Videos bring us closer together

I'm not sure how you feel about videoing yourself, but I felt like a big goober when I did it.

Let me back up a minute and tell you why I'm talking about this. I have a group of writer friends. They are from EVERYWHERE, even Canada. We call ourselves the 'Goat Posse'. (That's a long, story that was funny at the time and you wouldn't get it, so we won't go into our sorted past...lol.) We cover every coast and a lot of states in between. They are some of the coolest, loving, most supportive people in the universe. But only a few of us have ever met each other in person. I've been fortunate enough for a group of them to Skype me when they got together in Vegas for the last two summers. So I've talked to a few, but not all of them.

So one of them....young and brave Ashlee, made a video so we could hear her sweet, squeaky voice. I just LOVED it. To be able to hear and see her was so great. I giggled and watched it about four times. Then I thought, I want everybody else to do this too. Well....I couldn't want everybody else to do it if I wasn't willing to do it.
So, with my trusty cell phone, I tried to talk to it....delete. I tried again...delete. I felt like an idiot talking to my phone, but then I remembered who it was for. My crew. The posse. The people that are so full of awesome, they're getting published left and right. Two of them posted a video from ALA this weekend in Philly, I think.
After about 4 more tries, I got mine posted on our page..finally. In all the cringe-worthiness of everything I saw wrong in that video, of course...they didn't care. They didn't care that I didn't have on any make up. They didn't care that I had on a sweatshirt and a jacket because it had been freezing cold ALL day. They didn't care that my hair wasn't fixed. I'm not even sure I'd washed it that day. They didn't care that I'm about 40 pounds overweight and hate how fat my face looks in pictures now. All they cared about was me. They love me--who I am as a person and a writer. They are the people who told me I was a writer, because before any of them said it, I didn't really believe I was. I just liked to hang out with them because they are so awesome and I loved their work and them as people. Now there are only a few of them that haven't posted videos yet. I've gone back and watched the ones that are up over and over to hear their voices so I can hear them in my head when I read what they've written on the screen.
I don't know about the rest of them, but I feel closer to them now more than ever. They're more than just a name, picture and comments...we can hear each other....I think this is going to be the beginning of an even closer knit group.
Love all of you!
Precy, Ashlee, Angela, Bethany, Mary, Lisa, JLo, Anita, Darke, Amy, Eric, Phreshy, Justin, Kalen, Michelle, Kerri, and Rioghnach.

Writing ideas....Are there ever too many?

Wanted to say 'Hey everybody!' Hope y'all are all doing well. I've been out of commission on my blog due to work and writing and family and everything else.
On my mind lately as been all the ideas that spin around in my head like one of those tops you push up and down and it spins on the floor. That's my brain trying to choose one of those bazillion ideas to make my writing good enough to release out into the world.
I don't want to sound like I'm complaining about writing ideas that bombard my brain.....because its much better than being stuck and unable to write anything creative, but sometimes I just get so
OVERWHELMED.
The best way I can describe it is walking into Barnes and Noble...all those books.
All those choices....
When I'm writing, I have trouble reining in my brain. I write the plot in a direction...then after I've gotten in it a little, I change my mind. Because in my brain, it's not good enough or because it's just not quite right. Every time I change it, it feels like it gets better, but at some point, you have to decide to let it go and see what happens.
I haven't gotten that far yet because letting it go also takes courage. Courage I have yet to really feel. I know I'm going to get all these novels that I'm working on published at some point. I may just be 80 before it gets done.
I'd like to thank a friend, one of my 'goat sisters' for helping rein in my brain this week. She really understands how to keep me focused on the main plot and what's going on. Talking face to face via facebook and just talking instead of typing helps me a lot. We did some brainstorming and she mentioned something that completely felt RIGHT. Like on  the nose, OMG, I can't believe I didn't think of that, right. So Thank YOU so much Angela Cook for helping me screw my brain back on and get me pointed in the right direction to get my MS published.
Also, I'm SO proud and excited for her! She accepted a contract on her MS that I've read and LOVED!
Can't wait to hear what the title will be. She'll have to come visit and do an interview.

See y'all later!