Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts

Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Nothing Is Coming

There is so much difficult stuff going on right now that I haven't even made time to write. I think I want to do this, but I am feeling as apathetic as Morla. Though thankfully I am not currently residing in the Swamps of Sadness, but I feel like I have recently visited.


"We don't even care, whether or not we care"

I have literally made no progress on any of my goals. I have been busy tending to the home stuff, school stuff and personal stuff that writing has fallen to the wayside. I am listening to the book Quitter by Jon Acuff while working on other stuff. He is funny and I am enjoying it, but I fear in my current mood the advice is mostly bouncing off. However, one thing did stick in my head he said there is a formula to fill in and remind you what you need to do to keep you going toward what you are dreaming about doing with your life.

Do I want to _____? Then I have to _____.

He said it was easy to figure out and say, but hard to practice. So mine would look like this:

Do I want to be a writer? Then I have to write every day.

He also suggested using the time first thing in the morning before your excuses have had time to wake up to work on your dream. Then he had a very funny bit about getting up earlier. I am convinced. Trying to work on writing things after the kids have gone to bed is obviously not working for me. Dang, now I sound like Dr. Phil. So I will be trying going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. Hopefully I can beat my little early riser and get some stuff done.

What sacrifices do you make to chase your dreams? Make sure you leave a comment to say hello. Don't forget to let me know where you are visiting from so I can follow you back and see what you're up to.



Photos by Pixabay.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Reading And Partying Not Writing

So if I'm reading and partying I probably don't need to tell you that very little writing has been done. On the long drive to my sister's house I was reading Rock Your Plot: A Simple System for Plotting Your Novel. I am only on the second chapter because it is very hard to read as the kids fight in the back seat. I think I read the same paragraph about 8 times before I shut it down and stopped trying, but I am enjoying it and look forward to getting back to it tonight. I don't see much of a difference so far between Rock Your Plot and Larry Brooks' Story Structure Series over at StoryFix2.0. However, it still has nice tidbits and you never know when something said in a slightly different way will create an aha moment. I am sure I can use as many aha moments as I can get at this point.

ROW80 August & September Goals Rundown

1. Write 2 Poms every day.
I was able to write on Wednesday and Thursday night, but Friday and Saturday were a no go. I had to edit a paper for my daughter on Friday night and it took me a long time. Then on Saturday I was at my nephews' birthday party. It was nice to hang out with family and have fun, but I missed my imaginary friends.

2. Post for every ROW80 check-in.
This one is later shorter than I like, but still here.

3. Spend 1 Pom per day visiting ROW80 friends.
I have been visiting my ROW80 friends. You guys are so busy and really hitting your goals. It makes me happy for you, but sad that I am not achieving everything I planned to. Instead of getting down I am using your inspiration to get myself going again.

4. Post to Twitter on ROW80 days.
So far I am still getting this done. Yay, done!


Photos by Pixabay.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Games, Nostalgia and Goals

What's Been Going On:
The Royal Game of Goose

The theme for the last few days has been board games. We, and by we I mean my husband mostly, are working on making period (1066-1603) game boards for an upcoming Renaissance Faire. He made 9 Men's Morris, Fox and Geese and The Royal Game of Goose. They are interesting to me and mostly easy to learn to play, but the research and creation of these games has taken over. Then yesterday I was reading The Bloggess, because who doesn't (If you don't you should because she is beyond hilarious) and she was talking about a game her family developed or at least improved. It is called CrapScrabble and I just had to play it. Go read the rules, I'll wait right here till you get back. Ok glad you came back, because that other guy said he would and left me sitting here. My daughter and I wanted to play, but we don't have a cat, ferret or an angry bird (I told you to go read the rules.) so I Tweeted to The Bloggess to see if using a calm chicken every 15 minutes as a substitute would be acceptable and I was so excited to see that she responded.


Of course my phone didn't go off so I missed the opportunity to have a conversation with her, but it was still pretty awesome.

Another exciting thing that has been going on for the last few days is that I have been getting to bed at a reasonable time and consequently getting up at a decent time for me. Ok, most people may not think that 9:30 is a decent time to get up on a week day, but since we homeschool we don't have the same pressures that force us to get up at the crack of dawn. Consequently, I have molded and sculpted my children into late sleepers.

I also discovered that making coleslaw makes me miss my mommy and I'm not afraid to admit it. So I called her and my phone refused to cooperate. I am pretty sure it is possessed. Well, that or you shouldn't drop a tiny computer pretending to be a phone repeatedly. Though I am putting my money on the former.

ROW80 Goals:

1. Write 500 words per day on any project. - By any project  of course I meant specific things...
Sun - Last blog post - 743 words
Mon - Yea, no
Tues - Lotsa more no
Wed - This post - 917 words

2. Blog at least every Wednesday and Sunday. - Getting this one out makes for a check. Yay!

3. Check out at least 20 posts from each new ROW80 linky before the next one comes out. - Another yes! I didn't put that I would leave a comment in the goal, but I felt compelled to in most cases because I know how much comments mean to the authors. Most of the posts were so engaging that I wanted to put in my two cents or ask a question and am hoping to hear back from some people. I forgot what a pleasure it is to interact with my fellow ROW80 participants. I can't call them ROWers because in my world that just means something else.

4. Use Twitter at least once per day. - This is a big yes. I have actually spent a lot of time, maybe too much, on Twitter and researching it. Things that happened or I learned - First, don't say thank you on Twitter a lot, instead add to the conversation. There were a lot of posts about this, but I think this one was the best. Second, I found this list funny enough to share on Twitter and here again. Lastly, oh my gosh, did I mention that The Bloggess responded to me? I did, well I am just so freaking excited! Have you ever had a response from a public figure that made you really excited?

5. Post on my author Facebook page at least 3 times per week. - Um, I posted on Sunday and I will be cross posting this today so to stay on target I should probably post something else on my page in the next few days. I would like to find something helpful to post. I must look into this. Do you guys have any ideas?

6. Read 1 book per week. - More yes! I have completed 4 books and we are just now ending week 3. Being ahead of the game is nice for a change because I always seem to be playing catch up. I just finished A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I was surprised how close The Muppets version, which is my favorite, was to the book. I really enjoyed it, but my kids found out I was consuming something Christmas related not during specified times and they were a little upset. In our house we save all Christmas songs, movies and stuff for the time from the end of Thanksgiving till January first. The only exception is a two week stent in July, thanks to Crazy Eddie and my husband's faulty childhood memory. Mostly, it keeps the kids from playing the Christmas music constantly throughout the year.

What are your tips to reaching your word count goals?

Check out other ROW80 participants below.


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Monday, December 10, 2012

A Paranormal Year In The Making

So this year I am taking the Paranormal Reading Challenge. The info is below, but I want to make it a little more interesting by only reading books from self published authors. I think that would be a very nice way to support people who are doing what I dream of doing. I suppose I will go by their list and start with vampires. Anyone have any good suggestions?

 2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge


Welcome to the 2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge hosted by Megan Likes Books and Auntie Spinelli Reads! There are so many awesome sub-genres of paranormal books, that it's easy to find one you like and stick with it. So that's why I decided to make a reading challenge with the goal of reading about all kinds of paranormal creatures.

The goal is to read one book featuring each of the following paranormal creatures:

Vampires
Werewolves/Shifters
Fey
Angels/Nephilim
Mermaids
Dragons
Zombies
Demons
Witches/Wizards
Ghosts
Aliens
Other (ie: sirens, unicorns, centaurs, timetravel etc.)

Guidelines:
1. This challenge runs from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013.
2. You must have a blog to able to participate, since reviews must be added to the linky.
3. When you sign up with the linky, please put the link to your post about joining the Paranormal Reading Challenge.
4. You're welcome to list your books beforehand or just add as you go.
5. Sign-ups are open until December 1, 2013
6. At the beginning of each month, I will post a kick-start post, each month featuring a different category of paranormal creature. This post will also include a linky to include your reviews from that month.
7. Each review you link will qualify you for an entry into the monthy giveaway and if your review includes the feature paranormal creature of that month, you get a bonus entry.
8. Each book can only count for one category, even if it contains more than one paranormal creature. For example, Twilight contains both vampires and werewolves, but you can't use it for both the vampires and werewolves/shifters categories.
9. Everyone who completes the challenge will be entered into a grand prize giveaway at the end of the year.
10. If you read multiple books from one category, feel free to add them to the linkies. Don't stop at just one!
11. Book can count for other challenges.

Each month, we'll be featuring one of the creatures on the list at both Megan Likes Books and Auntie Spinelli Reads.

January - Vampires
February - Angels/Nephilim
March - Fey
April - Demons
May - Aliens
June - Zombies
July - Witches and Wizards
August - Mermaids
September - Dragons
October - Ghosts
November - Werewolves/Shape-shifters
December - Other