Sunday Salon: Soul searching and Inspiration

This morning I slept in and woke up feeling the need for some inspiration with writing and with life in general.  I made up a plan and a calendar  for Nanowrimo since I started late which showed I just need to write 2300 words a day and I'll make the 50k by the 30th of November. Gives me one days grace. As of yesterday I am at 6400. Still in the figuring it all out stage and wondering why I keep referring to my villainess as Dominique when I decided her name was Genevieve. Then I had an epiphany - Mother and daughter.  And something clicked.  For some reason I'm feeling a wall between me and the story, the actual writing part.  Don't know what it is. There's been a lot of ping pong going on in my brain lately. I saw this over on The Creative Penn on trusting the process of emergence and it sort of helped. 

"Even if you plot your books, sometimes you won’t know what is coming until the words appear on the page. Something happens when you commit to the page, to the word count goal and you write through the frustration and the annoyance and the self-criticism."

I'm trying to work through that and trust the process but having issues with it and I don't know why.  I walked into this whole writing gig trusting the process - basically sitting down, putting pen to paper and letting it flow.  Why can't I let go this time.   So I woke up this morning in a bit of a funk.  Mad at myself for sleeping in once again instead of getting up early to write.   Sent up a short prayer and went out to make breakfast, checked my emails and found this from Jennifer at Inkybites:

Nanowrimo Tips for the procrastinating writer Day #11:  Getting Warmed up with Exercise: If at any point during this challenge, Robin, you feel like you're getting blocked when you sit down or you can't just sit down and start right back into writing your story, try warming up first.

An athlete wouldn't think about playing a big game without warming up and stretching first. A singer wouldn't go out on stage without first warming up her vocal chords. Same goes for a writer--you have to get your creativity warmed up before you can crank out your daily word count.  

Thank you!  Along with a list of suggestions which include free writing in your journal or morning pages (which I keep going back to again and again, just not consistently) is  brainstorming - which I enjoy.  Writing prompts and exercises and reading through the last thing you wrote. All good ideas. Okay the brain is waking up now. The 2nd email is Novel Journey by Novel Rocket which I get daily and it's all about -  Today Trusting God with the Outcome: Believe in God’s miraculous power and trust in His will.

The power of prayer and the sovereignty of God are indisputable. God is God, and declaring so helps us to recognize that He governs all things. Who is to say what God can do? When we believe—with all our heart, soul and strength—and trust God with the outcome, His will is done and miracles occur. 

Just what I needed to hear. And another email that helped me to make a decision about a family obligation. 

Speaking of obligations, something else that's been on my mind lately is blogging and checking in with my blogging buddies and ROW80 friends. Synchronicity is in full bloom as someone pointed me in Amy of My Friend Amy's direction with her post about Be Someone's Comment Angel. There's been a noticeable decrease in commenting in the community and yes, I for one am guilty of that. Despite my lack of commenting, I have two beautiful comment angels in Stacie and Candace who comment on practically everyone of my posts and I feel loved and appreciate their support. Thank you, ladies. 

Amy suggests being a comment angel and picking one or two bloggers you follow and comment every single day on their posts for one month. 

Don't tell them! Just commit to yourself to do it and then do it! If you think you can handle more than one, choose two! I know it might become kind of challenging. You might not always have something to say. But the challenge is part of what makes this great...you'll be forced to read what they're saying and engage with it on a deeper level. And who knows after a month, you might not want to stop!"

 So share the love and be a comment angel for the rest of the month, then choose two more and be a comment angel for the month of December and so on and so on.  I'm up for the challenge. How about you? 

In other news, over on 52 Books blog we are celebrating Neil Gaiman's Birthday by reading one of his books this month.   I am reading all about teenage brains in Parenting the Teenage Brain: Understanding a work in progress which is actually quite enlightening.

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.  ~Henry Ward Beecher

Sunday Salon: I'm rebelling, sort of

I'm so happy daylight savings time has ended and have gained my hour back.  I never did adjust when DST started so have been off kilter ever since time wise.  You wouldn't think an hour makes much of a difference but it actually does.  Among other things, it means an extra hour of writing and dinner will be on time for a change.  *grin*

Nanowrimo - I've been in a state, just a state of angst, anxiety and depression since Thursday.  Yep - a very weird mix.  I really, really, really want to go to town writing Green Cross but to tell the truth,  I just don't want to write crap.  I have other wips started during nano that I just haven't been able to properly edit. Do I really want  to add another one to the mix?  No.  So, while I still want to be involved in Nano, use the energy of Nano to write the story,  I'm going into rebel mode and setting my sights a bit lower than 50k.  If in the course of writing,  I somehow reach 50,000, awesome.  Otherwise I'm not going to kill myself writing crap that I don't have a clue what to do with at the end.  Nano always helps me get back into the habit of writing every single day which is a plus.  

I'm going to try a different route and edit as I go along.  I know, totally not the nano way, but I've seen where the write like crazy, don't edit method has gotten me. I needed a bit of wisdom today and found it as usual through K.M. Weiland of Wordplay.  Kathryn posted today about Your Must Have Checklist: From Idea to Publication and talked about editing as you go.   It resonated with me because I just finished the F2K Creative Writing course and it involved writing 500 to 1500 word pieces which, of course, I edited and polished to make as perfect as possible.  Because of that my internal editor really didn't want to go down into the basement. 

Since Thursday I have been writing daily but only averaging two full pages written front and page which equates to 1000 words, give or take a few.  I'll try to ramp it up a bit over the next few days.  Going to take a tip from Jennifer from Procrastinating Writers / Inkybites and stay present in the now, take it day to day and now worry about tomorrow.  

In the meantime, I'm having fun chatting with my characters, learning more about them, brainstorming and figuring out where we are going with this story.

If you are doing NaNoWriMo this year, are you writing like crazy or rebelling?   And for my non writing friends, what are you reading this week? 

Check in with my fellow ROWers here or on facebook

Ready, Set, Go - Nano!!!!

Ready. Set. Go! 

Paul Coehlo's manual for climbing mountains from Like the Flowing River 

A] Choose the mountain you want to climb: don’t pay attention to what other people say, such as “that one’s more beautiful” or “this one’s easier”. You’ll be spending lots of energy and enthusiasm to reach your objective, so you’re the only one responsible and you should be sure of what you’re doing.

B] Know how to get close to it: mountains are often seen from far off – beautiful, interesting, full of challenges. But what happens when we try to draw closer? Roads run all around them, flowers grow between you and your objective, what seemed so clear on the map is tough in real life. So try all the paths and all the tracks until eventually one day you’re standing in front of the top that you yearn to reach.

C] Learn from someone who has already been up there: no matter how unique you feel, there is always someone who has had the same dream before you and ended up leaving marks that can make your journey easier; places to hang the rope, trails, broken branches to make the walking easier. The climb is yours, so is the responsibility, but don’t forget that the experience of others can help a lot.

D] When seen up close, dangers are controllable: when you begin to climb the mountain of your dreams, pay attention to the surroundings. There are cliffs, of course. There are almost imperceptible cracks in the mountain rock. There are stones so polished by storms that they have become as slippery as ice. But if you know where you are placing each footstep, you will notice the traps and how to get around them.

E] The landscape changes, so enjoy it: of course, you have to have an objective in mind – to reach the top. But as you are going up, more things can be seen, and it’s no bother to stop now and again and enjoy the panorama around you. At every meter conquered, you can see a little further, so use this to discover things that you still had not noticed.

F] Respect your body: you can only climb a mountain if you give your body the attention it deserves. You have all the time that life grants you, as long as you walk without demanding what can’t be granted. If you go too fast you will grow tired and give up half way there. If you go too slow, night will fall and you will be lost. Enjoy the scenery, take delight in the cool spring water and the fruit that nature generously offers you, but keep on walking.

G] Respect your soul: don’t keep repeating “I’m going to make it”. Your soul already knows that, what it needs is to use the long journey to be able to grow, stretch along the horizon, touch the sky. An obsession does not help you at all to reach your objective, and even ends up taking the pleasure out of the climb. But pay attention: also, don’t keep saying “it’s harder than I thought”, because that will make you lose your inner strength.

H] Be prepared to climb one kilometer more: the way up to the top of the mountain is always longer than you think. Don’t fool yourself, the moment will arrive when what seemed so near is still very far. But since you were prepared to go beyond, this is not really a problem.

I] Be happy when you reach the top: cry, clap your hands, shout to the four winds that you did it, let the wind – the wind is always blowing up there – purify your mind, refresh your tired and sweaty feet, open your eyes, clean the dust from your heart. It feels so good, what was just a dream before, a distant vision, is now part of your life, you did it!

J] Make a promise: now that you have discovered a force that you were not even aware of, tell yourself that from now on you will use this force for the rest of your days. Preferably, also promise to discover another mountain, and set off on another adventure.

A Light in the Window by Julie Lessman

I positively adore Julie Lessman and her O'Connor saga which began in the Daughters of Boston series and ended in the Winds of Change series.  So I was delighted when she announced she is self publishing her  latest story  A Light in the Window which is the prequel love story of Marceline and Patrick.  It will be released in Ebook format and available November 9th.  It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

Synopsis:  One Woman. Two Men.
One stirs her pulse and the other her faith.
But who will win her heart?

Marceline Murphy is a gentle beauty with a well-founded aversion to rogues. But when two of Boston's most notorious pursue her, she encounters a tug-of-war of the heart she isn’t expecting. Sam O’Rourke is the childhood hero she’s pined for, the brother of her best friend and a member of the large, boisterous family to which she longs to be a part. So when his best friend Patrick O’Connor joins in pursuit of her affections, the choice seems all too clear. Sam is from a family of faith and Patrick is not, two rogues whose wild ways clash head-on with Marcy’s—both in her faith and in her heart.

While overseeing the Christmas play fundraiser for the St. Mary’s parish soup kitchen—A Light in the Window—Marcy not only wrestles with her attraction to both men, but with her concern for their spiritual welfare. The play is based on the Irish custom of placing a candle in the window on Christmas Eve to welcome the Holy Family, and for Marcy, its message becomes deeply personal. Her grandmother Mima cautions her to guard her heart for the type of man who will respond to the "light in the window," meaning the message of Christ in her heart. But when disaster strikes during the play, Marcy is destined to discover the truth of the play’s message first-hand when it becomes clear that although two men have professed their undying love, only one has truly responded to “the light in the window.”

Even though I knew how the story was going to turn out, I was captured from the beginning, wondering how  she would  make the right choice. Lessman does an excellent job of painting a picture of faith and hope, love and loss, the challenge of friendships and relationships, being true and the power of change.  A Light in the The Window is an emotional story, faith filled without being preachy and passionate without being sexual.  I highly recommend it.   


Julie is having a Kindle Fire Contest which will run through December 31, 2012. Be sure to check it out.  Follow Julie on Facebook and check out her website for more information on all her books. 

Thank you to Julie for providing an advance copy of A Light in the Window and for writing Marceline's story.

Say hello to Hunter

“Hey Hunter, time to do the meet and greet thing.”

“Okay, come on down into the galley. Watch the hatch lid. Don’t want to hit your head again.”

“Yes sir. Something smells delicious and looks like you’ve made enough for an army. I didn’t know you even cooked.”

“Learned at the feet of Uncle Grey. Frittatta’s. Want any?”

“Yes, please. Who is Uncle Grey?”

“Grey Lee, owner of the Blue Steel. He’s not my real uncle. My grandmother lived in the neighborhood and took me in after my parents died. I was eight. His kids, Connor and Danny, we all hung together. He called us the 3 musketeers. Whenever we went into the grill, he’d put us to work. Cleaning, food prep, busing tables. If you wanted to eat, you had to work for it. He sort of adopted me or maybe I adopted them. We served together, Connor, Danny and I.”

“What branch of the military?”

“Marines. Special forces reconnaissance. I moved on to the FBI, Connor became a doctor and Danny just retired. He’s coming over in a bit with another buddy of ours. Jeremy Krause.”

“His name sounds familiar.”

“I told you about him before. He started a new company called Krause Solutions, based in Montana.”

“A security company, right?”

“Not just a security company. Troubleshooters in high tech electronics and security, protection, kidnap negotiations.”

“Ah yes, I remember now. Sort of a private black ops operation.”

“You didn’t hear that from me. Here, try the enchiladas. He wants me and Danny to come in as partners.”

“What about the FBI? I thought you were taking the attaché job in Africa.

“Since the accident, it has been taken off the table. Frank said since Schoebel is dead, the case is closed. My only option now is the desk job in Washington.”

“But wait. Schoebel had a partner, didn’t he? The woman, Dominique something?”

“Dominique Resparte, the Black Widow.”

“How can they do that? You were close to finding out who was behind both her and Schoebel and creating the nano devices. She liked you, didn’t she?”

“Too much. Every man she married or slept with died and she wanted me in her bed.

“How can you just let it go?”

“Jeremy has a client, works for the University of Montana. She’s a teacher in biochemistry. She has a sister, also a scientist whose specialty is nanotechnology. She’s disappeared, thinks she’s been kidnapped.”

“What does that have to do with you?”

“The woman who rescued me after the explosion, looks like her sister. She left me a calling card.”

“Who? The sister? When did you see her?”

“Don’t know if she’s the sister or not. I never really saw her whole face. But I saw her in Maputo.”

“Then she couldn’t have been kidnapped if you saw her. Did you talk to her”

“Right. And no. She disappeared but left something for me. A key and this picture.”

“Holy crap, she works for the Black Widow!”

Sunday Salon: So not ready.....

Ah life!  You would have thought with hubby out of town for three days doing the Audio Engineering Society  convention thing, I would have a lot of times on my hands and get a lot of things done.  Especially for Nanowrimo.  Don't know what happened to the time. Friday after lessons,  James and I went to the fabric store to pick up material for his Dr. Eggman costume, then we went to the shop to do payroll.  Saturday we went to Target for more things for his costume, then on to the grocery store.  Today I spent several hours working on his costume and I'm converting this (the jacket)

To this:

I'm 75% done with a whole lot of encouragement from my son to "keep going mom."  I'm done for the day, lessons have been planned for the week, dinner and cleanup is done and I'm ready to fade for the day.   Now ask me if I got any planning done for my nanowrimo story.   Kind of, sort of, not really.   I'm feeling ill prepared although I've gotten to know who my main character is, how I want the story to proceed (basically), but I just haven't had the time to write down the outline.  By evening time, I've just want to veg in front of the tv. 

I happened to catch the beginning of Brokeback Mountain on Friday, got caught up in the story and then wished I hadn't because it had such a sad ending.  Then Saturday night I watched the last two episodes of  Perception with Eric McCormack.  Again kind of sad to find out that his relationship with Natalie had never been real and had truly been a figment of his imagination the whole time.  Think I'll give up TV for the month of November.

Coming up on the last week of my F2K creative writing class.  This week's task was to write a 500 word piece which involved interviewing a character and the piece had to be solely dialogue.  I actually found it difficult to leave out all the other bits but managed it.  Will post it tomorrow.   Thanks to the Hurricane, the task for this Wednesday has been posted early in case folks on the east coast lose power.   The assignment  is to write a complete story between 500 and 1500 words, that includes the following elements:

1. An opening conflict
2. Complication 1
3. Complication 2
4. Complication 3 (optional)
5. Complication 4 (optional)
6. Crisis
7. Falling action (optional)
8. Resolution

Now you can see why I'm thankful for the hurricane.  Otherwise, I would have been having a heart attack on Wednesday what with Nanowrimo starting on Thursday.   James couldn't wait for November and has already started working on his fan fiction story.  Whom am I to stand in the way of creativity?  Now if I can just force myself to stay up at 6:30 when the cats demand to be let outside, instead of going back to sleep for a couple hours, I may just get some writing done.  I'm actually looking forward to the end of Daylight Savings time.  There's one hour gained back.  Hee Hee!

My goal this week - to choose the mountain I want to climb, be persistent, let my muse lose and just let the creativity flow.  

Have a wonderful week!  

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. ~Earl Nightingale

Sunday Salon: Conflict?

Light bulb moments!  You spend hours doing something then realize it's not what you wanted in the first place.  Wasted time this week fooling around with changing the blog domain over to my name, designing the blog and never being completely satisfied.  Then realized I was totally happy with my My Two Blessings and will hold the other domain in reserve for when ready for my actual author site.     Also spent 2 to 3 hours going through model sites trying to find a picture of Hunter's mystery woman. (The one I found originally and mentioned in an earlier post - wasn't the right one)  Then it hit me.... Hunter doesn't know for sure what she looks like and because of that I don't know for sure and her full identify will be revealed through the story.  Sometimes procrastination leads you through a lot of worm holes.  

In the midst of planning Green Cross, my F2K class this week is all about creating conflict between your antagonist and protagonist and ending it unresolved. I had fun coming up with a scene between Hunter and his mystery woman:

"Saturday morning and the Maputo market bustled with locals and tourists. Hunter polished off his espresso, then rolled his shoulders to ease the ache in his spine. He’d spent hours yesterday exploring the elephant reserve in an ancient jeep spending more time battling bumpy roads, than looking at the animals. He’d gotten some great shots of the elephants, birds, hippos but his poor battered body hadn’t like the additional abuse. He threw some coins on the table and limped through the market, no longer overwhelmed by the blend of bananas, spices, coffee and fresh fish or the yelling and chattering of the fish merchants.

He headed off to the bookshop, ignoring the vendors shouting for his attention, when he saw her. Though she wore huge sunglasses and a colorful blue and purple scarf hid her hair, he knew it had to be her. When she smiled at one of the fish mongers and waved her glossy fire red fingernails, he was sure. She disappeared for a moment, then he caught another glimpse as she rounded a fruit stand. He knew that smile, that walk. Had she seen him? He rounded the corner and saw her enter the bookshop.

A bell clunked against the door as he walked in. Books piled high to the ceiling on shelves or stacked in precarious towers that looked like they would collapse if you so much as touched them. First editions and rare books mixed in with new and used paperbacks. Dust tickled his nose as he caught the faint aroma of vanilla and lavender. She’s here, he thought, looking around the small crowded shop. The shop owner sat behind the counter cleaning a book.

“Welcome. Welcome. Just the man I wanted to see. I just finished cleaning your book.” The old man beamed and held it out to him.

“Henry.” Hunter glanced around the shop. “ A woman just came in here. Where did she go?”

“No. No woman.” He waved his hand, beckoned Hunter forward. “Come. Come.” Then sighed when Hunter ignored him and searched the narrow aisles of the shop. He pushed up out of his chair, pressed the book into his hands. “You come. You take.”

Hunter looked down at the book and frowned. “This isn’t the book I found yesterday”

“Yes. Yes. See.” He ran wrinkled fingers over the cover. “See.”

Hunter eyed the man, “House of Silken Secrets? You must be confusing me with someone else.”

Henry huffed out a breath, put his finger to his lips, then opened the book. Pressed between the pages was a picture of a Celtic cross with a spider in the center and an antique key.

Flashes of the fire, the explosion, pain and her face rippled through his mind. Damn,she worked for them. No! He was done, he wouldn’t be pulled back in. He slammed the book, shoved it back in Henry’s hands.

“No. tell them no.”"

My goal this week is to come up with an outline of 30 scenes, finalize my settings, and research my characters a bit more.  James has decided he's going to do Nano as well and will be writing a fan fiction story starring Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man. 

Reading wise, I started Stephen King's Drawing of the Three which is the 2nd book in his Dark Tower series.  Also listening to J.D. Robb's book # 27 in the In Death series Salvation in Death. Not surprised my reading has slowed way down the past couple months. I discovered the more fiction I read, the less I write so.... 

 Life is like a blanket too short.  You pull it up and your toes rebel, you yank it down and shivers meander about your shoulder; but cheerful folks manage to draw their knees up and pass a very comfortable night.  ~Marion Howard

Be sure to stop by and see how the rest of my ROW80 writing buddies are doing.  

Happy sunday!