Not to jinx myself, but I gotta sing out.

Finally sent out my book to a publisher again.

They asked for the full manuscript today! Wow! The first hurdle is cleared. Feeling good about that. 

I've gotten closer than this before and fallen on my face but I feel really good that this time is the charm. In any case, as a show of faith I have started writing the sequel. I have some great ideas and it is coming together so well that I'm having a ball writing it. No matter the outcome I'm dancing the happy jig and loving being an author. Days like today make life sing.

If anyone happens to stumble on this and read it, please send some love and prayers my way that The Gift of Lies will be the next big sensation in the YA literary world. My thanks to all.

And just for kicks and because this is how I am feeling right now here is my favorite song at the moment. Enjoy.
Cat Stevens "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out"

Book Reviews

I recently acknowledged to myself that I'm good at something. I'm an excellent reader, I've always known that, and now I see that I'm quite good at writing reviews. I suppose it's not surprising from a girl who writes novels herself, but it makes me feel good to think that I can also spot a good book, or not.
I'm involved in several sites where I review books in trade for free copies. And the latest site I got into even pays cash sometimes! How cool is that, to get paid for something that I do anyway?
To follow my reviews on Online Book Club for Readers, go to http://onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-norma-rudolph.html
To read my many reviews on Library Thing, go to http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=bookgirl59

Something Brilliant

It's been eight months since I blogged. That's too long, but as always I put it off thinking that I'll come up with something brilliant to say. I still haven't done that so I'm going to settle for something, ah . . . um . . . well . . . at least something.

Why is it so often we hold ourselves back waiting for the perfect comment or the perfect situation to arise instead of just getting on with enjoying our lives? Seems like I'm always waiting for something good to happen instead of getting on the ball and living in a way to make it happen.

"When I get published, then I will  . . ."
"When I finally lose the weight, then I'll . . ."
"When we make a lot of money, then we can . . . "

"When I stop procrastinating things will be so much better."

Procrastination, in my case is just my way of avoiding life. I spend a lot of time escaping too. Too many books, movies, video games, these are all escapes for me. When I don't want to meet life head on, I escape into some form of entertainment that has nothing to with real life.

But you know what? When I do finally get down to living my goals instead of wishing them, My world becomes so much better. This month I'm finally finishing my novel in progress. I'm making headway on living my dreams in all areas of my life. I'm still looking forward to things getting better, but it's no longer a false hope. It's a reality, because I'm making it a reality and I feel really good about that.

Procrastination

I've been thinking for months that it was time for a new post here, but I put it off because I kept thinking that I would be inspired with something epic and wise to say. Like that will happen . . .

I hate to write a lot of worthless blather. Nobody wants to know what I made for dinner, (unless it killed somebody maybe), or where I went today, (jail because of the fatal dinner perhaps), or what I did in the garden. All the things that have taken up the greater part of my time are pretty boring.

It also seems counter productive to write a blog when I have a novel in the works that needs my attention and is not getting it. So my question to send out into the void for today is "What to you do when you can't seem to make yourself focus on what you really want to do?"

I know that the best remedy for not writing is to sit your bum down in the chair and start typing, but this last week it seems that even when I make myself sit down and pull up the lap top, all I do is stare at the page and think about what needs changed rather than get on with the work. I've been banged about the head with so much advice on how to be a better writer that I no longer have the ability to just let the story flow. How can I turn off the internal editor and enjoy witing again?

Writing Just For Fun

I'm nearly done with my latest work in progress and I've been thinking how fun it was. I basically cranked it out in three consecutive years of NANOWRIMO. But I liked the stories so well that I dug them out of the maybe later file, fixed them up, and put them together into a novel. It was fun from beginning to end. I have a good feeling about it getting published. It will be highly ironical if this book that I just "popped out" gets published, when the one I spent years working on is still sitting on the shelf, but stranger things have happened.

Now that I think of it, they were all fun in the beginning... it's only when I start second guessing myself and rewrite the heart out of my stories that they become zombie albatrosses hanging about my neck.

I started writing, so I could read the sort of books I wanted to read, but couldn't find enough of. Then, I found that writing them was almost more fun than reading them. I got addicted to controlling the destiny of my characters and ensuring the endings that I wanted. Plus, I've always had an over active imagination and writing gave me full vent for that, building new worlds, making up my own imaginary friends... well, you know.

So I've finally remembered that writing is fun, and even if this book is never seen on bookshop shelves, I'm glad I wrote it.

Capturing Personalities in Your Writing.

In my humble opinion it's our silly little quirks that make us who we are. I need to capture more of that in my work in progress.

For example, I was thinking about how different my girls are from each other. They've all grown up together, and yet they are as different as rubies and pearls. As I thought about what makes them different it helped me to see how I can develop my characters and make them more interesting. I'll try to illustrate what I mean.

For fun, let's do a hypothetical case study. Keep in mind that I am going to exaggerate for literary purposes.

If I were to, say... ask one of  my girls to clean the microwave.
It would go something like this.

Emily. would passively put me off for a time or two but would eventually do it out of grudging obedience. It would take her six times longer than normal people because she would not be able to stop until she had removed every molecule from every crevice, dismantling and reassembling the appliance in the process. Then she would research the properties of microwaves on her laptop, and share her findings with me.

Dee would have to be captured in a large butterfly net, to hold her still long enough that she understood that I meant business. After which she would grudgingly do the job. She would zip through it, removing the top surface of grime and declare that it was clean. Of course, to her it really would seem clean, so it would not tickle her conscience in the least. Then, she would declare in her best Disney princess singing voice, "♫I'm done!♫" as she danced out the door to her next play practice, speech meet, or other social event.

Mary, the straight A student, would try to convince me that beings of higher intelligence should not have to do menial chores, and surely Emily and Dee are the more logical candidates. But, after high political debate and either bribery or deep threats from me, she would do a serviceable job in a very efficient manner. Following the tramatic event, she would growl at me as she went out the door to tell her friends in the neighborhood what a mean mother I am.

Small insignificant events can reveal a great deal about a person. Sometime I forget this as I write. Not that I think I should put in trivialities to build character, but that I need to remember that every event can show me something new about those people in my head.