EXPRESS YOURSELF--FAVORITE COUPLES...

Hey guys,

I've been meaning to participate in Express Yourself for awhile now, but I kept getting sidetracked. Anyway, I finally managed to get my act together and remember this week! haha. If you guys are interested Express Yourself is a weekly meme hosted by Jackie Felger at Bouquet of Books and Dani at Entertaining Interests. 

As you can see by the picture, each week they ask a different fun and interesting question.

This weeks question is: Who is your favorite couple? They can be fictional, historical or even present day.

Being a bit of a romance junkie, I think this is an awesome question. Since I read mostly YA, the first couples to come to mind were both from my favorite YA books: The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices, by Cassandra Clare.

Let me start by saying I absolutely adore Jace and Clary from The Mortal Instruments. They are just so damn in love, but nothing is ever easy for them. Every time they start to catch a break, fate chucks another monkey-wrench right at their heads. It's always a blast to read about their struggle to remain true to each other while fighting the forces of evil. :) Plus, Jace is your classic bad boy saved by the love of a good woman, and I can never seem to resist that.
“There is no pretending,” Jace said with absolute clarity. “I love you, and I will love you until I die and if there’s a life after that, I’ll love you then.”

Tied with them for my favorite couple are Will and Tessa from Infernal Devices. Or do I mean Jem and Tessa? Crap! I can never choose!!

Although I normally don't really enjoy love triangles, this particular one is so well done I'm totally captivated. The fact that Will and Jem love each other just as much as they love Tessa gives this "love triangle" an added dimension that I haven't seen done before--or at least not done anywhere near this well.

Plus, normally, in these situations, it's disgustingly clear who the girl will choose. This isn't like a Twilight thing where everyone always knew that Bella would choose creepy-ass sparkly-icicle Edward over  fun-loving, hot-as-hell Jacob.  hehe...sorry...I digress...

I can't believe I found a Game of Thrones/Infernal Devices
reference. I couldn't resist!!!

In this particular triangle, it's impossible to see what choice Tessa will make. I honestly believe she's in love with both these boys. (And I'm highly impressed that Cassandra Clare somehow made a situation I wouldn't normally believe possible seem perfectly feasible.) Plus, no matter who Tessa chooses, nobody is walking away in one piece. The whole tragedy of it all makes for irresistible reading.

Honestly, now that I've been forced to really think about this...I've decided my second choice for favorite "couple" is Jem and Will. I'm fully aware that these two are not romantically in love. But the friendship and brotherhood between them is just as compelling as any love story I've ever read. In fact, it's Jem and Will's friendship, even more than their love for Tessa, that keeps me fully invested in these books.

“But—but...” Will sputtered.
“Oh, leave it,” said Jem, kicking Will, not without affection, lightly on the ankle.
“She annexed my plan!”
“Will,” Tessa said firmly. “Do you care more about the plan being enacted or about getting credit for it?”
Will pointed a finger at her. “That,” he said. “The second one.” 
― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince

So, what about you guys? Who are some other great couples you love?

Celebrate and Spunk on a Stick...

Okay, so I want to post about a couple things today. One is the Celebrate the Small Things Bloghop hosted by VikLit and the other is a book promotion for Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick which I signed up for and then somehow stupidly missed. I'm sorry Diane!!

So, I'll start out with the Celebrate  bloghop. For anyone interested in joining, we post every Friday about whatever we want to celebrate that week.

I have some awesome stuff to celebrate!! The first and absolutely biggest, most important thing is that my youngest daughter, Kassidy Rose, won first place in a young adult playwright competition. The contest was open to all eighth graders in our county, including homeschoolers like Kass. She will receive $500.00 and on top of that, get to cast, direct and put on the play at our local community theater. This is the second year in a row Kassidy has won first place and I'm so proud of her!! And yes, I felt the need to post two pictures of my beautiful girl, cause I couldn't decide which one to use to show her off. :)

My other things are much smaller--but they still made me happy. One is a beautiful dragon shield my daughter, Meggie, got me for my birthday. I wish I could've captured the sheen of light on the silver parts, but my iPhone wouldn't pick that up. Still, I managed to get a pretty good shot of it. :)

The other is this adorable dragon incense burner my husband bought me. I named him Rhaegal after one of the dragon babies on Game of Thrones. Please note the smoke coming out of Rhaegal's nose. I think this is one of my favorite b'day presents ever!

And, sticking with the theme of dragon's, Al Diaz at Father Dragon Writes awarded me the Cutie Pie award. Yay! I was very honored, cause Al has one of my all time favorite blogs. For anyone who hasn't checked it out, I highly suggest you stop by Father Dragon's blog to hear the wisdom and humor he dispenses on a daily basis. 

 And, to make it even better, I get to pass the award on to five other people! So, I nominate: Jaybird at The Birds Nest, Sus at Book Reviews by Sus, Chris Allen-Riley, David Powers King and Ella at Ella's Edge. These are all excellent blogs and I really hope you guys take a minute to check them out if you aren't already following. :)

And, even though I'm late posting for Diane, here is the information on her awesome book, you guys should definitely check it out!!

HOW TO PUBLISH AND PROMOTE YOUR BOOK NOW!

By L. Diane Wolfe

Publishing and promoting made simple!

Have you always dreamed of publishing a book but didn’t know where to begin? This book walks you through the steps of identifying markets, budgeting, building an online presence, and generating publicity. Get the whole story on:

• Traditional publishing

• Self-publishing

• Print and e-book setup, formatting, and distribution

• Finding your target audience

• Generating reviews and media interest

• Networking and developing an online presence

• Promotional materials and appearances

Uncover your ideal publishing path and numerous marketing options before you begin. Writing is your dream. Give it the best chance for success!

$14.95 Trade paperback ISBN 978-0-9827139-5-2
$4.99 Ebook ISBN 978-0-9827139-9-0
Publishing/Marketing, 210 pages, Dancing Lemur Press LLC

Purchase at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Amazon Kindle UK, and Powell’s.

“She gives an unbiased take on the advantages and disadvantages of traditional publishing and self-publishing and publishing paths that combine the two… It's the perfect book for those who want an overview to begin the decision-making process.” 
- Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning series of how-to books for writers 

“A must-read for writers planning on self-publishing or any writer who wants the ultimate how-to on promoting. Tons of links, advice, and how-to, whether you're going for print or e-publication.” 
- Helen Ginger, author of Angel Sometimes 


May it help you on your journey!

IWSG

So, it's Insecure Writer's Support Group, and I almost missed it!! I'm posting a twinge late, but I'm getting it done. :)

For those of you who don't know IWSG is hosted by the awesome Alex Cavanaugh. It's a place where, on the first Wed. of every month, insecure writers everywhere come together to cheer each other on or just commiserate about our trials. If you haven't signed up, make sure to add your name to the list!!

Also, be sure to visit this month's co-hosts, Stephen Tremp and Julie Flanders!


Since I'm posting a bit late and, since my last post before this was pretty heavy, I decided to go with the path of cheering up anyone who  might be feeling a little down/insecure today. Just remember, at one point, JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyer and Suzanne Collins were all just beginner writers--the same as you and me!

And now they are big enough that the whole world knows what this means....

And this:

This:

Haha...you guys know I had to include extra Harry Potter stuff, right? Hope this made you smile. Have a great day!! 

Overcoming Adversity...

Today is the Adversity Bloghop, hosted by Nick Wilford at Scattergun Scribblings. This bloghop is to raise money for college for Nick's stepson, Andrew, who has cerebral palsy. I think it's an excellent cause and would highly encourage anyone reading this to check out Nick's blog to learn more about it. 

P.S. As a quick addendum, I've been looking around at other people's stuff and realized I did this wrong. My apologies. I guess it was supposed to be a short story--more like a fiction kind of piece. I thought we were supposed to talk about actual adversities we'd overcome. So, I guess I messed up the rules a bit, but I'm still leaving this up cause I wrote it and I tried but, fair warning for anyone reading, that this is not like the other stories on this bloghop. 

I thought a lot about what to write for this. We all have our things in life to overcome and I've definitely had my share of adversity. There are a lot of things that would've been much easier to talk about than what I ended up choosing.

But, in the end, I decided to write the story you're about to read. I wanted to write about this because, at the time that it happened, there were days I didn't think I'd get through it. There were days when all I wanted was to never wake up again. But, after a long, long time, I came out the other side of it and maybe somebody will read this and will know that, no matter how horrible something is, there can still be a life beyond it--just maybe not the life you thought you'd have.

I was only eighteen when I married my husband. Twenty-one when I gave birth to our first daughter, Caitlyn. Twenty-two when our second little girl, Meggie, was born. Twenty-four when I had our first son, little Marc--dubbed Quick at some point during the pregnancy and known to everyone as such.

 Looking back, it's so crazy. We were little more than kids ourselves. We were still young enough to believe we were indestructible and, by extension, so were our babies. And yeah, other people had bad things happen to them--but me and Marc had both already lived tough lives. We'd already overcome so much adversity that it never occurred to me how much worse there could be on the horizon...We were young and  in love and  life seemed kinda like one of those country songs--the one where the washing machine breaks and the bills don't get paid, but you know it's all gonna work out in the end. We had these beautiful kids and we had each other and we had our whole lives stretched out in front of us like an endless summer.

And then, when Quick was three and a half months old, he died on Christmas day. We all laid down for a nap, only our little boy never woke back up. I won't ever forget the sound of my husband's screams when he found him. It took a really long time for me to hear any music in my life again, because all I could hear for a lot of years were those screams.

There are probably people reading this who are wondering why I would write about something as horrific as a baby dying. But I'm writing about it because it happened. We lost our son and, in losing him, lost our hope and our faith and our youth and ourselves. And it took a long time to find those things again.

And during that time, we wanted to give up. We both wanted to  die...but we didn't. Because we still had two little girls to live for. We still had each other. And those things are worth fighting for.

It's been nineteen years now. Long enough to look back and know that, if Quick had never died, our whole lives would have been different. I wouldn't have ever had any more kids, which means Chance and Kassidy would've never been born. The person I was before I lost my son would've never considered something like homeschooling--a choice that radically changed the people all four of my children grew into.

Looking back, the person I was before Quick is almost a stranger to me.  I have to believe that he came along to touch my heart and touch my life and force me--through the heartbreaking loss of him--to become the person I was meant to be.

 Sometimes I look at Chance (that's where we got the name, he was our second Chance) and I wonder if he looks like his brother. I wonder if  Quick would've liked to write? Or would he have been more into sports? Would he have had the same sense of humor as Chance or would he have been more serious? Those are questions I'll never be able to answer. But I was meant to have Chance. I cannot regret having him. Having Kassidy. I cannot regret having the life the loss of Quick lead to.

But I will always regret that I didn't get to watch my first little boy grow up. I will always miss him. I will always love him. And I will always hope that someday, somehow, I get to hold him in my arms again. 

Until then, I will tell him thank you for coming into my life for as long as he did. For making me a better person and a better parent. For giving me his little brother and sister. For all of it.

Thank you, son.

Celebrate the Small Things

It's Friday again, which means it's time for the Celebrate the Small Things Bloghop, hosted by VicLit at Scribblings of an Aspiring Writer. Make sure to pop over to say hi and sign up to celebrate with us!

So, I was thinking of things to be grateful for and the first thing that popped into my head is one of the first things that always pops into my head when I remember what I have to be thankful for--my husband.

He is the best, most-supportive, awesome husband in the world. We've been married for twenty-five years last June, and I wouldn't be who I am without him. He has been the single-most defining force in my life, the one person I can always count on, no matter what. He is also a great father who is always there for our four kids.

I've been in love with him since I was fifteen and I only love him more now than I did all those years ago.

What about you guys? Married? Single? What are you grateful for this week?

Thursdays Children...Inspiration...

So, it's Thursday again. Boy these weeks are going fast! That means it's time for Thursday's Children, hosted by the lovely Rhiann Wynn-Nolet and Kristina Perez.

I spent a lot of tonight reading over what me and Chance, (my son) have written so far in our book. We're now 55,000 words in--so 2/3 of the way there. It was past due to see if the chapters were flowing together as a whole. And...they are. Yay! Haha...

And that's one of the things that inspires me the most about writing. Taking an idea and a character (or set of characters) and watching as, bit by bit, they transform into something new under your fingers. The whole thing really takes on a life of it's own, to where I'm almost looking back and going, "Wow. Did we really write this?"

And I don't mean that in a conceited way--the book is still in it's first draft, so obviously it will need a lot of refining. I mean it more in the way of just being surprised to see how completely real the characters are and how our ideas translate from our head to the page and somehow, on the journey in between, turn into something so unexpectedly alive.

 I used to think if I plotted a book out the whole, "coming to life" thing wouldn't happen. It seemed like that would be something strictly obtained by just flying by the seat of my pants and letting the story do what it would. Turns out I was wrong...

How about you? Do you plot things out or let your characters choose their own paths? Do you feel that your characters/their stories seem to flow from somewhere else when you're really in the zone? Somewhere so far inside of yourself that it almost doesn't seem like you at all? Or is it more of a methodical process?

P.S. Sorry for not putting the linky list up. Go HERE for it! John told me how to post it but it's two in the morning and I have a headache, so I didn't feel like messing with it. haha

Reintroduce Yourself...

Hi guys! Monday again after an awesome weekend. And today is a fun day, cause it's the reintroduce yourself blogfest, hosted by the awesome Mark Koopman, C.M. Brown, Elise Fallson and Stephen Tremp. Make sure to stop by all their sites to say hi!! 

In the meantime, things about myself: 

My favorite place is Disneyworld. My second favorite place is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Because of the two above-mentioned things, my house looks sort of like an ambitious thirteen year old decorated it. Tons of Disney figurines everywhere, a dragon shield in the dining room, and wind-chimes hanging in almost every corner. I don't know what the wind-chimes have to do with anything but I thought I'd mention them. I love it though. It goes with my family, which is loud, irreverent and about as unconventional as someone could get. My four kids, husband, rotten grandson and four doggies are all my favorite parts of being me.