Box of Chocolates

A friend in the past year told me I had to read a book called, Outlander .  I didn't buy it for a while then one day Amazon had this flash sale of seven books in the series for Kindle.  I jumped on the deal as soon as my friend posted it on my Facebook page. I still didn't start to read the series but knew I got a good deal and would start it one day. Well, that one day was near the end of 2015 and I just started book 4. I didn't know what to expect.  I didn't even read what the series was about or any reviews.  I was just going on my friends word that it was a must read. Diana Gaboldon, wow! She writes like I want to write. I will be honest it has some content that is shocking to me but her words and the no hold back writing makes me want to read more. I have fallen in love with a fictional character.  I told my friend that recommended the book if Jamie dies, our friendship will too. That was in book one. Recently Diana Gaboldon posted on Facebook about whe...

" I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." ~Rosa Parks  One of my biggest writing blocks is fear. This quote today just hit me like a ton of bricks. Maybe it is my age, my position in life or that today was the day that I needed to read these words of wisdom. I have not even tried to write since NaNoWriMo.   I did start a new journal January 1st but I only got a couple of days in and was already not writing daily. A good book will do that to you. My friend recommended a series that I can not put down. Makes me think about a quote I read that says something like, nothing renders me useless like a really good book. I want to write one of those!  I want my written word to render someone useless.  Life just happens to me sometimes. I am a mother of three kids, my oldest is now a teen. Things do come up suddenly but I need to take my life back. No more blaming ...

Well, NaNoWriMo was a bust for me.  I received an unexpected phone call with a job offer doing what I have done for free for years, tutoring. I didn't even apply for the job but volunteer hours pay off in the end.  My job title is interventionist and it is more than tutoring.  I love that I am getting paid for doing something I love, teaching kids to read.  Oh the joy of reading.  It is what leads us to want to write. I am waiting to go to work and thought this would be a good time to write.  I am not a fan of new years resolutions but I did commit to writing more.  I started on the first day of 2016 and it is only the 8th day and I have not written everyday.  Although, everyday was not my goal but would have been ideal to say at the end of the year, "I wrote something everyday." I can't do that and the pressure is off but also, there is not the driving force to do it everyday. My smart phone is broken and that seems to suck up a lot of my fre...

Now that I am more confident in my story I wanted to post a blog. I wish I could do one everyday during NaNoWriMo but I have a word count goal to meet everyday and blogging doesn't count. I am behind, like done in April behind. I work best under pressure. Time crunches are my favorite fuel other than coffee. It is sad to me that I know this and admit it openly. My book will get done and it will be late on the last night when I put my story in to verify word counts. I am writing! Just not the word counts I need to stay on track for the due date. At some point last year my estimated date to finish was January of 2016, in November of 2014. I still "won" so even though the graphs and data are fun to watch it can be daunting to see.  I am here to shout.... You can win!   The good news it is only day 5. I am a pantser and I really didn't plan anything in October. I have a list of things I like and use that to fuel my writing. Day 3 was the first day I had the feeli...

Some people will start NaNoWriMo at midnight tonight. I will not stay up for those kind of shenanigans. I did write on my calendar NaNoWriMo Eve. My kids think it should say Halloween. Bah! Here it is less than 24 hours until NaNoWriMo and I am going to be honest. I don't feel like I have 50,000 words to write. My mind is working overtime on life situations, you know that crazy phone call I got yesterday. I woke up at 6:30 AM thinking about that and not my novel. I have to change my mindset today.  Not to exclude one or the other but make allowances for both.   I am having second thoughts, as always. The devil on my shoulder is telling me I don't have good ideas or any at all. To that I say, "HUSH!" NaNoWriMo believes everyone has a story to tell. I have to write to find that story. I will start a novel tomorrow. I will get 50,000 words. How do I know? First drafts are for me. It will be awful, ugly and flow like a rip tide at times but I know from last year it ...

I am so glad the day I had today happened on October 30th and not November 1st.  I have a simple life so there is no excuse to not write but today was a little out of control.  Today was a freaky Friday.  It was a perfect example of expect the unexpected I talked about this week.   I am going to try and sum it up as fast as possible.   I had lots of things I had to do today because well, I procrastinate sometimes. Not intentionally. Time gets away from me fast some weeks. I think it is part of the simple life. I sometimes have too much time on my hands so I tend to be too flexible with how I spend some of my time which leads me to trouble. Just being honest. Having a kid home of Tuesday didn't help the need to get things done.  Hard to shop when you have a sick kid home from school.   My husband last night said, "What is wrong with the dog's eye?" I looked at it and didn't think much until this morning when there was clearly something wrong....

As you can tell I love the NaNoWriMo. Last year an opportunity came up to become an ambassador for NaNoWriMo. It really didn't take much to apply. They just need help to spread the word about them and what it is they do. I try to help this non-profit because as a former educator I see the importance of writing with a purpose. Even if the purpose is a crazy challenge that makes you wonder if you are insane for signing up. I know that writing scores are the worst at my kids school. The scores are not bad overall but the writing portion of standardized testing scores are lower than math, science and reading. Kids need a purpose to write other than test taking. When I first learned about NaNoWriMo I looked into why I had not heard of them while I was in the classroom. It was all about timing.  They were starting up when I was leaving the classroom to raise my 2.5 kids.  I hope one day to be the classroom teacher that as a class we do NaNoWriMo. Another reason why I wanted to...