I'm Back!

It's been an incredibly hard hurdle to get back into writing.  I had my third child in October 2013.  I was even on bed rest near the end of my pregnancy because the baby just decided it would be time to come at 30 weeks instead of full-term.  Luckily I didn't have a preemie.  I also was in online school and being a mom all from the couch.  Even after having #3, I did a lot of parenting of the older two from the couch because of breastfeeding, and the fact that #3 didn't like being put down...AT ALL!

Anyway, after a few grueling semesters, being a parent, and supporting my husband through his crazy new work schedule after being promoted, and a billion new story ideas, I am diving back into writing.

Now, I saw a wonderful blog with keys to submitting a query to have your own story read by a publisher or an agent.  In it, there was one thing that stuck out in my mind that is so true these days: KNOW HOW TO USE TECHNOLOGY!  People who you want to represent you as an agent, or to publish your story want to know if you're connected with anyone out there in the cyber world.  They want to see you for you and how you are with others online because, let's face it, it's truly a techno world these days.  Some days I feel like Skynet will take over and we'll be nothing but worthless shells whose stories are left on pages for the robots to read on their own.  Then again, because of technology, there are wonderful things about it (like connecting with you), and there are things that can cause problems in actual real life relationships.

So, for now, I will leave you the link for the page I read by Sherry Ficklin about submitting your stories to be published, and I will come back later to chat!

Get out there and do some writing!

Surviving the Slush Pile by Sherry Ficklin

Blog hiatus

Sorry everyone for the extremes in my hiatus.  I started up school again in September last year and it's all online so I actually have to read the boring stuff they assign us to read or I won't learn anything.  It's all working out well though.

Also my family will grow from a family of 4 to a family of 5 in the next few months.  So we're busy getting ready for that too.

Maybe, possibly I'll be posting here again in the future, but for now, sorry again for the hiatus.  If you would like to see some amazing miracles and awesome writing advice, check out David Farland's page on Facebook.  His son had a horribly long board accident and is still recovering, but doing well.  His story is miraculous and heart stirring.  But really check it out.  They are raising money for his medical bills because let's face it, writers don't get company medical insurance policies.

Hopefully everyone is still writing or at least thinking about it.  NaNoWriMo for 2013 is coming up soon.  And even though I'll be in school and taking care of another kiddo, I might try my hand at it again.

New Ideas

Why oh why do I leave this blog to suffer?  I'm so sorry to all of you that follow it.  I wish I did write in it more but now my little baby I had last year where I thought I would get more writing done is now faster than me and getting into EVERYTHING!  Nevertheless, my mind still goes crazy with ideas and I have finally written down a little bit of the background of the story and am now working on the tiny details.  When I wrote down the idea, I realized that I had to create my own mythology with it.  Let's just say it's like a mix of the Percy Jackson series meets the Fablehaven series meets The Mortal Instruments series.  But I am busy busy with many things and I'm even hoping to start school again to get my Bachelor's degree in English this Fall!  I'm extremely excited about beginning school again (I have missed it), and then I will be able to really get something done that I want to get done.

Finally Figured Out A Couple Things!

I know I don't update often enough to really have much of a following here on my blog.  However, this past week, I've been thinking a lot about writing.  A lot about it.  I've said it before in another post, but I have a finished novel but I've had a hard time trying to figure out where I need it to go and how to make it "better".  I also have a lot of other ideas that have been bouncing around in my head these past few months and I have made a character sheet and a synopsis for one that has been bothering me and bothering me.

Unfortunately, my little baby has been sick all winter.  Whether it was an ear infection, some teething going on, and even wheezing and at one point, there was wheezing with an ear infection and teething and a fever of 103.4 at the same time!  Times like that, I wish I had my own laptop (I use a desktop for my computing needs) so that I could write in the wee hours of the morning after my baby would calm down and just need a snuggle but I'd be awake with worry.  Sadly, we're now on the fifth ear infection for my baby and I don't think it's clearing up at all.  It's a sad day when your baby gets excited to take antibiotics.  Looks like we're in for some ear tubes to help with the drainage in his ear canals.  Not looking forward to that either but whatever will make my baby better and my anxiety about his sicknesses gone, will make everything that much better.

Back to the subject on writing though.  Like I said, I've been thinking about it a lot lately and I did finally figure out where to start the story and how to go about it.  I just need to go through the outline to fix it and get in a schedule for writing the story down.

Got a question for you, my fun 15 followers you:

Do you think vampires/witches/werewolves are on the way out in the YA genre or still holding strong?

and

What's your take on the new craze of post-apocalyptic YA novels and Dystopian style novels?

I'll give you guys a week or so (not a year, I'm sure) to think about it.  Then I'll let you know what I think. 

Quick Update

Nope, haven't done ANY writing whatsoever lately.  I did spend some time earlier in 2011 at some point creating character sheets and descriptions of a lot of characters I have in my mind lately and I just don't have the right way to tell the story yet.

This past year, I didn't participate in NaNo mostly due to the fact I have a baby moving around the house and I helped my mother-in-law babysit my nephew for almost 2 weeks and my daughter had dance and a concert and I'm still playing catch up on sleep because baby got pretty sick and would only sleep if lying next to me.

But, things look brighter for this year for writing.  I am finally getting baby back on schedule for sleeping, so at some time, I will begin my third rewrite for my vampire/witch novel.  I started a couple rewrites and decided, "That's wrong!"  My story is cliche, but it's fun and I like it.  I did join a writing group through facebook where I need to get a submission in at the end of each month.  More motivation you say?  Yes and no.  I almost don't want to face my story head on and do another rewrite.  I'd rather read all their stories and give feedback at the moment.  But I know I will submit and also critique.

So, hopefully you all had a new year.  I know mine is chaotic at the moment, but I do see writing happening a lot more this year than it did last year.