Monday, August 29, 2011

Reading or Writing??

So my goal, obviously, is to get my books published.  I love writing, sometimes it frustrates me, but most of the time I really enjoy the process.  I don't particularly enjoy the Query letter writing process, but hey-ho, it goes with the territory!  To figure out my writing a little better I decided to read some middle grade and YA fiction, the problem now is that I am a little suckered into my reading to get to my writing!!  Catch-22 right??  Do I read the books to get a better understanding of what MG and YA fiction should truly be? or do I just bang on with my writing?  Thoughts, questions, comments are all welcome!!!

Now for something completely different!!!!

Why is it that my apple tree lost all of it's apples this year???  Last year we had a huge haul of yummy apples, but this year, although we had a ton on the tree, they never grew and in fact all seemed to fall off before harvesting time!??!  Any thoughts? 

Well, I hope everyone has been having or has had, depending on where you live, a very lovely summer.  Ours is not over yet, so there is still alot of summer fun to be had.

Happy Penning!!

Friday, August 19, 2011

I'm Baaaaaccccckkkkk!!!!!!!!!

HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, I can't believe it has been almost a month since I last posted!  Life has been busy, wonderful but busy.  I have been potty training my toddler, and we are finally getting it....I thought for a few weeks that she was going to bypass toilet training til she was in Kindergarden!!!  Thankfully that is not the case, and we are on our way to being fully trained :)

We have also been searching for just the right Preschool for the aforementioned toddler!!  Living in the city our options are plentiful but at a price, a large one!  Anyway, we have finally found what we hope will be a good fit, although you never know until your child begins attending.  So that has been checked off the list.

I also decided to add some of my book reviews on my blog.  I review alot on Goodreads.com, a great site to keep track of the books you have read and would like to read.  Also, you can meet some great people on there who have the same interests as you....reading!!!!  I am an active member of a couple of groups on goodreads, and over the last few months have been taking up reading challenges, usually I read and then review the book, and so I thought I would include some of my reviews here too.  If you have reviewed some of your favourite books and would like to contribute, you are more than welcome to guest post.  Just let me know and we will get that going!

So, let's get to my writing.  For a while I was a little perturbed that every time I sat in front of my laptop and opened my novel I would sit and sit and sit.  Absolutely nothing came to me.  I had no idea how to get my characters from one point to the next.  I had storybooked the main bullets of the story, but I was stuck on the inbetween bits!!  I decided to give it and myself a break.  I started a couple of other storyboards for ideas that I have, and that seemed to do the trick.  I have written an additional 10 pages in the last week or so.  So here is a tip from me....take it with a pinch of salt, I may have no idea what I am talking about....If you find yourself blocked, writers block that is, give yourself a break.  Sit back, save what you have so far, and click out of your document.  Give yourself a break, that may be a couple of hours it may be a couple of weeks.  Start putting other ideas you have down on paper or computer screen, and you will be surprised when you go back to your blocked story that things may come flooding back.  Try it, you never know!!

Happy Penning!!