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New Goals for the New Year

Okay, so my New Year’s resolution post is a few days late. But since I just got back from a two week trip to England, I’ll give myself a pass. Just this once.

Before I dive into my list though, I have to issue a small disclaimer.

I don’t make actual resolutions anymore. My ability to keep them goes beyond sucktastic. I set goals instead. I find goals easier to meet.

Now, without further ado, I present:

My Goals for 2012!

Become More Fearless with My Writing

I’ve been a writing wimp until recently. Too timid to share my scribblings. Too scared to try new forms of writing. That’s not very smart for someone who’s dreamed of making a living via the written word. I’ve read, studied and even practiced many forms of writing. It’s time to buckle down now and put aside my worry of not being good enough. The more you write, the better you get.

Starting this blog back in November was Step One toward fearlessness. When my harsh critic of an inner editor said “See. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” I found myself encouraged and eager to try other, new forms of writing.

So, out with my old writing fears for 2012.

Health and Fitness

I believe I’ve mentioned a few times that, due to health reasons, I’ve recently switched to a gluten free diet. Well, it’s time for me to quit thinking of it as a “diet change” and start thinking of it in terms of a “lifestyle change”. I don’t do diets well. Mostly because I start to think about all of the stuff I can no longer have and depress myself. And then go off the diet.

While I haven’t blown my diet (on purpose) in the past two months, I need to refocus. I don’t want to just replace the gluteny junk I used to eat with its gluten free counterpart (which, in some cases, is even more unhealthy).

So, I’m re-thinking my food habits entirely and find myself excited by the prospect of trying to incorporate more whole, unprocessed foods and lean proteins rather than just substituting rice bread for wheat bread. (However, all bets are off if someone finally starts making a tasty gluten free Pop-Tart… What? We’ve all got our vices.)

It’s also time to reboot my fitness program again. Part of a healthy lifestyle is movement, right? While I’ve had to cancel my gym membership (see goal “Pay off Debt“), I still have my awesome P90x and my running shoes. Both of which are getting dusted off and used. It’s time to get, and stay, healthy.

Family Time

When they were younger, the kiddos and I used to pop in a movie or go out for dinner every other Friday night. It was great, though I did sit through many a snoozer of a kid’s movie. But as they got older they started getting involved with school activities, activities with friends, and so on and the every other Friday night Family Night fell by the wayside.

One of my goals this year is to bring that back. At least once a month. I know that teenagers have friends they want to see on Friday nights and they see me every night. But one Friday a month, we’re getting some quality time in whether it’s watching a movie, going out, or letting my kids laugh their backsides off as they school me and the Hubs on some first person shooter X-Box game.

Expand My Brain

I love learning. I could easily be a professional student for the rest of my life. This year there are a few things I plan on cracking open some books on.

  • Continue to study the craft of writing (that sort of goes without saying, but I felt like saying it anyway)
  • PHP
  • HTML5
  • CSS3

The HTML and CSS are two things that I want to improve my skills in. The PHP is a brand new language for me. I’m excited and can’t wait to get my hands on some books.

Pay off Debt

For the longest time, I was completely debt-free (except my mortgage). And that, my friends is a beautiful feeling. But, good or bad, nothing lasts forever and I had a few emergencies come up. Like my 15 year old air conditioner dying in the middle of a Florida Summer. Car engines going kerplunk.

While my debt isn’t atrocious by any standard, it still sucks and it’s my goal this year to take a huge chunk out of it. In order to make this happen, I’ve had to cut some fat out of my budget, like my gym membership. But I’m looking forward to the day when I can give myself the money I’m giving to some corporation every month.

Create a Fulfilling Life

In essence, that’s exactly what the goals above are working toward. Creating a balanced and fulfilling life for myself and my family. I want us to enjoy every minute we have with each other. I think that, right there, is the most important goal of all.

So there you have it. My short list of goals for 2012. What goals to you have? Feel free to share them with me in the comments.

And have a safe and happy 2012!

Be on the look out. I’ll be posting pictures of the family trip overseas soon!

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Not a-Mused Anymore

My Muse can bite me.

If she wants to run off and join the Muse circus instead of sit down and write, I’m OK with that now. I can put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard just fine without her.

The writing I do when she runs off and leaves me on my own may not be my best prose. And I may have to bludgeon every word and nail it to the sentence before it regains consciousness and runs away.

But I don’t need her fickle inspiration any more.

Don’t get me wrong. I love it when she grabs my hand and yanks me down some barely perceptible rabbit trail in my imagination. I’ve found all sorts of beautiful, dark or just completely whacked out, mental gardens under her (mis)guidance.

But I’ve also found that sort of inspiration on my own by taking a machete to the weeds of my mind and hacking my own path to those enchanted forests of ideas. It just takes a little longer and I tend to leave a pile of kindling and uprooted trees behind me.

I admit that writing tends to go a little faster, smoother, when she’s around. I seem to know exactly what to say and how to say it. But now when she takes off for parts unknown, leaving my word-well high and dry, I pull out her clunky cousins; Dictionary and Thesaurus.

Between the three of us, we can usually find a suitable turn of phrase. And if we can’t, I step away for a few minutes and sharpen my mental machete on some logic problems. When I return to the work-in-progress, the Muse is either back or I’m capable of plodding along well enough on my own.

Though I’ll always welcome my Muse on my creative adventures, she’s no longer in charge of the journey. We’re sharing the reins now.

So get on the horse, honey, or get out of the way. There’s writing to be done.

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Christmas Memories

My favorite part of Christmas has always been family gatherings. The bigger the gathering, the better in my book. I think this stems from the fact that Christmas was a huge affair when I was little.

We spent Christmas with my dad’s family. He’s one of five children, so holidays at my grandmother’s house were loud; full of love, laughter and food. (And I’ll never figure out how she managed to cook all of that food in her tiny kitchen.)

Our Christmas celebrations started on Christmas Eve. After a delicious fish dinner prepared by my grandmother, the whole family piled into the living-room to exchange gifts. (My gifts usually involved the two most important “B’s” in my little girl life: Barbies and Books.) Then we’d head home where my parents probably had a heck of a time getting my sister and I tucked into bed.

Christmas day brought gifts from Santa (and occasionally, Rudolph) and a morning of church. Then, back to grandma’s for what can only be described as a feast: Soups, salads, pasta, meat, veggies, cookies, pies and cool whip.

Then the family spent the rest of the day there playing, napping, eating again, watching t.v. and just enjoying being together.

When I think of Christmas, these memories of family gatherings are what come to mind first. When I first moved away from Rhode Island, I missed those gatherings terribly. But I started creating other, new memories in my new home. And now that I have kids, I get to help them create great memories of Family and Christmas.

Feel free to share your favorite Christmas (or the holiday of your religion) memories!

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Highlights

I read a lot. I can easily read two novels a day. Books are almost an addiction. If I didn’t have a family, I’d probably skip two meals a day and spend my grocery money on books.

Because I run through books like my two teenagers run through the week’s groceries, I’m always on the lookout for new authors to read. And thanks to Twitter, my reading appetite has a constant source of nourishment.

When I finally decided to check out the social media time-suck of Twitter, I started off by following my favorite authors. Then I checked out the authors they followed (or who followed them). I’ve found so many new authors to read, my Kindle and my bank account are considering an intervention.

I told both of them to chill. That all of the books I buy are research (ahem) so I can share my finds with all of my reader friends.

So today, I’m highlighting five of the Urban Fantasy (UF) and Paranormal Romance (PnR) authors I’ve found thanks to Twitter. Click on the author’s names to check out their websites and find out more about their books! (And if you could, tell my Kindle I shared so it doesn’t go on strike?)

  1. Mandy M. Roth and Michelle Pillow: I’m highlighting Ms. Roth and Ms. Pillow together because they are also the creative force behind The Raven Books, an independent publisher. You can find their titles (and others) by going through the Raven’s website, their own websites, and of course through Amazon.com. Their stories have elements of fantasy, science fiction, history and even suspense. “Immortal Ops” by Mandy M. Roth and “Phantom of the Night” by Michelle Pillow were the first two books by these ladies that I’ve read and I have quite a few more on my “to be read” list.
  2. I found Moira Rogers through a series of re-tweets. Happy day for me! I’m pretty sure I bought “Cry Sanctuary: Red Rock Pass” that same day. So far, this is the only one I’ve read. But the characters and story were so likable, I immediately added the rest of this series to my wish list.
  3. Allison Pang‘s debut book “A Brush of Darkness” hit the shelves earlier this year and is a fun urban fantasy. It’s got hot shape-shifters and a full cast of supernatural beings, a miniature unicorn with an unnatural affection for underwear, and bacon. Don’t tell my Kindle, but I’ve pre-ordered Ms. Pang’s second book, “A Sliver of Shadow.”
  4. Finally on today’s list of highlights is Carrie Ann Ryan, who’s debut book “An Alpha’s Path” hit Amazon at the beginning of this month. An uptight chemist and an overworked alpha werewolf are set up on a blind date. When Kade (the alpha) realizes his date is actually his mate, he has to convince her to turn off her analytical brain and listen to her heart. Ms. Ryan has at least two more books in this series in the works and both are on my wish list.

That’s just five of the authors I’ve found. I have so many more on my list. Next month I’ll share some of the mystery authors I’ve run across, so come back and check them out too.

And feel free to share some of your finds in the comments below!

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Hybrid Pants

My writing “career” began in the first grade. Every week we had a “write and tell” where we could share with the class stories we’d written outside of school. One day, a story about Snoopy running away from home popped into my head like a little movie and I sat down and wrote the entire thing in one shot. I even added a few stick figure illustrations.

My writing style hasn’t changed much since first grade. Except for the illustrations. My art skills never progressed past the stick-figure stage.

But now, that “seat-of-the-pants” writing style that worked so well for me as a kid, has slowly become a royal writing hemorrhoid as an adult.

Story ideas still fill my head like mini-movies. Now though, it takes months, and in one case, years, to write and edit those stories into something coherent and readable. And those are just short stories. I haven’t even attempted my goal of writing a novel yet. The thought of mind-dumping, then spending years actually fixing a novel makes me a bit queasy.

Out of desperation I decided to visit the other end of the writing spectrum; Plotting. I recently dusted off a story idea and grabbed the book “First Draft in 30 Days” by Karen S. Wiesner from my bookshelf. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s full of character, setting, plotting, outlining and summary worksheets, as well as her advice on how to use all of them. If you follow her process, by the end of 30 days you should have an outline for a novel that doubles as a first draft.

I didn’t actually follow the whole process to the letter. For a lifelong “Panster” it was a little too much to absorb at first. But, as I worked my way through the character, setting, and plot sheets in that book, amazing things happened to my budding story.

Characters sprang to life in full color, making their desires and personalities well known. Ideas for events further along in the story generated faster than I could write them down.

While my current outline and synopsis don’t double as a first draft, I know exactly where my story is going before I write the first word. I also know what poo my writing monkey plans on flinging at my characters and whether or not they’re going to dodge it or end the day smelly.

I’ve become a hybrid of sorts; the Plotting Panster.

And now that I’ve got my plotting done, it’s time to grab the seat of my pants and fling some poo at my characters!