A Work in Progress

Warning! Warning! I will be blogging for all of April! Totally shocking, I know. Especially coming from someone who maybe blogs once a week. So, what has gotten into me? And why would I do something so drastic as to blog everyday for a month? I'm doing this awesome "blog challenge" if you will. It's kind of like NaNoWriMo , which was about writing a novel in thirty days. But this, this A to Z challenge, is about blogging on the topic of an alphabet letter-- a different one-- everyday for the next thirty days, minus a few sundays off. It's called Blogging from A to Z challenge April 2012. I thought about writing about The Hunger Games, because that is super trendy-- and because it would capture most peoples' interest.  It wouldn't be hard to do, especially because the difficult letter K is already filled for lead character Katniss. However, I'm sure a gazillion bloggers are going to do this. Oh, and it doesn't help that I haven't read the

If you don't know about Ereader News Today or Pixel of Ink , then you're missing out on free books. Sure, some are newbie self-published authors (like myself) but there are plenty of very established authors that offer up their book free everyday. Check out these two sites, like them on FB, or sign up to recieve their newsletter, and you'll never be in want for books ... for free. I've already FAR too many books on my ipad ... but they're free! Just a happy reminder, that I'm offering my new book The Puzzle Master for free again this saturday, the 24th of March. Know anyone who would like to read this? Have a middle-grade/YA reader? Friend or family member? Be sure to send them the book. You can do that! Just go to  the page, and send it as a gift. And hey, if you don't want to wait, then buy it today. It's only $.99! The Puzzle Master Also, remember: you don't need a Kindle to read any of these books. You can download it to your ipad, iph

I had this cool essay that I thought about writing. So, what did I do? I didn’t write it. Instead, I sat on the idea for about three days. I would go back to the idea, while I was cooking, while I was doing laundry, while I was exercising and watching Murder She Wrote reruns, and by the time I sat down to write it –something I really didn’t want to do, because I wasn’t even sure how to write it—the whole thing came tumbling out in about fifteen minutes. Mind you, it was definitely not pretty. It was mashed-up, ugly and not readable. However, after I edited it about two times, things improved. And after a few more edits, it might even be printable. Why am I telling you this? 1 . Because I realized I wrote for 15 minutes and came up with seven hundred words. That’s so cool and very hard to do. If I did that every day for an hour I could have a “book” written in a month or less. In the real world, words rarely come that fast and furious. 90,000 words is usually a three-month thing a

Here's a view --from the outside-- of my ash and birch trees. Every day, I go to my writing desk -- one that includes a PC, paper and pens, and a spot for my unending cup of coffee -- and write. Well, each day except Sunday. I do need a day of rest. But this is my writing spot; it's where I go for inspiration, creativity and dreaming. If it changed, I would also have to seriously change my writing process and routine. A  writer-friend of mine recently  blogged about how her beloved writing spot has drastically changed: how three of her neighbor's trees were cut down in a matter of hours over the course of three days! Not just little trees mind you, but decades-old trees that not only provided shade and glorious beauty, but inspiration for her work. She depended on these trees, even if subconsciously. The trees are gone now and it's as if three family members have died. She basically has to re-establish her writing routine. Though they are mere trees, they