Yay Spring...Yay Books!

The weather round these parts has been glorious! I know I'm not winter person, but the emotions that I feel during the first few beautiful days of Spring weather always catch me by surprise. It's such an inspirational time of rebirth and inspiration. Does anyone else experience this. I allow many things to plague me through the winter months but Spring is like a salvation. I know this is all very dramatic and over the top, but that's really how it feels to me.

I'm sure a lot of it stems from the fact that my business goes dormant in Winter, leaving me feeling a little useless...and well, a lot broke by the time Spring rolls around. I know that useless feeling is unwarranted, since I am still a mother, wife, writer and homemaker. But I can't help it. I need to feel like I'm producing something that is bettering our family. Now that I'm shooting again, it feels so good.

I'm also writing. Tons. I'm nearly done with my wip and I'm so happy I could scream. I love the characters, love the story, love that it's almost to "The End". So, as we all know, it can really get started! I'm actually very excited to do edits and revisions. Very excited. I think I'll be one of those people that enjoy that process the best.

On to other things, I've read some fantastic books lately. Thought I'd share.

1. Bright Young Things  Anna Godbersen

I adored this book. It's historical, prohibition, speak easy's, it's YA, there's drama and hot boys. Seriously? The only thing that could ruin it would be the writing...but no, Anna has not failed me yet. I loved the Luxe series (which I wrote about last year) and I know I will love the BYT series as well. 

2. Born Wicked  Jessica Spotswood

I will use one word to describe this. Yummy! That's how I felt. In some ways, this book is very complex. It's about witches and a very male dominated suppressive world. It really taps into some deep rooted issues that pertain to our world today, I think. I love this about it. I love how she writes it, but at the same time it's incredibly simple. I mean that in a positive way. It's just simply pleasurable and easy to read. Now, I can see where the following books may not be described this way. I can tell that things are sort of "just getting started" so to speak. That being said, I think Jessica has a writing style that is not fluffy, or full of useless jargon. I don't even know what that means! haha But I just felt like she nailed this one. It seemed like an ideal young adult book. Enough mature conflict and theme to please an adult, but the perfect voice, writing style and motivation for a teenager. If you can't tell....I loved it!!

3. Lola and the Boy Next Door  Stephanie Perkins

Oh Lola. Can you make me some clothes? Can you do my hair? Something? I want a little more Lola in my everyday life. Anyone else? What a fantastic character.
I loved this story as much, if not a smidge more than Anna ATFK. But I have to confess something. I loved Cricket, and she without a doubt made the right choice...but who else had a little bit of a crush on Max??? It must be a deep psychological issue of mine, but I have a weakness for the bad boy. What is wrong with me? But at the same time, I don't think Max was BAD, per se. He was just older, and wrong for her. But in my world, after they broke up, I was the older woman he saw while he was gone. Just sayin...

Feel free to judge me on that last comment!!! :)

Flinging paint...and words!

The lack of posts this week is for good reason.

We're painting the inside of our house. (blech) Let me put things into perspective for you. Our house isn't huge or anything, but it has an open floor plan with two story ceilings in a large area. The "open" part of the house includes the kitchen, dining room, hallway, atrium type thing, and two living areas. Oh gosh, my arms hurt. We only have one section done.

The trickiest part of this is the "my husband and I together" part. We love each other very much, however, we don't really work well on projects together. Ironically, we met working together!! But, times have changed. The sweet things that were charming (my carefree ways and smart mouth) and admirable (his intense attention to detail and bossiness) back then, probably fueling our burning sexual tension are of course now eye roll inducing, annoying traits. Such is 10 years of marriage. 

The good thing is that after the colorful words and dramatic sighs are over, we stand back, arms around each other and say "we did a good job". And it's all worth it.

I've missed writing the last few days, but painting gives me a lot of thinking time, so all is not wasted.

Hope you're having a good week!! :)

Pretty stuff, parties and beautiful days.

It's Monday, I wrote 2,000 words and the sun is shining. Could it be any better?

Well, thanks for asking, because yes it could!

Today my wonderful blogging friend Catherine Denton is having a virtual party! Her daughter is raising money for a type of mission trip to Africa and she is celebrating in high style internet fashion.

She has a fantastic etsy shop selling prints of her amazing artwork. I just bought one for someone specials birthday and I love it. anyway, today only she is offering a very generous discount and all the proceeds go towards her daughters trip. Please go help them out. There is nothing to lose, check out her blog posts today for details.

She is also giving away an original painting...

I absolutely ADORE Catherine's work. I think it's quirky and original. It's also emotional and moving. Plus, she's just a great person which makes me love it even more.

So get on over there and check things out!

Music and Twitter

In the past week I have written nearly 10,000 words. yay! That makes me incredibly proud of myself. I have absolutely no doubt that I'm on track for my birthday/The End celebration at the end of the month. (Finally told my husband about it...he's cool!)

For the last couple of days, I've written along side some music. Never done that before. I usually need complete silence. Occasionally I can write with my husband watching t.v. but that is a huge distraction for me.

Part of it, I think, were that the songs were either playing in the scenr, or my characters look was "inspired" by the artist. It was tremendously helpful and inspiring. Do you play with music? I know some people write with headphones in. Hmmmm, I'd be willing to try it but don't think I could do it often.

Also, almost a year to the day I posted about "should I or shouldn't I " regarding Twitter. I ended up joining that day, just to get my name, but I didn't tweet until yesterday! Crazy?! It felt kind of good. Don't know if I can maintain it very well, but we shall see.

Okay, off to write my butt off.

Well said

I'm going to assume I'm the last to the party on this, but have you read Laini Taylor's blog Not for Robots?

Good Gosh, a few paragraphs in and I was on board. She could have sold me on just about anything. I was in her world, she was speaking to me. No ones thoughts on writing have resonated with me like these.

Like I said, I'm sure you've seen it, but if not...brace yourself. I've been completely reinvigorated and inspired. My feelings and process have also been validated.

I'll tell you what, if she wasn't already an amazing published author (hello Amazon top 10 of 2011!!) and I was an agent that stumbled across these little essays on writing?? I would sign her on these words alone. Truth. Such amazing stuff.

www.notforobots.blogspot.com