Small Things...

So, today is my first week of the weekly "celebrate the small things blog-hop," hosted by VikLit's Writing Blog. I love the idea of celebrating small things that I've achieved and I'm happy about every week. It's always easy to think of things to be down about--particularly during the querying/contest process, but it's not as often that I get a reminder to give myself a pat on the back.

This week it's really easy for me to think of what I'm happy about because I'm a little over 40K in to my new book. It was pretty hard for me to get invested in a whole new story/new characters after working on the last book for over a year. And then, earlier this week, it all clicked and, suddenly, I had this book just pouring out of me like the easiest thing in the world--you guys know what I mean--when the characters start talking so loud you can barely sleep at night for listening to them and you can't wait to get up in the morning to get back to them.

Honestly, I really like the last book I wrote--but it didn't feel like this. I haven't felt this level of inspiration since the very first year I was writing. It's the first time in a really long time that the process isn't cluttered up with doubts and rejections and blah blah blah...None of that matters right now. Right now the story is the most important thing--and the story feels like magic.

And, so you guys can be happy too, here's something for you:

18 things...

In order to celebrate the release of her first book, 18 Things, which is coming out in 2 DAYS!!! JAMIE AYRES  is hosting the 18 THINGS BLOGFEST

I love the idea Jamie came up with for her blogfest! Cause everyone likes goals, right? Everyone loves a bucket list!! I haven't looked at my list in a couple years and it really hit home how much more I have to accomplish and that I better stop being cowardly and get my ass in gear with the querying. So, thank you, Jamie. If you guys haven't signed up yet, you have till the end of January, and Jamie is giving away some awesome prizes. Make sure to go check out her SITE.

 Here is my 18 things...

Get published Technically, I already accomplished this one, so it should really read publish an actual book.

Go to a writer’s conference  Funny that I will never have the money to do this unless I make it writing, at which point maybe it won't seem as important anymore? But I still think it would be fun to meet a ton of people who are passionate about writing!

Swim with dolpins. Cause who doesn't want to swim with dolphins? 

Be an extra in a movie My son was in a Nickelodeon commercial when he was three. I can't have him being the only famous person in the family--it's just not right for him to one-up me like that. 

One of my most popular faces

Get a canvas I made hung in an art gallery. It would probably help this goal immensely to actually make said canvas. 

Volunteer face-paint at a children’s hospital I've volunteered for a million other things with my face-painting skills, but never in a hospital. One of these days...

aaaaawww...

Go snorkeling in Key West I only live eight hours from here. A hop, skip and jump. 

Work at a monkey rescue for a weekend.. Again, who wouldn't want to take care of orphaned primates???

Speak on some sort of panel about writing Unlike most people, I like speaking in public. I generally just like running my mouth. Having a room-full of people who have to listen to me would be awesome. 

Start business making/selling handcrafted mirrors and stuff This is one that requires my husband's help. He seems to need a swift kick in the ass for motivation.

Write/publish a book with my son Enough said.

I need to see the person who can do this
and not snap their body in half like a
matchstick. 

See Cirque Du Soleil I've always been fascinated with this, but the tickets are horrendously expensive. I might just settle for watching the movie when it comes out. Does that count?

Go to California The geography fascinates me. CA has everything, if you're willing to drive around the state to find it. Mountains, deserts, oceans, snow, beautiful weather. Literally any landscape you could want. 

Prague

Visit somewhere outside the U.S. Preferrably Venice or Prague. Between Cassie Clare and Laini Taylor, I'm dying to see both these places. 

Take my family on a Disney Cruise There is nothing Disney that I don't like. Except their prices, of course.

Buy at least one of the beautiful Disney paintings they sell in the awesome gallery in Downtown Disney Again, pricey, but sooooo pretty. I love the oil paintings the most. 

Take my husband to a UFC fight! He's a huge UFC fan and I'd love to do this for him. 

This one kind of goes with the first but, since it’s my biggest dream by far; I get to say it twice. Walk into a bookstore and see my book on the shelf. Everyone reading understands this one completely...

In order to participate in this blogfest, I decided to forego my normal Teaser Tuesday post this week--but I'll be back next week! 

The Worst Beginning Ever...

So, MISHA GERRICK is hosting the WORD MASTER CHALLENGE. You can click on the link to get the details. Her challenge for this month is to write a horrible beginning to a novel, in less than 300 words. That was a challenge I couldn't resist and I had a ton of fun with it, so thanks, Misha, for coming up with this one!!

Can't wait to see next month's challenge! And, here is my try at the worst beginning ever:

 I am running, my feet sinking into the drenched, grimy earth! The moist texture of the terrane reminds me of the ambrosial chocolate pudding with crumbling towers of Oreo cookies that my sweet mama used to make. “Mama, can I stir?” “be careful, honey.” “I will be, mama” Stirring the pudding I am humming as warmth embraces me in it’s silky busom.

     My breath bounces from my lungs as I look behind myself, wretchedly wishing I was stirring pudding and singing beautiful songs,  instead of in this ebony coppice, that’s just like the forest from Snow White, in that part where the trees blaze to jagged life and grasp with emaciated arms! Only, in Snow White, it was her imagination. I only wish this is my imagination, but the undulating wailing of the hounds hunting behind me demolishes my hopes to shredded tatters of dreams.

     If the dogs capture me they will slash me to shreds as I shriek my last torn-apart howls of agony!! But still, I would slaughter that Lord again, even knowing that I would be dashing through this atramentous forest. The Lord was wrong to do what he did and somebody had to halt the evil that gushes from him like a river splashing into a gargantuan waterfall!

Someone had to be lionhearted!

And that someone was me!

     And I was glad, even as I flee with my heart now bashing against the stockade  of my chest, trying to pulse itself free with it’s steady punching pulse. 

     It pumps faster and I am panicking now, wondering what to do, but just then my eyes pop open as I bolt upright in bed, drinking in razor-sharp whoops of oxygen. It was a dream. 

CHANCE...

Me and Chance face-painted in Gryffindor colors
 for Harry Potter

So, really quickly, I'd like to start by saying to everyone that I'm sorry if I haven't been around on your blogs as much lately. I do my very best to keep up with everyone, but I am also hard at work on a new book and it's taking up a lot of my time. You guys all know how that is!!

Me and Chance being ridiculous together
at Target. I love how silly he is!

Which leads me right into what I wanted to talk about for this weeks Thursday's Children Post. For those of you who don't know, Thursday's Children is a weekly bloghop hosted by Rhiann Wynn-Nolet at NEST OF WORDS  and KRISTINA PEREZ. It's a really fun bloghop, all about what inspires us as writers. I'm always surprised that more people don't join in, the linky-list is open and you guys can hop on board any week!!

So, lately I've been finding my inspiration sitting directly beside me, kicking my butt to write faster. haha...His name is Chance and he's my sixteen year old son. We're almost 30K into a book we are writing together and it has been an awesome experience.

He looked so cute here I had to include this one. This is
him and his oldest sister, Cait.

I was the one who got Chance interested in writing. As I've learned and grown as a writer, I've tried to pass those lessons onto him. Because I'm the one who taught him (my kids are homeschooled)  his writing style is close enough to mine that we mesh really well. We also tend to think similarly, especially when it comes to making up crazy stories. In fact, I'd venture to say that, out of all my four kids, Chance is the one whose thought process is the most like mine.

Chance and his best buddy Jace,
just hanging out like guys do

BUT--having said all that, he's not me. haha. He's far, far from me. And having his input into this book has taken it in directions that I would've never thought of going. This is--by far--the most action-packed thing I've tried to write. I'd say it's the first of my books that's equally plot and character-driven. It's much more raw than my last two books, and I love the grittier feel to it.

 It's also the first book I've written where the romance is strictly sub-plot, and that's been cool as well--venturing out of my comfort zone. Plus, Chance brings in the perfect authentic viewpoint of a teenage boy. Since the book is told in dual view-points of two teenage boys, that's a really handy thing to have.

Chance stealing my horse right in the middle
of the ride!! He just got on and pushed me out
of the way!

I had to include this one, just cause it's so cool.
Chance takes his Halloween costumes very
seriously. This is an amalgamation of
the Steampunk Giraffe Band Members

 Having Chance as my partner has been a truly amazing, inspiring experience. If any of you ever get the opportunity to write with someone else, I would highly recommend it. There's nothing like having someone else who loves your stories and characters as passionately as you do, who can help you plan when you get stuck, who can bounce ideas off you and dig you out of plot holes!!

And, if you can find a writer who you happen to love more than anything else under the sun, I'd definitely say that's icing on the cake!! Can you tell this guy is my best friend? :)

And, for anyone who's curiosity is peaked, I got tagged (again!) in the Next Big Thing bloghop, so I'll be posting more about me and Chance's book sometime this weekend.

Teaser Tuesday

So, it's time for Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Miz Biz at SHOULD BE READING. If you'd like to play, just grab the book you're currently reading, open to a random page, share 2 teaser sentences from somewhere on that page. Make sure not to include spoilers!!! Share the title and the author too, so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR pile!!

My book this week, Paper Valentine, is by one of my favorite authors, Brenna Yovanoff. 

This is her third book--following The Replacement and The Space Between. 

All three are excellent and I'd highly recommend them to anyone--but I think this might've been my favorite so far. It was deep and thoughtful and poetic and sweet and frightening and morbid and true. All at once. 

The afternoon is still fresh like a slap, and Finny Boone is probably a sociopath. A big, lighter-stealing sociopath. But his eyes are steady and complicated, and I haven't really taken the time to notice boys since before Lillian died. 

ABNA AND CUPID'S LIT AND PITCH WARS OH MY

Who doesn't love a good contest???

So, with the holidays over it seems like the contest season is starting up. I'm entering whatever ones I can because contests offer so much more than just the chance at an agent. I've met amazing people in almost every one I entered and that alone is reason enough to keep trying my luck with them.

Also, speaking of contests, I got a lot of really helpful answers on my POST about ABNA. I'd like to go on record as saying I wasn't asking because I have some overblown idea that I'm like a shoo-in for the finalist round or something... haha. It was just curiosity, which was well satisfied by the answers I received.
I am psyched about entering though! I know it's a huge long shot, but it's exciting in the same sort of way as playing the lottery. There's always that chance. :)

 I'm also going to try to submit to the Blind Speed Dating contest going on over at CUPID'S LIT right now. If you haven't checked it out, make sure to head over!! It's really amazing. There's going to be an auction, a kissing scene contest and even some sort of conference. Details HERE!

And, my entry is already for Pitch Wars. For anyone who is interested in pitching on Twitter, there will be a Twitter Pitch Party during Pitch Wars. Details are on Kimberly P. Chase's site. Even if you aren't interested in that, you should visit Kim's site anyway, just because she is awesome!!! People like her are the reason I enter contests. She is my Pitch Wars mentor (I am one of her alternates) and she has done  SO much to help me. I'm really, really lucky she chose me as an alternate and I know, whatever happens with the contest, I will stay in touch with Kim.

Exactly how I feel as I reach for the submit button

So, I'm buckling myself in tightly as I get ready to hit the roller coaster ride again. Anyone know of any other contests coming up? Are you guys entering any of these?

Best of luck to everyone!!

Quick Question about ABNA

Okay...so, I never blog on Saturdays, but I have a  question for you guys. I am entering the Amazon Breakout Novel Award  in two days--as I'm sure a lot of you are. I was reading the rules tonight and I noticed that, when you get to the higher level (or maybe it was just the highest level--I'm not sure) that the winner is determined by popular vote.

I know there are no names/contact info. allowed on the entries, but--if someone got that high up--what is to stop them from telling all their friends/family to vote for them? Some people have a TON of friends and family. That could conceivably tip the vote. And, it seems like a lot of contests that are determined by "popular vote" turn into nothing but popularity contests.

Still, I understand that I'm talking about the biggest writing contest in the industry. So, I'm assuming they have some kind of safeguard in place for that? This cannot possibly be all on the good ole' fashioned honor system? Somebody please tell me it's not.

You guys might remember the Kissing Scene contest I was in a few months ago. I talked about it a lot. And, in the end, someone cheated so much that the whole thing ended up going in front of an impartial judge and the "popular" vote was discounted.

I was really happy I won, but it sort of tainted the experience. And made me a little wary about entering anything where the popular vote determines the winner. And that was for a three chapter critique by an agent. This is for a fifty-thousand dollar prize!!! Fifty thousand dollars. Hell, even the four first place winners get fifteen thousand dollars. People WILL cheat for that kind of money, if given any opportunity to do so. I'm sorry to sound all jaded and such--but it's the truth.

So, am I missing something here???

Does anyone out there have any information on how this is run, or any thoughts about it?

The motto of too many people