-arming this motley bunch with cooking utensils and icing today would probably be a recipe for disaster. The gingerbread man won't be the only one who runs away!