Signed my first autograph!

It was quite the surreal experience!!!!

We went over to hubby's grandparent's house this past Friday for cake and ice cream to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. Just to fill you in, he just married hubby's grandma 12 years ago....so hubby was already an adult when he started coming around. The got married the summer before hubby and I did. He is really a fantastic man and no one ever found any hesitation in calling him "Grandpa" right from the beginning.

So anyway, as soon as he found out I had been published in an anthology, he went right out and bought it!! And I told him he didn't have to do that. (it's an erotic anthology and some of the content is pretty spicy...mine is a bit on the tame side though) But anyway, he bought it and said he has enjoyed reading it.

So Friday, he tells me I need to autograph his book. I felt completely honored!!! And a bit dumbfounded! What the heck do you write in an autograph???????

I told him I needed a minute to think...this whole autograph signing thing is extremely new to me!!! I went the heartfelt route, thanking him for his support and telling him that it truly means the world to me.

And then I had to sign my name....and I debated, do I sign just my first name?? Grandpa knows who I am. Or do I add my last name so it looks more official??? I went with the first and last.

So please, writers out there, if you've had the amazing pleasure of autographing your book, please share!! I'd love to hear your stories of that first signature!!

Found my "thing"!

It's Thanksgiving and what the focus for my family is, after being thankful, of course, is the FOOD!

It seems everyone has their "thing", their signature dish that they make for every single holiday, get-together, or party. Grandma has her cheesecake, Mother in Law has her Lazy Man Pierogi, my mom makes the cheesy potatoes. I never really had a "thing". I like to cook and I think I cook pretty well (or at least follow a recipe decently!). I like to change things up and bring something different to potlucks and such.

But now I have been given a "thing".

Last family get-together at my parent's house, I made a cold broccoli salad. Very tasty...raw broccoli chopped with bacon, slivered almonds, sunflower kernels, red onion. Top it with a dressing made from Miracle Whip, sugar and vinegar...very sweet and very yummy! Everyone loved it...even my brother...he had three helpings. And it is hard to get him to love anything...especially something I made. Geez...you screw up one dish and you're ridiculed for life!! But not this time.... I watched him take a small first helping out of courtesy, then a bigger second helping. Then I saw him go back for thirds...."Ya like that, don't ya!" I said and he smiled a sly kind of smile and answered a simple "Yes." I'm hoping this excuses me from ever being made fun of again for the infamous Pretzel Dessert Disaster. Knowing my brother, I doubt it :)

So I left my parent's that day happy that I had made something that was such a hit. My aunt called my mom and told her she needed to get the recipe from me.

So fast forward to a week ago. I called my mom and asked what she needed me to bring for Thanksgiving. Last year she told me pop and a box of crackers. That's it??? O...kay....I guess I could handle that. I got her back though...they came here for Christmas and when she asked what to bring...I said "pop and crackers". We got a good laugh out of it. So anyway, when I asked what to bring this year...."How about that broccoli salad?"

So now I have a "thing". I guess it makes planning a breeze and soon I'll be able to make it without glancing at the recipe.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Hope your "thing" comes out spectacular this year!

Gotta step away sometimes

I think this advice can be taken by anyone, not just writers. Every once in a while we need to step back...step away...so we can look at things more objectively.

I am stepping away from my story. It's a novelette I wrote a while back. It was originally just under 10,000 words and was written for a romance magazine that has a 10,000 word max. Obviously they did not want it (well, actually..I'm not sure...I never heard back and it's been a good 7-8 months). I have been editing it like crazy lately...perfecting it, adding to it, in hopes that my publisher will want to publish it. So far I've added over 2000 words to it and really put a ton of energy into showing instead of telling. I think it's miles from where it was when I started.

But now I need to step away. I took an excerpt to my writers group and got some great feedback and some things to work on. I did them and hopefully accomplished what I needed with the changes. But now I need to step back. I need to give this story a rest...I will go back to it in a week or so.

So in the meantime, I did pull out another piece..another romance novelette. This one majorly needs a POV (point of view) change. I'm coming to find I do prefer romance written in 3rd person. It's so nice to include the guy's perspective......considering in real life we NEVER can tell what our man is thinking. At least in fiction, I can give that to my readers! :)

But anyway, I may take next week off....and GASP! no writing/editing whatsoever. Double GASP! I think my brain needs a vacation. I have holiday cards that need to be made and about a zillion photos that need to be cropped and matted and arranged onto unique scrapbook layouts!

Let's gives thanks!

As I scroll through my blog list I see that many people are blogging about what they are thankful for this year. I like to reflect on what I have in my life that is good. Sometimes I think people get too involved thinking of what they don't have.

Here is my list of things I am thankful for...most are serious...some not so serious :)

A husband who rarely tells me no for anything.

Two kids who love me like crazy.

Everyone in my family is relatively healthy (my son's asthma is pretty much under control, so I don't really worry about it!)

Fantastic parents who let me live my life without judgment and don't aggravate me.

The most wonderful girlfriends on the planet.

My publishing contract.

An editor that couldn't be more perfect for me!

My writer's group.

My laptop.

My electric blanket.

New York State Dept. of Corrections for employing my husband and giving us complete job security.

Walt Disney World.

New Kids on the Block

That's it for now...maybe I'll come back and add some more later!!

What writery things are on your Christmas wish list???

This year I am asking for a portable hard drive. Exciting, I know. I have a lot of my work backed up on disk but it would be so nice to have everything in one place...and not have to worry about my laptop dying and taking with it all my hard work.

I also want a digital voice recorder...but I may just buy it myself instead of asking for it for Christmas. I am attending The Write Stuff writers conference in March and I am thinking it would be nice to record the seminars.

So what is on your list??? I want to know...maybe there's something I didn't know I needed!!

If I had a million dollars......

What a fun idea I found over at Romance in Writing!

Sometimes it's fun to dream and think about all the things we do if we were filthy rich!! (After feeding the poor, curing the sick, and saving the planet, of course!)

Here are my top 5!!

I'd buy a house like this:



With a closet like this (filled of course!):



I'd take tons and tons of dance lessons:



I'd go to every single show these guys put on, no matter where in the world it was:



And I'd visit this place at least 3 or 4 times a year:



So what about you???? What would you do??? Post a blog on your page and comment here so I know to go check it out!!

"Yes Grandma, I wrote that explicitly detailed sex scene..."

I write women's fiction and contemporary romance and that means I write sex scenes from time to time. My first novel was very detailed..it was a coming of age type story and I thought the details were necessary. Then I wrote my second and I got kinda prudish. The scenes were there but I left the details out. I wrote my third and I kinda went in between.

I found that I do enjoy writing the scenes, especially now that I've gotten a handle on striking a balance between corny and clinical. So many times I ran into that problem....searching for the right words to describe the action but not wanting it to sound silly. And using terms my doctor would use just didn't sizzle. It took a while to get it just right and I'm pretty proud of the scenes I can come up with now.

But the further I go in this process....I am forced to face facts that every person I know is most likely going to read my steamy scenes...even my parents and grandparents! It's one thing for my girlfriends to read them...sex is often a topic we talk about (we're a close knit bunch!) But my mom...and God forbid...MY DAD!!!

So now I worry that Grandma is gonna read my words and know where my inspiration comes from. Obviously she knows I've had sex before...I have two kids. But I don't know...it's kinda weird!! I remember when I found out I was pregnant with my first child. I said to my husband (we'd been married for over 4 years mind you), "Well now my parents are gonna know we have sex!" I'm sure they already knew...but now there was absolute proof!

Romance writers out there.....or any writers....when you first started out, how did you feel about your grandma reading your sexy scenes?

Why can't I survive on like 2 hours of sleep???

Life would be so much easier.

I struggle every day with the things I do, the things I should be doing, the things I wish I could do, and the things I need to do.

I try to keep a clean home but in all honesty, there are things that definitely come before making sure the dishes are washed. I try to use my mornings for cleaning, doing other things around the house, exercising. My son roams around and plays...I play with him too. After lunch he naps and that is my time. The house could be a disaster pit and I do not care. I plop down with my laptop and check on everything that's going on in the world and then write or edit or whatever else I need to do with my writing that day. My daughter then comes home from school- we work on homework and I get dinner ready. We eat dinner as a family and then, depending on the night, there's baths, dance class, writers meetings, etc... We try to fit in family time as much as we can too.

But most nights I sit here and wonder where the heck the day went and I feel like I didn't give enough time to any one thing that day. The house is never clean enough, I never get to do as much writing or editing as I want and I feel like I spent hardly any quality time with my kids and husband. And if I do spend more time on any one of these things, I feel horrible that the others were pushed to the side that day.

I know I'm not the only woman in the world that struggles with balancing work, home life and household chores. Is there some magical solution out there???? Some fancy pill I can take that would let me sleep for two hours and be refreshed like I had slept for 10? I've just now decided that if I could have any super power, it would be to never need sleep!

Yuck! I don't like this one bit!!!

I'm reading a romance right now...one book with three shorter pieces in it. The first is interesting and it has held my interest so far...but it is written in third person omniscient. Wow I do not like it!! I don't know if I can even pinpoint why. It just seems very bizarre to read all the character's thoughts and feelings rather than just one character's. Have you ever read a book like this...what did you think???? Seems like this would be tough to write too.

Pen names.....yes or no????

I always said right from the get go...no pen name for me. I loved the idea of seeing MY name on a book cover...not some made up name. And who doesn't dream of the day they hand their credit card to a clerk and they do a double take and ask "Are you THE (fill in blank with your name)?"

Okay, maybe that's just me. :)

I write romantic fiction and yes I have some pretty steamy scenes. It really does not bother me one bit if people know it's me who writes these things (and obviously has some lusty visions from time to time!! LOL!!) The people who's opinions I do care about, friends and family, have already read my stuff and they all loved it...even my mom and we really weren't a family that openly talked about sexual things. I did warn her though! But these are all the people who would know it was me even if I did use a pen name. I can understand teachers and other careers that involve kids or what not, where they would be looked down upon for writing sexual stories. I definitely get that reason for a pen name. And now that I've been published in my own name, in an erotic anthology and my novel which is chick lit with some sexual scenes, if I ever wanted to switch to childrens...a pen name would be a must.

But now I wonder if I should have went with a pen name anyway. Only because I'm afraid my last name is too hard to pronounce. It's Haefner, pronounced Hayf-ner. We're used to people mispronouncing it...usually we get Haf-ner (pronounced like half). I did debate on using my maiden name cause it's super simple: Stephanie Russell...but I googled it and there is another writer published under Stephanie Russell among tons of other people with that name. If I google Stephanie Haefner...it's all me.

So what do you think?? When you saw my name, did you know how to pronounce it correctly?? It is awkward to say??? (In all honesty, when I met my husband, I thought it was really weird to say! I debated on hyphenating my name when we got married because I really didn't like Haefner!) Does the name just look weird????

A Writers Age?? Does it matter????

The other day I took a book out from the library....one that was made into a major motion picture (which I loved BTW). I'd never read the book so I grabbed it. Now that I am a writer myself...I take the time to read acknowledgments and the copyright stuff.....and while doing this, I notice her year of birth.....uh...same as mine. And the book came out 6 years ago. Yeah...she was about 26 when her first book was published that soon after it made millions at the box office........

Then today I was reading the talented Natalie Whipple's Blog. She made mention in a comment that she is not yet 26. (She recently snagged a fabulous agent of her own!!)

God do I feel ancient. And I shouldn't. I'm only 32. That's still young....right? RIGHT?

But it made me wonder if age matters. I know some writers write for years and years and do not find publishing success until they're middle aged or older. Others get an early start and by the time they reach the quarter century marker...their writing career has already blossomed.

So does youth give an advantage...or does time and experience???? Thoughts???

I guess I can't complain too much...I was 27 when I started writing fiction seriously. I've accomplished a lot in the past 4+ years.

Okay...if anyone has the time...I need some opinions.

I am debating on a POV switch...but the entire book is finished....92,000 words. This would be a MAJOR project. Book is written in 1st, debating on switching to 3rd so I can insert some POV from the hero.

So here goes. First scene. What do you like better?

The original in 1st:

I sighed and rolled my eyes as I answered the question for the third time.

“Yes, Mrs. Vandewater, your daughter’s wedding bouquet will be delivered to your house by noon along with all of the attendant’s flowers.”

I slouched into my leather desk chair and doodled the name Vandewater on a yellow legal pad. I added horns to the V and a pointed tail to the R. As the owner of a service oriented business, “The customer is always right” becomes a motto I have no choice but to live by, regardless of how insane it makes me sometimes. Numerous times I would have liked to take this lovely adage and chuck it right out the window, watching it splatter on the street like a water balloon tossed from ten stories up. What joy I’d have telling the customer exactly what I thought of them and where they could take their “one last question”. But in the end my desire to please everyone triumphs.

“No, I will not get lost getting to your house. I have the directions you gave me, plus printed directions off the Internet. I also have your home phone number, your cell phone number and your maid’s cell phone number programmed into my phone just in case.”

The door chime sounded and I watched a wide-eyed twenty-something step over the threshold. Her face beamed as her head slowly panned the shop. She smiled as she stepped toward the nearest shelf and caressed a plumed guestbook pen.
High-pitched screeches resonated from the receiver of the phone and I turned my attention back to this year’s Momzilla, a severe pain in the ass that had given headaches to my headaches. Each wedding season there had to be one nut and this lady was the whole can. She had driven me completely crazy for the past nine months, ever since she and her blue-eyed, blonde of a daughter/princess/pretty puppet on a string walked into my shop.

“Yes, I already spoke with the caterer about setting up the centerpieces exactly how you described. Is there anything else?…Okay then, I will see you on Saturday. Have a wonderful day!”

The greeting rolled off my tongue quite naturally with my perfected fake niceness, even though my brain was ready to explode. I then took a deep breath and let it out, purging my body of all things Vandewater.

“Hello! I’m Roda,” I said as I approached my newest client. “Can I help you with something?”

“Um, yeah, I guess. I uh, just got engaged,” she smiled coyly and waved her sparkly little diamond in front of me. It was a really pretty one. In this line of work I see many diamond rings and I’d seen my share of ugly ones over the years. This one was simple yet elegant, the kind I’d dreamed of seeing on my own finger someday. But first I needed to find a man willing to stick around for more than a month or two.

“Oh, how wonderful! Congratulations! Have you set a date?”

“Yes, June 7th of next year.”

I heard the phone ring as I showed her around the shop, pointing out various books, magazines and bouquet samples.

“Roda,” my assistant called out. “Line two is for you. It’s Mrs. Vandewater.”

“You’ll have to excuse me one moment,” I said to the new bride and sat her down with a photo album filled with pictures my past brides had sent me, snapshots showcasing the beautiful floral bouquets I made for them. I dragged my feet over to my desk, plopped into my chair and took a cleansing breath before picking up the receiver.

Mrs. Vandewater and her daughter Penelope had sat with me at least a dozen times to choose the bouquets and other flower arrangements for the wedding with several of those times being impromptu visits and of course only five minutes before I planned to close up shop for the night. In between our meetings, Mrs. Vandewater called me at least once a week to ask the most mundane of questions. Each and every time she called I cringed, but thanks to my fake niceness, I proudly maintained my professionalism. This was one wedding I could not wait to be done with. Only had three more days to go.

“Yes, Mrs. Vandewater. What can I do for you?”

“I need to make sure there won’t be any of that tacky netting in my Penelope’s bouquet. You know how I hate anything cheap.”

I answered her as politely as possible, even though she could have found the information herself if she simply looked at her copy of the order. It had been printed in big bold letters: ‘NO TULLE WHATSOEVER’.

After going over the directions with me yet again, I finally hung up the phone. I looked up to find my new bride-to-be standing in front of a full length mirror holding one of my silk bouquet samples, a simple hand-tied arrangement of white roses and Lily of the Valley. I took a rhinestone encrusted tiara off the shelf, fluffed its finger-length veil and placed it atop her head.

“What do you think?”

“Wow,” she replied as her eyes glossed over. The smiles I’d seen in that mirror were what I lived for. Those moments got me through the insane headache moments of other brides and their mothers and reminded me why I loved my job so much.

“Will I really look like one of those pictures on my wedding day?” she asked while pointing to a poster-sized print on the wall.

“I’ll do everything I can to make sure you do!” I promised.


New in 3rd:

Roda Morgan sighed and rolled her eyes as she answered the question for the third time.

“Yes, Mrs. Vandewater, your daughter’s wedding bouquet will be delivered to your house by noon along with all of the attendant’s flowers.”

She slouched down in her leather desk chair and doodled on a yellow legal pad, taking the name Vandewater and added horns to the V and a pointed tail to the R. As the owner of a service oriented business, “The customer is always right” became a motto she had no choice but to live by, regardless of how insane it sometimes made her. Numerous times she would have liked to chuck that motto right out the window, watching it splatter on the street like a water balloon tossed from ten stories up. What joy she’d have telling the customer exactly what she thought of them and where they could take their “one last question”. But in the end, her desire to please everyone won out.

“No, I will not get lost getting to your house. I have the directions you gave me, plus printed directions off the Internet. I also have your home phone number, your cell phone number and your maid’s cell phone number programmed into my phone just in case.”

The door chime sounded and Roda looked up to find a wide eyed twenty-something. She had a glossed-over look in her eyes and began browsing around the shop, stopping to caress a fluffy guestbook pen and smiled.

More screeching came from the receiver of the phone and Roda turned her attention back to this year’s Momzilla, a severe pain in the ass that had given headaches to her headaches. Each wedding season there had to be one nut and this lady was the whole can. She had driven Roda completely crazy for the past nine months, ever since she and her blue-eyed, blonde of a daughter/princess/pretty puppet on a string walked into her shop, Bridal Blossoms by Roda.

“Yes, I already spoke with the caterer about setting up the centerpieces exactly how you described. Is there anything else?...Okay then, I will see you on Saturday. Have a wonderful day!”

The greeting rolled off her tongue quite naturally with what she called “fake niceness”, even though her brain was ready to explode. She took a deep breath and let it out, purging her body of all things Vandewater.

“Hello! I’m Roda,” she said as she approached her newest client. “Can I help you with something?”

“Um, yeah, I guess. I uh, just got engaged,” she smiled coyly and waved her sparkly little diamond in front of Roda. She admired it, a simple yet elegant setting; one she’d dreamed of seeing on her own finger someday. But first she needed to find a man willing to stick around for more than a month or two.

“Oh, how wonderful! Congratulations! Have you set a date?”

“Yes, June 7th of next year.”

The phone rang as Roda showed the bride-to-be around the shop, pointing out various books, magazines and bouquet samples.

“Roda,” her assistant called out. “Line two is for you. It’s Mrs. Vandewater.”

“You’ll have to excuse me one moment,” she said to her customer and sat her down with a photo album filled with pictures past brides had sent in, snapshots showcasing the beautiful floral bouquets Roda made for them. She dragged her feet over to the desk, plopped into the chair and took a cleansing breath before picking up the receiver.

Mrs. Vandewater and her daughter Penelope had sat with Roda at least a dozen times to choose the bouquets and other flower arrangements for the wedding with several of those times being impromptu visits and of course only five minutes before the shop closed for the night. In between meetings, Mrs. Vandewater called at least once a week to ask the most mundane of questions. Each and every time she called Roda cringed, but proudly maintained her professionalism and most treasured trait. This was one wedding she could not wait to be done with. Only three more days to go.

“Yes, Mrs. Vandewater. What can I do for you?”

“I need to make sure there won’t be any of that tacky netting in my Penelope’s bouquet. You know how I hate anything cheap.”

Roda answered her as politely as possible, even though she could have found the information herself if she simply looked at her copy of the order. It had been printed in big bold letters: ‘NO TULLE WHATSOEVER’.

After going over the directions yet again, she finally hung up the phone. Roda looked up to find the new bride-to-be standing in front of a full length mirror holding one of the silk bouquet samples, a simple hand-tied arrangement of white roses and Lily of the Valley. Roda took a rhinestone encrusted tiara off the shelf, fluffed its finger-length veil and placed it atop her head.

“What do you think?”

“Wow,” she replied as her eyes glazed once again. The smiles Roda had seen in that mirror were what she lived for. Those moments got her through the insane headache moments of other brides and their mothers and reminded her why she loved her job so much.

“Will I really look like one of those pictures on my wedding day?” the bride asked while pointing to a poster-sized print on the wall.

“I’ll do everything I can to make sure you do!” Roda promised.

Ever change POV after something's been written???

I am seriously thinking of a POV change on my 3rd novel. It's currently in 1st and completely finished. I read this post about POV today over at Fiction Groupie's blog and it really made me think. I remembered how frustrating it was at times to write that book and NOT be able to get in my hero's head.

Has anyone ever taken an entire novel and changed the POV??? Sounds like an extreme amount of work. But maybe it would be worth it???

Bookstores need carts or something!!!!

I was out and about the other day...food shopping, other miscellaneous errands, one of which included a stop at my local Barnes and Noble.

I love book stores, as I'm sure all writers do.......I walk in and immediately feel at peace. Gleaming covers smile at me...their bindings fresh..unbent. I could easily spend hours walking up and down the aisles, admiring cover art, reading blurbs on the backs and checking the insides too. Oh how I wish I had mega-millions so I could just buy every book I wanted!!

I feel inspired when I'm there too...proof is staring at me from every angle...it IS possible to get published and have your book sitting on the shelf with all the others!!!! I usually wish I had my laptop with me so I could snuggle up in one of the nail head trimmed chairs and write and write all day long.

But this trip to B&N was not a very fun one. I had my son with me and unfortunately I only had our double stroller with us and it was buried behind several bags of groceries and other things in our mini-van. No way I could have gotten it out...well...with my sanity still intact anyway. So I took him by the hand and went in. I sighed as I walked past all the tables and the Bargain section...one of my favorite stops in the store. I bee-lined for the children's section to get what I needed. (My daughter has a birthday party to go to and I had another children's present to give. I got both kids Toys R Us gift cards but needed something to go with...so I decided on getting them both an early reader book to go with the GC.) So anyway, my son is almost 22 months and wants to touch everything and run around and I know that if I let go of his hand for two seconds, he will run amok. I manage to sit him on the floor by the early readers. I browse while he also "browses" and yanks books out from their places. I try as quickly as possible to find one girl book and one boy book then clean up my son's mess. (My apologies to the workers of the Children's section at B&N...none were put back where they belonged.) We leave the section and I sadly dash past all the books I wish I could look at and get in line. The clerk asks me if I have a B&N rewards card thingy..I tell him yes but I can't dig for it in my purse. I know that if I let go of my son, he will take off. I pay with my one free hand and we leave.

But if Barnes and Noble had carts with a kid seat......oh yes...I would have been able to spend a ton more time in there!!!

Hubby made me laugh!!!

So the yesterday he is quizzing our daughter for her spelling test...she's in 1st grade, so the words are pretty simple. One was "lot". She spells it perfectly. I am in the other room and I hear him ask her to spell "a lot". She does and I come right out and say to hubby, "Um...you know that's two words, right?" He then proceeds to playfully argue with me. He finally accepts it but then says, "You're just playin' with me, right?"

"No honey.....'a lot' is two words."

So he goes to find a dictionary. I run and get mine and show him he is wrong. I smile and shake my head at him...we have a good laugh.

So my husband says to me the other day.....

Him: "You need to work on an autograph."

Me: "What?"

Him: "You can't go signing autographs with your normal signature. That's boring."

Me: "Um...okay...."

So my husband thinks I need to create some fabulous artwork with my name so when I start doing book signings I will be all set. I'm not a count-my-chickens-before-they've-hatched kind of gal...so I am in no way, shape or form going to be creating an autograph any time soon. But his enthusiasm and optimism about my writing career is so wonderful....and baffling.

When I quit my full time gig as a floral designer at a flower shop almost 7 years ago...he was worried....very worried. I was due to have our first child and doing my own floral business from home was always my dream. He was worried about giving up a huge chunk of income. I knew my home-based business would not generate the income my full time job did, but we wouldn't be paying daycare and most importantly, I'd be happy and here for our child. He was less than supportive about the venture but it worked out money-wise.... After a while though...I lost my love for the work....I was taken over by a different, ever-growing passion.

So what did hubby say when I told him I wanted to give up my floral business and ALL income to concentrate on my writing...."Yes! You should do it!"

Men....who understands em'? But I love him to death and it makes me so happy to see him excited about my successes and to hear how he brags about me to his friends, family and coworkers! :)

Digital book readers, how's a girl to choose????

I have wanted one of these fabulous gadgets since they arrived on the scene....but lack of funds has put it on the bottom of my wish list. But now the prices seem to be coming down and different models are being made.....it's becoming more of a reality for me. Yippee!!!!!

I was COMPLETELY bummed yesterday in Target. I've been checking out the Sony Reader and I played with one at Walmart last week. I looked at the new Reader Pocket at Toys R Us, but it was not a working sample so no playtime with that. I was at Target getting some other things and I knew they had the original Reader so I thought I'd mosey on over to electronics and see if they had the Pocket to play with. Couldn't find them anywhere. I asked the worker in electronics. She said they CLEARANCED OUT the remaining Readers they had and they were all gone. They sold them for....are you reader for this....$75. I wanted to scream. $75!!!!!!!! I asked how long ago...she said about a month. So at least I missed it by weeks rather than just a day or two.

So now I am starting to do research and weighing what I want and need and comparing prices. I love the price of the Reader Pocket, but you cannot make notes in the margin. For normal books...not a big deal...but maybe I'd like to upload my own work and read it on that and make notes that way. But is that worth an extra $100??? I would need to do edits on my laptop anyway.

I need feedback on this...please tell me what you have, how you use it....if you're happy.....

And now today I saw at Barnes and Noble that they are coming out with their own book reader....but you can only buy ebooks from B&N. But I think Kindle is like that too, right?? You can only buy books from Amazon??? What about the Sony...can you only buy books from the Sony store???

And then I run into the money thing. I sooooooooooooooooo badly want to buy books and support fellow writers....but I'm kinda poor!! (Not really...I like to joke. But we are a single income family and once bills are paid and food's been bought, not a ton of leftover money...especially in winter when my husband can't supplement his income with overtime.) So would spending the money on a digital book reader even be worth it for me right now???

*Sigh* Maybe I will have to wait a while before I get one.

An Award!!! Thanks Kristie!!

A HUGE thanks to Kristie at R.A.W. Random Acts of Writing for honoring me with the Heartfelt Blog Award!!

This really means a lot to me!! One of the main focuses of my blog is to keep things real and part of being real for me is putting all my feelings out there. I want my readers to know me, share in my joys, my frustrations......I want to connect with others and be someone they can identify with!

Here are my honorees:

Lady Glamis (I know you may not read this, with taking a much needed break from blogging, but I ALWAYS appreciate your comments!!)
Megan Rebekah Always love reading your posts!!
Natalie Whipple Great posts!!

Kind of excited here!!!

Got an email today from the people at Chicken Soup for the Soul. I'd written a piece a long while back....about my mom and my step mom and how I never knew why my biological mom left. But now as an adult, I don't so much care. My step mom was wonderful and I couldn't have asked for better!

So I came across a submission call for a CSFTS "Thanks Mom" edition. I sent the piece....I figured- "What the heck?"

Well, lo and behold....in my inbox today was an email informing me that the piece made it to the final round...which only 5% of entries make!! AND it said the vast majority of those entries make it into the final book! SWEET!!!!! If it makes it I get $200 and 10 copies of the book. All rights revert to me too!

My career keeps moving step by step in the right direction....some days I just cannot believe this is happening for me!!!!

Read like a reader, not like a writer....

Now that I write and edit and am going through this whole process with a professional editor....I am having an EXTREMELY hard time reading books and turning off the writer part of me. I see sentences written poorly (or at least I think they are written poorly. I see all the ways that it could be said better, clearer, smoother) or a grammar mistake (I gasp when I see those. Hello??? What is the purpose of a line editor if they don't catch stuff like that before it goes to print????) I see those no no words and adverbs that I spent months deleting and rewording in my own manuscript. Sometimes I get so distracted that I get lost and have a hard time concentrating on the story.

Then I have to tell myself to stop. I tell myself to chill out and just read. Read the story and lose myself in it...enjoy it....read it like a every other Jane out there.

Does anyone else have this problem?? How do you remedy it???

To all the NANO's out there....

Wishing you all lots of luck as you start today!!!!

One of these years I WILL do it too!!! It always seems something comes up when November rolls around and I just can't set it aside to concentrate on it. This year it's editing. I am expecting my first round of copy edits from my editor soon...hopefully by mid month. I'd hate to be on a roll and then have to set it aside to concentrate on something that needs my immediate attention.

Or maybe that's an easy excuse. What would the harm be in getting something new started???

I don't know..... I'm working on editing some other projects too..so that I can submit them to my publisher. Plus I want to do another edit of my third novel so I can take it to The Write Stuff conference in March and pitch it to an agent.

And time...throw one more excuse on the pile. I really really need to carve out more writing time. I get a solid 3 hours on the computer in the afternoon when my son naps...but that time needs to be divided between email, networking, blogging, fun stuff (Facebook) and other stuff like check book balancing, uploading photos, etc... Sometimes the writing portion of my time is reduced to an hour or so. Hubby and I keep saying we are going to get a better schedule for me...giving me more time to write. We need to treat it like more of a job than we are. If I had a job outside of the home...I'd have to leave every day. We need to treat writing like a job. But as always, we have trouble with that....I may leave the room but they all know I'm still in the house. As any good mom out there...it's extremely hard to hear your child scream and not go running towards it.

So anyway...doo luck to everyone out there!!! Can't wait to hear of your progress!!