Sunday, September 23, 2012

Another crossed off item on my to-do list.  A blog. Doesn't matter how slow I am - slow and steady wins the race, right?  That's what I tell myself anyway.  It makes me feel better.
Sometimes it feels like my mind is spinning at a thousand miles an hour.  or even a minute.  It almost feels like I could easily become obsessed with writing.  Scary.
I found a wonderful book in the library, like an encyclopedia of monsters and ghosts.  I now have ideas for at least ten or twenty books.  Mostly middle-grades, even adults.
So I'm jotting ideas, story-lines, even names of a couple of books.
And that's while all my kids were home, and even an extra kid!  I cooked, I cleaned, I vacuumed, I did laundry, and I found time to be creative!
I love that book!
If I could only find time to sit and write!  I can't wait!  I'm almost bouncing off the walls just thinking about it!
But first I need to finish editing The Unbelievers - if I still call it that.  I think so; I'm really liking the title.
I am three- quarters done.  So close and its so exciting to be done.
Scratch that - first I need my girls to go to sleep!  My brain does not function in the late evenings.  It shuts off  like a switch by around nine.  If you ask me anything around that time my response will probably be, "Duh -wha?"
Definitely a morning person.  A cheery bopping morning person.  The kind that everybody loves to hate until they've had their seventh cup of coffee.
Just joking.
Mostly.  I am a morning person.
Back to why I am blogging.
Writing. Right.
Soul Catcher still has to be edited this week, so I think I'll get Cassidy to take it to school and do the first edit.  She loves to scratch words out and add more.  To prove me wrong, of course.  She looooooooooves to do that.
And I can try to upload it to Kobo once I get my answer to the ISBN question.
And then the picture books, 'b' of the alphabet series, and then, finally, I will begin one new story.
While I edit The Right Match.
Sigh.
Does it sound like I don't like editing?  Cause I don't.  It's not fun.  Well, the first one is, and maybe the last, but definitely not the ones in between.
So although I did not get to start any new stories/novels, etc., I actually got to write!
As I said before, slow and steady wins the race - right?

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

So this is me.  My very first blog.
I am, technically, and forever, a stay-at-home mom.  Even though I worked part-time this summer as a waitress (and loved it! called it my break) for the first time in probably ten years, I am still a stay-at home mom.
I have four children, aged 15, 12, 10 and 5.  Two boys and 2 girls.  Five if you count my husband.  Love them all even though they can literally drive me nuts, one at a time or 2 or 3 at a time.
So I cook, clean, referee, do laundry, and a million other things in the run of a day.  Other moms (and dads!) you know what I mean, right?
But I also have a dream of being an author.  A real one where people can actually read what I wrote.  Which is more terrifying than it is exciting.  Seriously.
So because my baby girl just started grade one, I made the decision to do it.  I gave myself last year (kindergarten) and this year to prove to myself that I could do it.
I can write.
It's hard some days to leave the laundry or the floors and take the time to write (why do I feel guilty?!).  There would be weeks at a time before I would pick up a pen.  Yes, I still write it out before I put it on the computer.  I am a fast writer (I scribble and shorthand some words-hard to make it out!), and such a sloooooooooow typer.  Really slow.
Last year I finished writing one novel.  For middle-graders, early teens.  I am in the editing stage.
Also last year I completely finished two other novels I had written in the last few years, and I mean completely.  Editing, proofing, covers.  Everything.  Also for middle-grade readers.
It is such an exciting feeling to actually be finished!  How many times have I started a story, a novel, and not finished it?  Too many!
My novel for adults is written, took me YEARS with lots of breaks between working on it again, and is in the editing stage.  Again.
And not only do I love writing novels - I love picture books! So two series of those, one 26 books and the other at least 10, are on my plate.  This is what I work on when I can't get the novels written.
My goal - besides getting my kids to do good in school, and yes, sometimes just to GET them there - is to get at least one third of the picture stories and my 2 middle-grade novels out there, edit my adult novel at least twice more, and write another novel.
Too much to handle for a beginner?
Possibly.
But that's okay.  I'm a forgiver.  As long as I try.
But now that this post is here, it's my promise to myself, and to you, to try not to make a fool of myself by sitting on my behind all day long, in my pajamas, and just play Spider-Solitaire on the computer.
I will write.
Have a wonderful day!
I will try too!