Duke Pics

My husband decided not to illustrate for my chapter book. The decision was made because the story has a seasonal theme. Its not nearly as seasonal as A Christmas Carol or How The Grinch Stole Christmas; however, its still set during winter around the Christmas season. We didn't think we'd have enough illustrations by Thanksgiving, which is around the time I want to release Duke's Forever Family to the viewing public.

Its a 10 chapter children's story about an adventurous kitten whose family disappears one winter's night. When he finds they are missing, he sets off into the cold to search for his siblings and his mother. Along the way he meets new and interesting friends, discovering that hurt and loss come in many different forms. Will Duke find his family or is he alone for good?

Here is one of the pictures that we were going to insert, however it will not be included in the final product:

Aww isn't he cute for a drawing?

To illustrate or not?

Well my husband started illustrating for my manuscript "Duke's Forever Family" a story about a kitten who wakes up to find his whole family has disappeared while he slept. He sets out on an adventure to find them. During his adventure he finds friends and learns about how others experience loss and hurt.

Well now he kinda just wants to stop illustrating since its a chapter book. He wants to put the book out without any pictures because its 10 chapters long and the shortest chapter is about 5 pages. Its a beginner or entry-level chapter book so that kids who are starting to out grow picture books can step into my chapter stories.

Well he wanted to illustrate it and he had some pretty cute pictures but now he doesn't think we should. I kind of want them so that its an easier transition for kids. It's a toss up. I guess that we still have time to consider it. Being the story does take place during the winter, specifically around Christmas, I kinda want it to be taken care of ASAP so I can get the copyright already.

Writer's Block or I Suck!

This morning after I opened my new USB keyboard I thought "I am going to use this to write Lindsay's nightmares"

Unless I start from scratch, Lindsay's Nightmares sucks. I introduced the first slightly scary scene about 4 pages into the story. The reader barely knows Lindsay. I didn't even describe her as a person. I didn't give her any looks. I'm not sure if she's white or black. I don't even know when to describe her. With my story about the kitten I knew exactly the right moment to describe my characters.

From the time that I could say my alphabet at about four years old I liked to tell stories. By the time I was in the first grade I was writing chapter stories for kids. I loved to write so much that sometimes my teachers would tell me that if I were half as interested in my school work as I am in writing my stories I'd be the best student in the class. I'd write in school, I'd write at home. I'd write so much I'd only set it a side when my hands were cramped and ink stained or when Mom had called me a second time for dinner.

Now I am a busy mom of two with one on the way. I started writing again a few weeks ago. I wrote a children's story about a kitten whose family mysteriously disappears in the night. He wakes up to find himself all alone and bravely decides to set out on a mission to find his mother and his five siblings. Along the way he meets unusual friends and finds that he shouldn't judge a book by its cover, so to speak. He learns that hurt and loss comes in many forms.

I loved writing that story. I enjoyed each and every step. Now I am writing Lindsay's Nightmares and I am stuck on the 4th page. I have been stuck on the 4th page for about 4 days. I told myself that it was because I did my best writing on the weekends. I don't do the best writing on the weekends. I wrote my story of the kitten nearly everyday. A new idea popped in my head all the time. I was raring to go. I was anxious to leave work to write that story. Now I am not even motivated to open Lindsay's Nightmares. I don't know one single interesting thing that can happen.

I can blame it on writer's block or I can accept that I really never was a writer to begin with.

A gift from the hubbby.

This morning, Micke threw a large, brown package on my bed, waking me. I still felt tired so I looked at the box, looked at him, and then closed my eyes. I was going to try and drift off for more sleep until he told me "At least look at it."

I turned over, and sleepily attempted to open the box. I am pretty weak in the morning. Actually, I am pretty weak all day, but mostly in the morning. He snatched it from me, opened it at the tab where it was meant to be opened and revealed to me a new USB keyboard. A week ago, I was flat broke and my three year old had spent some time tearing several of my keys loose from my laptop keyboard.

I had a G missing and I placed the tilde where the W goes. I had an ALT key where my /and ? mark is supposed to go. My B was still there but it was barely functioning. My FN key is gone and my right shift, the most important one, was torn loose.

Pretty much my laptop's keyboard is ghetto rigged. You might wonder, or you may not even care, why I had to replace some keys with others. The simple answer is that my son tossed the keys all over our bedroom and I am sure that somewhere in my bedroom is a black hole where things go. I can't seem to find the keys for my keyboard, my cat's old collar, and several other missing items.

This keyboard is sweet. Now I can write my memoir or I won't. There's not much to tell, and frankly, I'm boring.

Check Out Scott

I know dreams are not interesting to anyone but the dreamer. However, I wrote my dream in a way that reads like a story. It isn't edited or fine tuned so there are errors. Even though dreams suck and nobody cares I kinda wrote it this way to get feedack on my writing. Share your thoughts. I'm used to rejection, I work in a call center. ;)
Scott

The Emotions of a Call Center Agent

Working in a call center can be thought of as a high stress job. Not every call center representative is out to call everyone in the country and sell them something really crappy at an enormous price. In fact the job I do has nothing at all to do with sales. Still, working in a call center is quite stressful. Its the kind of stress that will make you sweat on a 30 degree day.

Watching our new hires being trained today reminded me of my first day on the job and all the emotions I've felt.

During training there's the feeling of anticipation. You're kind of nervous but in the back of your head is "I can do this!"
Most newbies I've ever met are bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Then after a call center agent has been on the phone a few weeks, (some may take a month to this emotion) there's the feeling of absolute dread. After the third week I started having nightmares. On the way to work I'd peer through my windshield and see the call center building approaching and I'd start to groan and mumble aloud. My mind would swirl with ideas of how to escape my fate.

After a couple of months on the phones you start to go into a kind of depression. This is where you've sort of accepted that your life sucks and you have very few other options. You go in, you take the calls, you don't care anymore if people curse you out and scream at you, your life sucks and the end of the tunnel is black.

Finally you get to the point where you're mellow and you can kind of accept it. That's where I am now. I must have seen 8 or 9 paydays by now and at this point I am accepting my job. I don't love it and I don't hate it. I clock in and think "Pay day is x amount of days away"
Joe Famous just called me a stupid expletive deleted?? Okay! I am getting paid for him to call me that.
Some Spanish guy just spent 20 minutes of his evening on the phone cursing me in another language....I can dig it. I just got paid 3 dollars to hear an interpreter call me a dummy. What he really said is not what she said in translation because if there's anything I recognize in Spanish, its swear words.
I am at the point where some days are better than others but I no longer have a pessimistic outlook. Life doesn't seem quite as bleak. When there are few other job opportunities around, you suck it up, even if your job does suck. I neither anticipate or dread starting my day. Sure, some days I grumble before, during and after work....but then...who doesn't?

I find that these are the typical stages for most call center employees I've talked to. You might wonder what this has to do with writing, well nothing really. If dreams actually did come true the relevance would be that working in a call center would be a thing of the past. Other than that, this entry is more about my personal life than my writing dreams.

Enjoy...or don't but comment even if you hate it.

Scared Myself

So I am working on another manuscript. Its a thriller story about middle school girls at a slumber party. It sounds cliche just by that description but its not just a bunch of young girls being scared to death by killer ghosts.
I think there's more to it than that. In fact, this story won't have much at all to do with ghosts.

I'd like to give a good description but I want to finish the story before I go into it too much.

My point for writing this post was that I scared myself while writing the story. What kind of ninny baby writer am I? Then I had to think about it. If I can scare myself I can scare kids for sure. That's the point of writing horror stories; scaring people, even if I am one of those people.

I wonder if Stephen King ever scared himself. Probably not.

Blogger, Twitter, Facebook

I have a few accounts for myself now. I have Blogger, Twitter and Facebook. I never thought I'd enjoy tweeting and I am not sure I do yet. However, I want to meet other people that write. I want to learn the world of writing. I can't box myself in and expect to learn anything.

Anyway time to promote my twitter and Facebook accounts.
Follow Me
Like Me

On another note, dug deep and ordered the 5 dollar book from John Locke. I bought it on Kobo. Its probably one of his more expensive e-books, although 5 isn't expensive. I'm just cheap. It's called "How I sold 1 million Ebooks in 5 months" So far its pretty exciting for a "How To" book. Normally, I get my "How To" information from the ehow website.

John Locke is pretty convincing, though. He said his stuff is worth at least 20,000 dollars. I believed it so I bought the book. I almost never buy "How To" books.

My reading wish list

I want this book by John Locke: "How I Sold a Million ebooks in 5 months"
Its 2.99 on the Kindle but I don't have a Kindle. Kobo has it listed at 4.99 which isn't bad. I can't seem to get Kobo to cooperate with me today.

My reading list

Right now according to my Kobo I am reading:
Be The Monkey its a conversation between Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath.
I am so sure that I am so late on reading this but I figured better late than never. Its .99¢ on Amazon. I am trying to get some of the scenes from this book out of my head. Youtube allows some weird content on their site. That's all I have to say.

You can get it free over at Smashwords in a couple of formats.


I am reading it on my Kobo which I retrieved it for free. I like free, what can I say?

Then I'm reading Discipline without Shouting or Spanking by Barbara C. Unell and Jerry Wycoff PhD which was not free. It is 8.99 on the Kindle Edition so I am not sure that its any cheaper on Kobo.

Third on my list:
Catholicism Answer Book the 300 most Frequently Asked Questions
Its digital list price on Kindle was slashed from 15.99 to 9.99. I think I paid like 13 dollars on Kobo. That hurt but I really needed a good book for those stupid questions non-Catholics tend to ask.

Fourth
A Very Special Delivery by Linda Goodnight.
Its free on Kindle and I recall that it was also free on Kobo. Do I know what its about? It had a baby on the front plus the price was right. I haven't even really opened it.

Fifth:
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Free in almost any ebook version I can find.
I did love reading this. Tiny people and giants. Adventure and a psych ward?
FUN!

Self Examining Your Online Menace
I can't find it for Kindle. I grabbed it free on my Kobo.
It kinda sucks from what I recall.

So here's my in print book that I am reading or going to try to read soon
Janet Evanovich and Leanne Banks
Hot Stuff

Probably a book with a lot of sex and junk but I have to read it to see how to differently phrase things. I am absorbing as many books as I can. I don't want my books to sound repetitive or flat. I don't always wanna say "XYZ" said Tracy "ABC" replied Elmo.

I don't think any of my characters will be named Elmo.

Yeah I didn't place links on anything but the top book. I'm lazy.

National Novel Writing Month

National Novel Writing Month starts on November 1 and ends on the 30th. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of November. You don't even have to be any good. You just have to write and some who do participate actually are good.

Micke challenged me and said he thought I could do it. My only problem is I don't feel that I have the time or energy to try and complete an imperfect 50,000 word manuscript by the end of November. I have a 40 hour a week job and kids. I like to write, hence the blog, I just don't see myself being a fast paced, edge of my seat, writer. Currently, I have nobody to answer to, no publisher with a deadline or no agent. So, writing a certain amount by a certain date, hasn't occurred to me.

I do have to say for myself that I did complete an imperfect manuscript of about 18 thousand words in under 4 days. However, that was not my goal, it just happened. Micke challenged me, though. I may give it a try. If I do, that will give me something to blog about.

Anyway you can find out more about NaNoWriMo by clicking the link.

Something About Me

I am 24 years old the day of this post. I want to write for a number of reasons. Let me tell you a story first:

I completely learned the alphabet at the age 4. Not long after that I was picking up books and reading them until I fell asleep. I loved books. Right out of the first grade I began to entertain my younger brothers with my stories. I told them horror stories and tales of my imaginary cat detective, Duke. His best friend was a small mouse, and he solved mysteries for humans.

With each passing year I thought of new things to write about. Sometimes my journaling and writing would get me into unnecessary trouble. My teachers would praise my creative thinking, but would complain that I needed to spend more time on homework and less time writing stories.

I would write my stories until my hands cramped and were blotted with ink. When I didn't have an ink-pen handy I grabbed up any pencil or writing material available to me. I remember days when I'd be writing away in my room while my brothers were out and about playing. Then when my mother would call us to dinner I'd ignore her at first.
She'd call again, "Rhea come to dinner."
I'd shout "But I need to just finish this page first!"

I'd write so frequently and beg my busy parents to read my journals and my stories. I'd present my stories to anyone who willing to sit down and read the chicken scratch I called writing. After I turned 16 I realized the world had a lot to offer online. I was impressed with a couple of blogging sites, one I specifically recall using before Blogger was Livejournal. There were other blogs before Livejournal but I don't actually remember their URLS. With the advent of online blogging (which I was a latecomer on) I was able to write without worrying about chicken scratch and a's being confused for o's or sometimes...g's.

Now I am learning the exciting realm of really writing. I am active at a couple of writer's forums and I read other writer's blogs. So I already have a starting point.

Soon I'll go ahead and set up my Facebook page. For now, its just my blog and me.

The reasons I want to write are varied and through my writing in this blog I hope that my reasons will be revealed in time.