One of my favorite authors is Shannon Hale (her best book so far: The Princess Academy).. so I read a bit of her blog, especially the bit where she interviewed another of my favorite authors, Megan Whalen Turner. Both are stay-at-home moms, both absolutely amazing and entertaining...
So, anyway, it inspired me. I am re-dedicating myself to my longtime dream of becoming a writer. Like FOR REAL. Not just as a hobby. I'm going to be published.
Which means TONS of writing. In the last week, I've written 15 pages of draft and kept a few lines more than one page. 10,000 words and I've kept 500. And that's just the first draft, which I know will need to be completely rewritten once I'm done with it.
But I'm excited. Just in the last week, I've improved my writing already... I still need lots of work, but I believe it is possible (and that belief is a HUGE hurdle to get over, so I'm excited to be beyond it...at least for today! I'm sure self-doubt will rear its head, ready for battle over and over again).
I know it's possible because I intented to just work on an outline and then write my novel for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month: November--you write a 50,000 word novel in just one month), but I couldn't stop myself from actually writing the story. It was itching to be told. Insisting. Demanding.
And that is, I believe, the key to becoming a published author, to slugging through the hard days and the I-hate-this-story days and all that.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Goals
My goals:
1. create a list of 100 things I'd like to do in my life (aka, a bucket list)
2. finish writing the CleanDance book
3. write a novel (http://www.nanowrimo.org/)
4. write 800 words a day
5. run a marathon in February
...
yeah, just stuff like that...
(Okay, I had to come up with SOMETHING for a blog post!)
1. create a list of 100 things I'd like to do in my life (aka, a bucket list)
2. finish writing the CleanDance book
3. write a novel (http://www.nanowrimo.org/)
4. write 800 words a day
5. run a marathon in February
...
yeah, just stuff like that...
(Okay, I had to come up with SOMETHING for a blog post!)
Monday, December 22, 2008
Operation Move-Out has initiated!
Since the three of us live in an apartment about the size of a postage stamp, we're VERY excited to begin our move. We got pre-approved for a mortgage and started looking at houses. My favorite so far is a 2-story house with the front door smack dab in the middle--between 1st and 2nd floors. FUN.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Amazing recipes!
I'm not the biggest homemaker there is, and I normally don't like cooking, but I DO like making new things, new foods included.
So I found this website--www.kingarthurflour.com--and it has TONS of amazing FREE recipes that are actually easy and DELICIOUS. They even have a blog that shows pictures of each step of the recipe.
From their site, I've made:
Vermont cheddar soup
bread bowls
all-American ham and cheese roll
granola bars
pizza
spicy spiral bread
whole wheat pancakes
savory meat pie
Hungry yet? It's amazing.
So I found this website--www.kingarthurflour.com--and it has TONS of amazing FREE recipes that are actually easy and DELICIOUS. They even have a blog that shows pictures of each step of the recipe.
From their site, I've made:
Vermont cheddar soup
bread bowls
all-American ham and cheese roll
granola bars
pizza
spicy spiral bread
whole wheat pancakes
savory meat pie
Hungry yet? It's amazing.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Traditions
As we approach this holiday season, let us take a moment and ponder our traditions.Some traditions are linked to holidays, such as enormous feasts at Thanksgiving and bringing trees inside your house for Christmas.
Some traditions are linked to places. My favorite place tradition (okay, so I've only done this twice, but, hey) is related to foreign countries: in both New Zealand and Italy, we bought a tub of ice cream and ate as much of it as we could in our hotel room. FUN.
Some traditions are linked to time. I used to get sick/incapacitated every year during summer vacation, beginning, I think, when I was 8 and broke my arm. One summer, starting the DAY AFTER school got out, I got bronchitis and was sick for TWO WEEKS straight.
Apparently, I've continued that tradition, only I've moved the timeframe. Last November, I got food poisoning so bad...I'll spare you the details, but I passed out at one point (and I'm not the fainting type) and I was definitely dehydrated by the end of it.
THIS November, I decided to carry on the seeming-near-death illness tradition by getting an infection. It came on really suddenly, and within a few minutes, I was freezing cold. Jacob brought the tempertature up to 83 degrees, and I was covered in blankets, but was still freezing and shivering uncontrollably. My fingertips went numb and Jacob said my hands even turned blue. CRAZY.But, never fear, it's all good now. I spent yesterday in bed and I feel SO MUCH BETTER.
And whoever invented Tylenol (particularly Extra Strength Tylenol), is AMAZING. A few minutes after I took that, I was starting to feel normal-ish temperature and the shivering stopped. YAY. Also taking an antibiotic, which is VERY effective in killing off the icky infection.
Some traditions are linked to places. My favorite place tradition (okay, so I've only done this twice, but, hey) is related to foreign countries: in both New Zealand and Italy, we bought a tub of ice cream and ate as much of it as we could in our hotel room. FUN.
Some traditions are linked to time. I used to get sick/incapacitated every year during summer vacation, beginning, I think, when I was 8 and broke my arm. One summer, starting the DAY AFTER school got out, I got bronchitis and was sick for TWO WEEKS straight.
Apparently, I've continued that tradition, only I've moved the timeframe. Last November, I got food poisoning so bad...I'll spare you the details, but I passed out at one point (and I'm not the fainting type) and I was definitely dehydrated by the end of it.
THIS November, I decided to carry on the seeming-near-death illness tradition by getting an infection. It came on really suddenly, and within a few minutes, I was freezing cold. Jacob brought the tempertature up to 83 degrees, and I was covered in blankets, but was still freezing and shivering uncontrollably. My fingertips went numb and Jacob said my hands even turned blue. CRAZY.But, never fear, it's all good now. I spent yesterday in bed and I feel SO MUCH BETTER.
And whoever invented Tylenol (particularly Extra Strength Tylenol), is AMAZING. A few minutes after I took that, I was starting to feel normal-ish temperature and the shivering stopped. YAY. Also taking an antibiotic, which is VERY effective in killing off the icky infection.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
blooooood
Aghhh!! Zade had a bloody nose last night--I was SO WORRIED!! It's terrible to see your little baby bleeding!! :( :( :( Fortunately, it was just a normal, small nosebleed (the air was really dry yesterday) so it stopped quickly, but I was plenty upset about the whole ordeal. ;)
Speaking of blood, I just finished reading this great book--a history on the Spartans. I read it as research for this book I'm writing. It was pretty interesting--the Spartan culture was just fascinating. The whole "speaking of blood" relevance is because the Spartans wore red capes into battle so, if they were wounded, the redness would hide the blood, and the Spartans would appear invincible.
Random!
Speaking of blood, I just finished reading this great book--a history on the Spartans. I read it as research for this book I'm writing. It was pretty interesting--the Spartan culture was just fascinating. The whole "speaking of blood" relevance is because the Spartans wore red capes into battle so, if they were wounded, the redness would hide the blood, and the Spartans would appear invincible.
Random!
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