What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up, put on by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. If you'd like to join click on the links above!

What I'm Reading:
In The Shadow of Blackbirds is not what I expected. It's better. Beautiful withlush writing, an eerie feel I can't seem to shake. I'm loving it.

What I'm Writing:
 I didn't quite make it to 45k. Got way too distracted with Sun Vs. Snow to give proper attention to my new WIP. But I'm at 40k and pretty happy about it. Hoping I get to the 45k this week. It might be asking for a lot since we have guests in town ALL WEEK. Then I heard about this thing called Writer Recharge, hosted by Katy Upperman, Alison Miller, Liz Parker, Elodie Nowadzkij, and Sarah Biren. You guy should join in!

What Inspires Me Right Now:
Most of you know I was lucky enough to get pick for Sun Vs. Snow. Well, the agent round is over and...I got five requests! I'm so excited! Not only was this a confidence booster, but getting those requests inspire me so much right now. They've inspired me to keep going, to push myself, and made me realize I'm on the right path.

What Else I've Been Up To:
Today is my second oldest's sixth birthday! I can't believe it. I'm so glad to have him in my life. Can't stress enough how much I love my kids. They grow up too fast!

Writer Recharge

The fabulous Katy Upperman, Alison Miller, Liz Parker, Elodie Nowodazkij, and Sara Biren are hosting this fabulous event.

Here are the details:

January is in the books and you've had to deal with:

a) polar vortices
b) ice storms
c) mountains of snow
d) gray skies and general malaise
e) all of the above

We thought our writer friends might be in need of a little boost. A jump start, if you will. A recharge.

We'd like to invite you to join us for Writer Recharge 2014, a month-long motivational challenge similar to last summer's Ready. Set. Write! So many of us benefited from setting goals, connecting with other writers, and social media-based accountability. So, hey, let's do it again! Whether you're delighting next to the crackling fireplace of a Shiny New Idea with a warm cup of tea and a sleepy puppy at your feet or spinning out on the ice-covered roads of revisions in an attempt to avoid the snow-packed ditch, we want to write with you! What do you want to accomplish this month? Hit a daily word count? Revise a certain number of pages or chapters each week? Complete a draft by the end of the month? Let's get this party started!

Writer Recharge 2014

Your hosts and cheerleaders: Katy Upperman, Alison Miller, Liz Parker, Elodie Nowodazkij, and Sara Biren

The timeline:

• First week of February: Post your goals for the month on your blog, website, or Twitter. Use the hashtag #WriterRecharge. Link your blog post here (below)
• Every Monday in February: Update your progress via your blog or twitter. Link your blog posts on myMonday posts.
• Throughout the month: Use the hashtag to connect with other writers, have writing parties, and cheer one another on!
• February 28: Post your final update via your blog or twitter.
• Anyone who uses the hashtag or links their blog posts will be entered to win one of five query or 3-chapter critiques.

My goals for February are

- Get my first draft of the new project (still unnamed) by Valentines' Day.

-Start Revising

-Revise half of first draft

I might have to edit these as the month goes along. With the way the story is going, it might take longer to get the first draft done. My main goal is to make it to 50k by V-Day.

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up, put on by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. If you'd like to join click on the links above!

What I'm Reading:
I just picked up In The Shadow of Blackbirds from the library. Excited to dive in! I also requested several other awesome books and am looking forward to my upcoming selections.

What I'm Writing:
My goal is to get to 45k by the end of the week. I'm at 39k, so I think it's feasible. We'll see. I'm still loving the story and the direction it's taken. I recently discovered one of my characters suffers anxiety attacks. Doing research on it has been quite interesting and eye opening.

What Inspires Me Right Now:
People who put themselves out there. The odds are not often in our favor, but still pursuing your dream despite the lack of chances takes guts, perseverance, and a healthy dose of reality (because living in dreamland can at times cause our expectations to skyrocket). But as long as you move forward, work hard, and keep trying, it can happen!

What Else I've Been Up To:
I entered the Sun Vs. Snow contest held my Michelle Hauk and Amy Truebloo and was chosen for Team Sun by Amy! I feel very humbled and honored. The mentors and other participants provided insightful critiques to my query and first 250 words, and I was able to revise them over the last few days. I sent my new versions of both yesterday. Now I just sit and wait until Saturday when the entries are posted and the agents start making requests. Fingers crossed that I get some bites!

What have you been up to?

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up, put on by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. If you'd like to join click on the links above!

What I'm Reading:
Okay, I'm going to admit something. I started reading Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan about a month ago and got about twenty pages in before putting it down. After reading so many awesome reviews I was excited, then let down because it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Anyway, (there's a point here, I swear) I picked it up again yesterday, because it's due in a few days and I hate the idea of giving up so early on. I don't enjoy DNFing, and try to avoid it at all costs. What happened, you ask, the book got interesting. And now I can't stop thinking about it and can't wait to pick it up again once I've showered and the boys are at school. The moral of the story (sometimes, but not always), don't be so quick to judge. And also, if you're a writer and you are one of those who tends to judge quickly, make sure you get to the good stuff in the story early on before someone gives up on your book.

What I'm Writing:
Over 30k! Woohoo! Party over! Super excited to be over the hump. Hoping to reach between 50-60k by February 14. Also, thinking a lot about querying. I keep itching to send off a batch of queries for Restoring Casey, just to test the water, but am holding off just a little longer. I've had my query letter critiqued by some awesome ladies and I know it's in pretty good shape, but I think mentally I still need to prepare myself a little more.

What Inspires Me Right Now:
Exercise. I ran 4.5 miles yesterday, which is the longest I've ever run in, well, ever. Running inspires me. Listening to music while running not only makes the time go by faster, but it also helps me to work through any struggles I may be having with my stories. It's exhilarating creating worlds and characters no one's thought of before, and if helps to run one extra mile, then bonus points!

What Else I've Been Up To:
Puppy stuff, kid stuff, life stuff. I'm beta reading and critiquing at the moment, which is very humbling. To know these writers have enough faith to let me look at their stuff is always humbling. The writing community freaking rocks and I'm so glad to be a part of it.

What Are You Up To?

2014-Almost One Month In

How is it almost already nearing the end of January!?! I swear it was just New Years and I dared to blink before it all vanished. And with the weather slowly turning, it only baffles me that much more how time is such a fickle thing who waits for no (wo)man.

Like last year I've made goals for this year. And with time slipping by it makes it seem daunting to accomplish all of them. Writing is a big part of my goals (and life in general). I want to finish my new WIP by Valentine's, which should be possible given how much steam I have. I'll be querying again soon, praying and hoping for something incredible to happen. I also want to write another manuscript before the end of the year. I plan on reading sixty books. Given I read 100 last year, I think that's feasible.

Every year our intentions are good, but getting sidetracked is easy. Life happens. That's the motto I want to stick to this year. I'll do everything I can to make my goals and dreams come true, but if life happens, beating myself over my shortcomings is not an option. I think we should all adopt this way of thinking, because we are hardest on ourselves and tend to put pressure where no pressure is needed. Don't get me wrong, I won't use this as excuse to slack, but I understand not everything is under my control. No matter how much I want it to be.

So this year, let's all remember to keep our goals in mind while also taking the time to forgive ourselves for not being perfect.

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up, put on by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. If you'd like to join click on the links above!

What I'm Reading:
I've slowed down the reading train a bit. I finished Star Cursed (LOVED, but the cliff hanger nearly killed me!). I'm in the middle of Defy by Sara B. Larson, but have been a little distracted preventing me from really get into it, or any other book for that matter. It's not bad, in fact it's quite well written, but my mind is preoccupied at the moment.

What I'm Writing:
And here lies the reason for my lack of reading. I've been writing, or thinking about writing, a lot lately. Not only have I been critiquing some great stuff by other awesome writers, but my own manuscript has taken over most of my life. I can't stop thinking about it, or my characters. Which is a good thing, it's helped a lot to move up the word count. Which is almost at 30k! Not only am I writing a new WIP, but I'm fixing up Restoring Casey as I get feedback from some betas. Exciting and exhausting times, let me tell you. But mostly exciting. I can't wait to see what the year holds with my writing.

What Inspires Me Right Now:
Debut authors! There are so many fabulous books coming out this year by debuts, and not only are these writers inspiring, but they're pretty dang good at what they do. People claim publishing is dying, but I don't see the wheels slowing down quite yet. It's a great time to be a writer, I think.

What Else I've Been Up To:
The weather outside has been far from frightful. In the high 40s, pretty spring-like with lots of sunshine. I love it. I wish it would stay that way. Me and the kiddos have been spending a lot of time outside with the pups, running around, frolicking, swinging on swings, you know, the usual warm weather shenanigans.

What's Up With You?

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up, put on by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. If you'd like to join click on the links above!

What I'm Reading: 
Oh, you know, stuff. Recently I've read Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers, which was a great historical fantasy. Love the idea of nuns training kick-but assassins. I also read Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry, which was a well written contemporary, although didn't quite live up to my expectations. Now I'm about to dive into Star Cursed the second book in The Cahill Witch Chronicles by Jessica Spotswood and I'm super psyched for that one. And I recently purchased Defy by Sara B. Larson, so that's up on my list too.

What I'm Writing:
I'm proud to say I'm over 20k into a new project, which I started the week before Christmas. It's a contemporary, which is surprising because I wanted to kind of get away from the genre and try something different, but this idea struck me upside the head and I just knew I had to write the words these two characters were filling up inside my head. My goal is to get the first draft done by Valentine's Day!

What Inspires Me Right Now:
The New Year. It's so full of possibilities and excitement. Setting up new goals, forgetting our past failures and focusing on making ourselves better. This year especially because I feel like I'm  getting closer and closer to accomplishing my writing dream.

What Else I've Been Up To:

We got this little guy on New Year's Eve! His names is Mugsy Bugsy Pickett. He's a shih tzu/ boston terrier mix and is adorable. We're right in the middle of potty training which is, if you've ever had a puppy, quite taxing to put it politely. Although he's picking things up quickly and I'm already teaching him a few tricks. The kids love him and with that cute little face, who wouldn't?

So, what's up with you guys?