Monday, September 20, 2010

Diana Gabaldon interviews

I love all things Diana Gabaldon...I watched some interviews she did and she is so funny!  Her books are an inspiration to me.  I absolutely love Claire and Jaime...her two main characters in her Outlander series she's written.  I can only dream of being able to write any story half as good as that....

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Changed my mind

I do that a lot...had a friend read my two first pages and she said it was too much...a  little over the top, so I'm sticking with what I've got, just added a few minor details.  I think it's better.  I hope so.  :)

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Remember...

     Today is a day of remembering....9/11 happened 9 years ago.  My daughter Shannon was in 2nd grade.  Trying to explain everything to her was hard when she was little, but we answered whatever questions she had the best we could.  It's hard to explain something like that to a kid when you don't even understand it yourself. 
    
Another thing I thought about today that I had forgotten...I'm trying to write for everybody else.  I suffer from  'people pleaser' syndrome.  I put the first page of my manuscript on a website to be critiqued.  The first review I got wasn't good.  Said the idea wasn't original enough and they didn't like it.  After that, I proceeded to completely rewrite my first page to make it more exciting.  Rewriting the first page usually translates into rewriting everything else too.  I even thought about completely rewriting the whole thing. 

Then I remembered an interview Rob Pattinson did while he was promoting one of the Twilight movies.  He said if he tried to please everybody he would go insane.  All he could do was what he liked and thought was good and if people like it great and if not, that's ok too.  That's what I need to do.  If I post something...everybody's not going to like it.  I know that, but ...I want it to be the best it can be, so if I need to change something I will, but at the same time...I need to remember the story that I like and stay with it.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Currently reading:

I'm reading "The Help" right now.  Great book, but I keep getting side tracked with life and haven't picked it back up.  I've also started "Water for Elephants".  I wanted to read it before the movie comes out with my favorite guy, Rob Pattinson.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Thinking about shaking up the first page of my novel.....hmm....

I'm thinking about changing the situation in the very beginning of my novel....right now, it seems a little boring...but I've been told it's because I've read it so much, it doesn't effect me any more.  I think I'm going to put the first page I have up here first and then write a different one and see what people think....

Sunday, September 5, 2010

New picture

Here's an updated picture of us at Melissa and LaBrone's wedding.

Red head

In the picture to the left, I'm the red-head on the right. That's my life-long buddy, Dane, on the left and my other life-long buddy, Sam, in the middle. Love those girls!

Well, I'm back!

I started this blog in 2007 with the intention of keeping up with it. Then came Shannon going to middle school and soccer games...then cheerleading...games and competitions. So here it is, Sept. of 2010 and now I've decided I need to give this blogging thing another 'go', as my friends from Oz would say.
We're still busy, but Shannon has her license now, so I'm not in the car quite as much. Cassidy has started middle school, so her teachers give her time to do the homework in class, which is fabulous!
I got this bright idea in 2008 to try to write a novel. Never done that before...not ever...never was really a 'reader'. I don't really feel like I even have a right to try and write because I'm so behind on my reading. I have been reading more now. When I was younger, it was always so hard for me to read and understand what I read. I had a comprehension problem from the time I could read until adulthood. When I took a reading test, I had to read passages more than once to understand everything in them.
For a long time, I thought I had ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) because my mind just goes off in every direction while I'm trying to focus on something....and then sometimes it doesn't..

A friend with almost enough credits to have a psychology degree told me he thought I had Central Auditory Processing Disorder. So I Googled it and it said reading comprehension issues was one of the problems of this disorder. I also have trouble understanding what people tell me. Sometimes I have to have things repeated more than once because it sounds scrambled to me the first time I hear it. My husband thinks I just can't hear. I've told him before, "I heard what you said, I just didn't understand you."
My friend also told me the therapy for this disorder is music, so me being a music teacher has helped me overcome this 'reading' issue. Now I can read much quicker with much better comprehension. I'm definitely a success story. I want to share my new found love and try my hand at writing.
And so on Oct. 2008, Fall Break of that year, I started writing. I've written the equivalent of three books so far.
I've been on websites and researched how to become a published author. It ain't easy.
Lots of hoops to jump through. Lots of writing, rewriting, editing...reading and learning about the craft of writing.
So here I am...close to my two year anniversary starting this new adventure. I'm being patient. If I get in a hurry, I'll screw it up. I want to make sure I'm doing everything right.
Hopefully, I'll not only have the 'know-how', but enough talent to be considered by an agent.

I want to use this blog to post my progress as a writer and the ups and downs of someone trying to break into the world of being a successful, published author...
and so....the adventure begins.....