Bugs, Bugs Everywhere

Summer is here and it appears my house has become a haven for all creatures icky and long-legged. And I’m not talking about my kids. Earlier this week, I was laying on my couch, catching up on some TV, when I feel a tickle on my arm. I look down and there’s a bug I’ve never seen before crawling through my arm hairs like it’s a white-treed jungle. *shudder* The next morning, I reach into the bag of grapes in my refrigerator and feel something sticky. I look inside and there is a cobweb on the stem that wasn’t there the day before. Then a black and white spider proceeds to crawl onto my finger. Of course, I scream and drop the bag of grapes onto the floor. The grapes came from Wal-Mart so who knows what foreign country that spider came from. It could be poisonous! Mind you, this is 6:30 in the morning and my screams wake the entire household. The grape bag is disposed of in the garbage pail, and I manage to catch my breath. (Did you know they say you lose minutes off your life every time you’re scared?) Not even ten minutes later, my 5-year old calls down the stairs, “I’m sorry to say, Mommy, but there are ants all over the bathroom.” (Yes, that’s how my son speaks. He’s quite unique.)

So now there’s ants? Ugh. I had my boyfriend spray around the house with an indoor ant repellant/killer in preparation for the 8-year old sleepover I was having THAT NIGHT for my son’s birthday. Guess what? The floors are completely void of ants. But my walls aren’t. The little buggers just reached for higher ground.

All last night and this morning, I’ve been killing tiny ants with my thumb (luckily, they only seem to like the bathroom and are no match for the Thumb of Death). Also, it’s a good thing I have 4 little boys here instead of 4 little girls. I can just imagine the screaming that would be had if a girl saw ants crawling all over the bathroom sink. For boys, it’s cool. Not sure their parents would think that though…

So um, yeah, I should probably keep my honey face wash concoction stored somewhere other than the bathroom from now on. Lesson learned.

Packin’ My Bags

I haven’t been writing my blog lately because I’ve been feverishly trying to finish my book. You see, my family has so generously offered to pay my way down to San Antonio, TX. Squeal! They couldn’t let me miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to actually attend the YARWA conference I’m a finalist in. So I’m packing my bags and will be off July 22nd, hopefully with a polished MS in hand. I’ll keep you updated on my progress. Now back to writing…

Invisalign and the Universe

This is my 2nd week using Invisalign. I’ll go into more detail about my experiences in another post, but thought I’d start out by saying what prompted me to get it in the first place. Growing up, my parents never took us to the dentist for cleaning or check-ups. We just didn’t have the money. So of course, braces were also completely out of the question. I wasn’t exactly happy with my teeth, but wasn’t self-conscious of them either. But that changed in one day with one statement. All because of a boy in high school by the name of John. Uncannily, John has seemed to follow me my entire life. But our connection started my Junior year. We were in the same English class. One day, we were doing a team assignment. (Background: I was shy in school and had very few friends). Someone at the table said something so entirely funny that I guffawed out of nowhere. Of course, everyone stared at me, including John, who went on to say, “Wow, look at those teeth!” It’s like it happened yesterday. The memory is still so vivid. But that wasn’t the end of John’s influence on me and my self-esteem.

That same year, in that same class, he sat in front of me. For two days straight, he would reach behind him and caress my leg, slowly moving higher and higher till he’d reached my inner thigh. He’d say, “You like that?” Now, remember, I was a wallflower and had never had a boyfriend or had even been kissed yet. My reaction to his inappropriate touching was to stand as still as a statue. I pretended it wasn’t happening. Looking back now, that seems pretty ridiculous, but that was me. Finally, my teacher noticed and called me up after class. She asked if I wanted John to touch me that way and I said, “No.” He never touched me again.

In my Senior year, the student council brought in a dating service and had every student fill out a questionnaire. They fed the answers into a computerized program and determined who would be best matches for each other. John was in my homeroom that year, which is where they were handed out. At the top of my list of matches at 98% was John. Ugh. Then I heard him yell out, “What, Julie’s my top match?” Really, Universe? Really?

After high school, I thought I’d left behind the bullies, the cliques, and taunting and I was more than ready to move on to the next stage in life. Start fresh. One day, I was walking to my English class and guess who I passed in the hall? John. He was a student at my college. My college. I pretended I didn’t see him and walked past. But I could only avoid him so long because during my second trimester, I chose bowling for gym. Bad idea. I drove up to the bowling alley, and who did I see walking across the parking lot? John. Come on! He was in my bowling class? Yes, yes he was.

After college, I went out into the work force and got a position with a company. Even though it wasn’t in my major, the money was good. Fast forward ten years with the same company. One day, I saw a name come across my email that I thought I had left behind for good. A name that had seemed to always be there everywhere I turned. And now it was back. John. Oh, universe, why????

Well, I’ve got a plan for John. At the next holiday party, with my teeth gleaming white and straight as can be, I’m going to walk right up to him, smile wide, and say, “How’s life been treating you?”

To Kill Or Not to Kill

Now if the average person read that, they’d be giving me a wide berth! What I’m talking about though is whether or not to kill off characters to help move the plot along, and yes, to add shock value. What gets tricky though is when the character you kill is an innocent party and most likely favored by the reader. You run into the possibility of making the reader so mad they throw the book against the wall, or worse yet, refuse to read on.

I’m contemplating killing off such a character, and unfortunately, in a gruesome way, as is the tradition of the society in my book. Just thinking about it makes me choke up. How weird is that? But I think it’s needed for the story to progress and for pieces to fall into place that haven’t as of yet. I’m hoping in time I’ll accept it. It’s funny, but it’s like I’m going through the same healing process as my MC, as mental as that sounds. Hey, it’s easy to get attached to your characters!

How have you chosen who you’ve killed off  in a book. Have you chosen characters just for the shock value? Or was it necessary to your plot?

Making Your MC Likeable

Today, I struggled with a scene. I wrote it over four times already, and I’m still working at it. You see, I’ve reached the point in my story where the MC has to face and overcome her flaw. And in her case, it’s jealousy. The problem lies in that bringing out her jealousy, it induces spitefulness, which makes her unlikeable to the reader. According to my writing partner, the MC should remain likeable throughout. And up till now, she has been. In fact, it’s her character that received the greatest remarks from the judges in the Rosemary contest. To lose that, means to lose a driving positive of the entire book.

So I’m trying my best to maintain her flaw, but to minimize the damage it does to the reader’s view of her character. So hard! What I’ve learned is that this is one spot in your book you can’t rush or draw a curtain over. And you can’t just “tell” why she’s so jealous. The reader won’t relate from arm’s length. You need to “show” everything leading up to it in order to allow justification for your character’s spiteful words or little tantrums. Make the reader feel like it’s okay for her to react this way. That they would, too. This I think is the key to maintaining the likeability of your character, even with their flaws.

How important do you think it is to keep your MC likeable? How have you handled flaws?

Straddling the Line

Before I start regularly posting I need to figure out how  personal to get. I’ve found in the past that I’ve been a little too personal, treating my blog more as a diary than as a networking instrument. Are readers interested in learning how I overcame my divorce or my struggles with my ADHD child? Would it alienate people or allow them to connect at a deeper level? I suppose there’s a line you must straddle between telling too much and not enough.

And then there’s the mindset that I could actually help someone. For example, my ups and downs with hormonal acne for the past twenty years. I may have actually found something that works! Or I could discuss my new weight loss routine. Or my Invisalign experience. I have lots to talk about and experiences to share. The question is, will my readers be interested or bored?

What do you think? How personal do you get on your own blogs? What do you think are appropriate topics?

Rising From the Dead

Okay, so maybe that’s a little melodramatic. But I have been roused from lounging around in bed until noon. You see, I’ve been writing Harmonia for over a year now, maybe more. Why so long, you ask? Because I was being lazy. I was writing for myself. No deadlines. No expectations. I wrote whenever I felt like it. Much to the dismay of my writing partner, Carmen Fox. She needled me every week. “Come on! Keep writing! You’ve got a winner there. Don’t stop!” It felt like a gnat giving me tiny nips on my arm every ten seconds. (Good nips though, Carmen. :)) Finally, I think she got so fed up with my laziness that she took my first three chapters and entered them into contests on my behalf – even paying the fees for me! Now that’s a dedicated writing partner. I humored her, but knew none of them would amount to anything, and she was just acting as the biased mom figure. But then I got the call. What? You mean you’re not trying to sell me a timeshare in Hawaii? You actually like my work? Did I just enter the Twilight Zone? Of course, the nice girl on the other end of the line only heard, “Oh, thank you.” *face slap* I think she was expecting me to jump up and down screaming, but I still hadn’t wrapped my brain around what the heck she was talking about.

I got on the email to Carmen right away, my head spinning. She joined in the congratulations, but then reality set in. Oh no, I have to finish my book! Crap. If I’d spent the last year hustling instead of distracting myself with other projects, I’d be able to present a full easy peasy in the event they asked for one. Carmen kind of snickered in an “I told you so,” manner. Yes, I should have listened to her a looooooong time ago. I’m not usually a procrastinator, but now I’ve put myself in a situation where I’m the hare waking to find the tortoise far ahead of me, and I’ve got a lot of bouncing to do to catch up.

Anyway, I wanted to take this time to publicly thank Carmen for waking me up out of my writing slumber, and in a big way, I might say. You’re the best writing partner ever!

Rosemary Award Finalist

I have some wonderful news to share. I learned this week that I was a finalist in the Fusion category of the YARWA Rosemary Award. There are 4 finalists so I figure I have a 25% shot at winning. I’d …

What I Hope to Achieve With My Blog

This is my 5th attempt at a blog. The previous 4 lie in the Internet graveyard, still visible, but long forgotten. I think my problem was restricting myself to a theme or topic (i.e., mommy blog, writer blog, recipe blog). It limited my creativity and thus my ideas eventually ran dry. This time will be different. I’ll be writing about anything and everything. Some topics may interest you and others may have you scratching your head and saying, “Whaaa?” But honestly, there are so many writer blogs out there talking about – you guessed it – writing. If I’m to create a fan base, people don’t want to know how to write a query letter, they want to know what the name of my cat is. Or how many times a week I wash my hair. Okay maybe not that personal, but you get what I’m saying. They’re interested in me as a person. So this blog will reflect that. I hope you will continue to read on and embark on my journey to publishing with me!