Smile for me this week.

Not too much original thought this week, my friends. :) I'm taking the week off from the blogger world because there's just too much going on for me to hold onto my sanity if I tried to do it all. (Please no additional comments about my sanity;)

So, for this week I'm just sharing some of my smiles with you. ;)

Yes, all these angels belong to my family. :D What makes you smile?

Bear with me, my friends.

This is one of my apology/explanation posts, put up primarily because I feel really bad. :-/ I haven’t been able to read many blogs or respond to e-mails or Face Book recently and I think I’m starting to look a little rude. So, if I haven’t stopped by your blog, or replied to your e-mail, or agreed that your status is totally LOL, I’m really sorry. :(

You see, I started a new job (praise God!). It WILL be part-time, but right now I’m in the middle of several weeks of training. So, I’m working full-time hours…and coming home with handbooks and how-to’s. I think it’s going to turn out to be a really good thing, but I’ve still got a lot to learn. A LOT. ;)

But in the meantime I haven’t gotten to go around and read what everyone is posting. :( I am trying to keep to my regular posting schedule on this blog and I do reply to the comments. Yes, if you leave a comment on this blog I will leave a reply comment here!! I’m just doing a really long reply at the end of the day instead of a new one every few hours.

So, tell me, my friends, what have I been missing? What awesome things have you been talking about on your blogs and Face Book? Come on, don’t leave me out of the loop just because I am trying to learn an entirely new computer system! ;)

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Young at heart or just a diehard?

I don’t know what’s happened to me. I’ve lost myself. Yes, it’s true. Out of the blue I’ve found myself laughing quite hard at…(gasp)…teenager sitcoms…(gasp again).
This is just not me. Really. You know that kid who was never really a kid? That was me. ;)
Okay, I wasn’t that bad, but I definitely didn’t watch shows meant for teenagers or listen to music meant for teenagers…Did I just admit to listening to the music? (gasp again) Just the theme songs!
I consider this to be a temporary aberration. Sooner or later the effects of such things will wear off. Either that or a new show will come out and I’ll laugh at that one too. ;)

Before we go too far with this, I am hazarding to make many of my writerly friends out there gasp by saying this new found love of “Young Adult” entertainment met its match in my love of literature. Yes, my friends, I tried to read YA fiction…and it didn’t work. The first book I tried choked me into annoyance within three chapters. I am seriously unsympathetic to “teenage issues.” I’m sorry, but we all deal with that stuff. I don’t see why we have to make it more dramatic than it is. LOL
The second one was interesting, perhaps even compelling in a way, but I put it down one night and never picked it back up.

You see, a friend of mine recommend Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott and when I found a very old copy sitting on our shelves I picked it up. The English is a bit hard and the set up very descriptive, but I am enthralled by the Norman conquest of England and the downtrodden Saxon Lord! I find myself wishing I had more time to read it and that is my official sign of a good book. I’ve LOVED English literature and history ever since I started reading it when I was 14.

So, it seems to me that the laughs we get out of these teenage sitcoms offer a moment of stress release in what my brother and I call sophisticated silly. But deep down I’m still hardcore old fashioned literature girl…My dignity finds a measure of comfort in that… ;)
Oh, come on! Don’t tell me you’ve never found yourself in this place. LOL
Or have you just stopped by to tell me I shouldn't give up on YA fiction yet?

No More!

It’s over. No trial separation. No counseling in the future. Twitter and I are official divorced. True, our relationship lasted less than a year, but I had no other choice.
…No, really. I had no choice.
Earlier this week some unscrupulously individuals got hold of my follower list and inundated it with…um…inappropriateness. :’/ Twitter’s response to my enquiry was, “We are aware of this problem and we hope to fix it sometime in the near future.”
Gee, great, but in the meantime my account has been savaged by an ultimate icky-ness and my little blue bird no longer has a future! (sigh) I just couldn’t leave it up. :(
To be honest, I’ve never really liked Twitter. It was one of those things that EVERYONE said I HAD to have in order to be an operational individual. But as time goes on (and on) I’m started to feel like I listen too much to what EVERYONE says I HAVE to do and not enough to the individual plan Jesus has for me. :)

Hm….
I think I need to add some fun to this post, since it is Friday. :) So here’s my LOL moment of the week.

I had a meeting with one of my clients this week. We said hello, shook hands, then he looked at me for a moment and said, “Do you always match your socks to your blouses?” LOL
I told him that I try! I didn’t really think I was doing anything particularly unusually, but then come to think of it I’m usually wearing brightly colored shirts so my sock tend to be bright as well. (I was wearing an oh-so-cute coral colored blouse and socks with calico shoes that had little coral colored flowers on them at that particular moment. ;)
I promptly added, “Hey, if you can’t have fun with your socks, what can you have fun with?”

So, my friends, have a great weekend, have fun with your socks, and look for the individual plan God has for you. :)

The Weekend

I found myself wondering last night, “What on earth am I going to post about tomorrow?” My brain was dry of anything particularly profound or amusing. I’ve got a feeling that had a lot to do with this weekend.
We had one of “those” weekends. You know the kind. By 7 o’clock Saturday morning the whole family was on the porch wondering what on earth we were going to do. :P
The air conditioning flat-lined late Friday night, so we all woke up on Saturday feeling icky while my mother tried to find a repair man she could beg into coming over. In the wake of that circumstance our plans were official dead as well.
We’d set aside both the money and the day to at last finish the courtyard we’d been working on out front, but with the prospect of having to buy a new air conditioning our budget promptly went out the window. And somewhere along the way the favored coffee mug broke, burning a family member with hot coffee in the process.
But 7:30 we were all considering going back to bed. ;)
Fortunately, my father is good at rallying us, so after debate we settled on finally fixing the watering system in the backyard. We all got muddy in the process, but the yard started looking and working remarkably better as we went along. We were actually having fun, then I suddenly realized my dog was having even more fun. I found her lying in puddle, happy as a sow in her pen. She’s is the cleanest dog in the house every day of the week, but as soon as she sees me digging in the dirt she decides her chance to muddy up has at last come. LOL
So, when a repair man miraculously arrived, I picked her up and put her in the bathtub (which, looking back, was a stupid thing to do considering she weights more than 65lbs) while my mother changed the covers on the sofa. Yes, she made it to the couch cushions before we could stop her. :) Gotta love dogs.
And, in the middle of it all, I had a story I really needed to finish. It wasn’t working well in my head and I finally got to the, “Okay, God, if it’s going to work You’re just going to have give it to me” point. Shortly thereafter the story came to me in crystal clarity. Why is it so easy to forget I can't do this without Him?
All and all, it was a successful weekend and amusing now that I looked back on it. Currently, the most amusing part is, after all the work we put into the AC and water system so both human and plants would be happy in the 90 degree weather, we awoke this morning to find the temperature had done a freefall into the 60s and rain is in the forecast. LOL
Okay, now that it’s all out of my head, maybe I’ll be able come up with something profound shortly.
How was your weekend, my friend?

Oh, just two quick announcements. I have a book signing coming up on June 5th at a library in Fresno CA. Check out my EVENTS page for all the details.
And, blogger-writer Th. Mafi is having an AWESOME contest on her blog right now. Prizes include Amazon cash, sighed books, and query/manuscript critiques. You must go over and see right away!

The Question?

Q: What are you going to do today?
A: I’m going to change the world.

Q: How do you do that?
A: I’m going to change a life…or two…or more.

Q: And how do you plan on doing that?
A: I’m going to smile at someone, make someone laugh, help someone with something, give someone a gift, tell someone the truth, tell someone I love them, give someone a hug, listen to someone, write a book that does it all….Whatever it is, I’M GOING TO DO SOMEMTHING, because I’m done with doing nothing.

….
Q: What are you going to do today?
A: [Fill in the blank]

A Winner, a Crash, and a Plea For Help

Okay, listen up, we’ve got some important things today. :)

First, to the winner of Monday’s Spread The Awesome event! (drum roll please) Jen D! Congrats, Jen! Beguiled is awesome book. I hope you enjoy it. Everyone should jump over to Jenn’s blog and say hello.
http://jennifer-daiker.blogspot.com/

Overall, I think my first giveaway went well…except every time someone left a comment I thought, “I hope you win!” By the end I wished I had 70 copies available. But fear not, I plan on having another one soon. :) And with that future giveaway in mind, I’d like to ask, how did you hear about this contest? Was a link through another blog, Twitter, Face Book? It would be great to know for the next time around.

Of course in the middle of the whole thing my computer had to crash. I clicked over to my e-mail and they randomly started to disappear. That didn’t seem good, so I quickly clicked restart…and that’s where it got stuck for hours. :? Unfortunately, my brother, who has always been my IT department, is working full-time now, so I had to wait for him to get home. (This whole adulthood thing is rough sometimes. ;) While we’re not entirely sure what happened, it seems in part Microsoft had corrupted itself. Apparently this naturally happens over time. So, he clicked something called “CCleaner” and now it’s working. I don’t know….
(A plea to my Apple loving friends. Don’t e-mail me and tell me this is a sign I need to get a Mac. Most of the programs and systems I interface with are not compatible with Macs. I’m sorry. That’s just the way it is. ;)

Now on to the plea for help. Have you seen the flooding going on in Tennessee right now? It’s pretty bad. A lot of people have lost their homes and loved ones. I actually have a friend out there who says his family can’t get out of their house without a 4wheeler. They driveway was just washed away. And they won’t have regular phone service until the end of the month.
Several writers located in the region are setting up an auction to help fund the rebuilding that will need to happen fast. They are asking writers, agents, and publishers to donate signed copies of their books and critique services. And if you don’t have anything to auction, please consider bidding. According to the organizers, the outpouring has been wonderful. For more information check here.

Well, that’s all for the moment. I hope you had a lovely, “Spread the Awesome” week. :) And remember, this event was about spreading the word about your favorite books and authors. Your opinions are actually as important as any reviewer. Check out my previous post on the subject for a list of great ways you can help.

I Just Couldn’t

I found myself in a predicament I’ve never really experienced before and it frankly surprised me.
It all started with the Writer’s Digest writing competition. The contest is open to several different genres from short fiction to inspirational articles. I planned on only entering the fiction part until Saturday night. Just out of the blue I thought of an inspirational article I could write about a three year period during which I battle a serious illness. My mom has been encouraging me to be more open about those years and all of a sudden I found a way to write about it that might be able to convey the incredible things God taught me during that time.
I thought about it for a day then finally decided to just give it a try. What was the harm in writing it out and seeing how it sounded?...BUT I COULDN’T!
After two very short paragraphs I had to jump to something else. I just couldn’t write it out! It might be perfectly constructed in my head, but trying to put the thoughts in to visible words was just too much. Eventually I had to push away from the computer entirely and seek out the comfort of a cup of cappuccino and the fresh air of my back porch. :P
I don’t know why I can’t put it down. Maybe it just hasn’t been long enough since those very, very painful years. I’d like to be encouraging and share the amazing things I took away from it all, but right now this blog post seems to be as deep as I can go.
The funny thing is author Brandilyn Collins recently announced she will soon release a novel based on a years-long illness she struggled against. I told her at the time I thought she was extremely brave and I didn’t think I could do the same…I just didn’t realize I would apparently be physically incapable of at least putting down a page on the subject. (sigh)
Maybe someday I’ll be able to write that article out. Maybe this post is a little step towards that. Or maybe that time is just a part of me, but not necessarily one I can openly talk about. :?
Have you ever found yourself in this place?

How Powerful Are Those Words?

I read about a really interesting study recently that could have a big impact on the way we write…and the way we live.
According to this study, a group of people were shown a video of a car accident. Then, a week later, the group was broken up into two smaller groups and asked to describe the crash. Specifically, group A was asked to describe how the cars “hit” each other, while group B was asked to describe how the cars “smashed” into each other.
The members of group A gave general, straight to the point descriptions of what they saw. Group B, on the other hands, gave vivid descriptions of the accident and even “remembered” details that were not in the original video.
Why? Simply because the word “smashed” stirs the mind much more than the word “hit.” This is true in so many instances. For example, the word “smacked” has almost an audible feeling to it. The work “yanked” has a much more violent sound than the word “pulled.” Even words like “stumbled” creates a better picture when compared to a simpler word like “fell.”
This is so important for writers to remember! It can enable us to create a great image in our reader’s mind with just a word, instead of having to ramble through a long sentence.
Of course, the application to real life is just as powerful, because the words we use day to day really impact us. For example, when we apply phrases like, “This day is going to kill me!” we are actually making the day even harder. The circumstances probably won’t kill us, but our mind is now convinced that we won’t be able to handle what we have to deal with. It has been proven that people who say things like, “This is hard, but I’m sure I can handle it,” actually deal better with life. Strange, but true. :)
So, whether you’re writing or just living, what words are you using today?

Living in the Lawnmower Chalet

Have you ever tried living in a lawnmower chalet? Hm, perhaps I should explain before you answer.
Several years ago my family and I dropped in on an open house for a very expensive home. While walking through the living room we noticed an interesting building in the backyard. For all intensive purposes, it appeared to be a shed…a shed with a wide front porch, gingerbread eaves, and a very elaborate light fixture suspended in front. When we asked the realtor about it, she said, in all seriousness, “Oh, that? That’s the Lawnmower Chalet.” I’m afraid we broke out laughing.
It has become a very big joke in the family. Every time my dad starts talking about retiring I just say, “Don’t worry, you can always live in my Lawnmower Chalet.”
Funny as it is, the whole idea took on a different meaning for me this week when I was thinking about trying to do things that make my natural self say, “Oh, that is way too hard. Almost nobody succeeds. Why are you even trying?”
I realized if I succumbed to those thoughts I’d end up being a lot like someone who lived in a shed their whole lives, wishing I could live in the real house, but assuming it’s too hard to get there. It would be so easy to just dress up the shed, give it a fancy sounding name, and pretend that I’m just fine living there. But it wouldn’t be fine, would it?
So, are you living in a Lawnmower Chalet? Is there are “real house” out there you’d like to live in, but you’ve assumed it’s impossible to get there? Are you adding gingerbread eaves to your shed?
Personally, I’ve decided to stop decorating my shed and start moving out. How about you?

She’s a blonde. No, she’s a brunette. No, she’s a blonde. No, she’s a brunette.

My sister, also known as my first-line editor, is as much a part of my writing experience as my laptop. In fact, I would hazard to say if it wasn’t for her encouragement Only Angels Are Bulletproof would never have gotten past four chapters.
But we do have one long standing disagreement when it comes to my books. Hair color.
“You need more brunette heroines,” she’ll start. “All of your heroines are blonde.”
“So?” I’ll reply.
“So, blondes aren’t supposed to be the heroines. They’re either the dumb character or the evil character.”
“That’s not true. There are lots of good blondes.”
“Name one.”
“Me.”
“Yeah, you really should dye your hair dark. Nobody actually believes blondes can write.”
And that’s when I have to decide whether to laugh or throttle her…She’s still alive, just in case you were wondering.
Well, I still say I’m proving there are smart blondes one heroine at the time. But if you ever come upon a character in my books who is only described as having “brown eyes” and nothing more, know that is a character my sister and I had a disagreement over. This way my sister can believe she’s a brunette and I can know she’s blonde. ;)

Do happy endings really exist?

I read an interesting book this weekend that asked the question, “Is there really such a thing as a happy ending?” You know, the type that takes place at the end of a book or movie.
Guy meets girl, they marry: happy ending.
Or, creative genius reaches his goal, his work is recognized: happy ending.
Well, the answer to that question is simply, NO. (Hold on with me her for a second.)
The answer is no because life goes on! Well, in the real world it does. Life doesn’t just stop in a blissful glow because we’ve reached a goal. There’s still work to do!
Trust me, getting a book published wasn’t the end of the story for me. In fact, it’s just a step on a path that still leaves me feeling out of breath sometimes. :-) But I’m still glad I’m here.
The point of this short post? Don’t think of happy endings as endings. They are in fact new beginnings.
In a sense, aren’t you glad that’s the way it goes?

By the way, if you’re looking for a good little book to spend a day or two on, I can recommend Beth Pattillo’s Jane Austen Ruined My Life.
I love that title. :)

Warning: Writer

After speaking to several of my fellow writers I thought I’d better put up the following warning in the interest of public safety. If you are a family member of a writer, please take this to heart. If you are a writer, you might want to print this up and post it in your writing area.

Warning
If a writer is engaged in the writing process (eyes transfixed on computer, storyboard, or notebook), please do not approach him/her and attempt to conduct a conversation. The writer cannot hear or understand what you are saying. Even if the writer appears to nod or mumble an affirmation, it is highly unlikely they have comprehended anything and may not even remember the conversation at a later time.
You can attempt to break the writer’s attention away from their work, but this is not recommended as the writer may become confused, disoriented, or agitated. It is best to leave the writer alone until he/she voluntarily walks away.
…. ;)

And They Did It Again...

So, my publisher’s printer has brought a new dimension to my book’s cover once more. In a previous post I told you all about how I opened the newest box of my books only to discover the printer had tinged the cover green, leaving my angel looking distinctly alien like.
Well, they’ve come up with a new one for the most recent run. A pink tint. Yes, pink. o_O
Maybe we’ll call this the girl power edition. What do you think? A friend of mine, who just happened to end up with a copy from this particular printing, is calling this the “magenta series.” Perhaps I’ll have a “blue period” next.



What? The pink just made me want to add a little more girliness.
And to think, my graphic artist and I worked so hard to get a really ethereal atmosphere on the cover as well as touch on specific points in the story. Who know we just needed a littl more pinkness?

My Christmas Card

I had to find a way to send a Christmas card to my friends on here.

Have a great Christmas everyone. :)

Serious Questions. Funny Questions.

Fellow writer and blogger, Diane Estrella, asked me a few weeks ago if I would do an interview for her blog and then sent along a series of very interesting questions.
Some were serious questions about life, writing, and how God works through both and some were very quirky questions that were just plain fun to answer. (You can now know which board game my family takes very seriously. ;)
You can read the full interview at: dianeestrella.com
Thanks Diane!

Somebody Please Say Merry Christmas!

I know I posted this one last year, but I figured it was the sort of thing that could be said every year.

We’ve become quite accustomed to the outcry against saying Merry Christmas by now. Such words might offend someone.
A few years ago I worked for a major department store in our area during the Christmas season. While we were not told to avoid saying Merry Christmas, it was pretty clear that a traditional Christmas was not on the marketing agenda. The slogan for the season was “Give” (aka, buy). Christmas trees were confined to the corner that sold ornaments. Other than that, decorations consisted only of snowflakes and fake presents.
Still, I just decided to say Merry Christmas to every person that came by my register. I am here to tell you that nobody was offended. Most people smiled and returned the greeting. Multiple people stopped, sighed, and said, “THANK YOU FOR NOT SAYING HAPPY HOLIDAYS.”
It is a sad, sad day indeed when the majority of the population fears offending the approximately one percent of people who get offended by everyone anyway.
So please, this Christmas season, do everyone a favor and say MERRY CHRISTMAS to as many people as you can.

Stuffy...

Okay, I planned on writing about the finish of a writing project, but for some strange reason I’ve been struck by a stupid allergy attack that has clouded my head so badly I can barely keep my eyes open. I’ve got the feeling that I’m not getting as much oxygen as I need.
I’d really like to find a box of tissue and curl up beneath a heavy blanket, but the dishes need to be done and letters need to be answered and…Achoo!...the world is starting to tilt….

Worth It

A card from a little old lady, whom I probably won’t ever get a chance to meet, telling me how much she liked my book and how excited she was to see it was an autographed copy is more important than the words of any professional reviewer.
~Enough said.

How I Write

I had to squeeze out of the chair very quietly to get this shot. Meet Margaret Thatcher and Eleanor Roosevelt, my writing buddies.
I love Dalmatians. :)

Btw, I’m looking for bloggers who have used designs from my family’s website: http://www.blogcargo.com/. We’ve got nearly 50 designs up now, all for free. Check it out if you get a chance. I’m going to put up a list of blogs using our designs. So if you’ve used one, let me know.