Just got the news!!!!!

My story made it into Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom Edition!!!! I am so excited!!!!!!

Little backstory...the piece that made it in is something I wrote a couple years ago. I don't write many essays or memoir type stuff. I haven't lived an exciting life...so there aren't many topics to write a memoir about! But I guess my mom situation was a bit on the unusual side. I never really thought it was...it was my life...it was what I was used to. My mom basically took off when I was 3, my brother 1-1/2. We did see her in the summer though. But we were real lucky....our dad remarried pretty soon after the divorce and she has been beyond amazing. We have called her mom since the beginning (though she tells us she and our dad never prompted us to). She took care of us and never once in my entire life did I feel like a step child. Even after she and my dad had a baby...my half brother was treated no better (actually, he complains incessantly that I am the favored child!)

So anyway, the piece is about my step mom and how important she's been to me and how in my opinion, being a mother has nothing to do with biology.

I submitted this piece to CSFTS after finding the call for submissions listed somewhere on the internet. I sent it off and forgot about it. Till the email came. I've been back and forth with them over the past couple months...but until today....I was never told "Yes, You're in!"

I'm very excited about this!! I didn't tell my mom (step mom) about the piece. She has read it before but I never told her it was being considered for CSFTS. Publication date is set for the end of March and I think it would be a lovely Mother's Day gift!

I will get $200 and 10 copies of the book! Not bad!!!

And.....you know how every story in CSFTS has a quote from someone famous on the page??? Yeah....when they sent me the final edited version of the story for my approval...the quote on my page: OPRAH!

I started a Cooking Blog!!!

I have been toying with the idea for a long long time!! I have been cooking healthy meals for my family for years....I find it very thrilling to make something utterly delicious that is guilt-free! This new blog will follow myself and my friend Denise through our adventures in healthy cooking. We'll share TONS of tried and true recipes and welcome recipes suggestions from readers! We'll try those too and then share them!

I have a few musts in a low fat/low cal recipe: it must taste fantastic, it must be relatively easy to make and it must be relatively inexpensive. And our blog will be full of these type of recipes!

I found too, that there are many people out there who want to eat better but just do not know where to start and the term "low fat" scares them to death. So many people have the preconception that low fat means low taste and that is so not true!! Hopefully this blog will give people a starting place!

Come stop by! Healthy Cooking Mamas

Follow the Bouncing Word Count!

I am in the middle of a major edit on my 3rd novel, Spellbound. It was originally written in 1st person and I decided to do a POV change on the entire thing. Huge undertaking...yes....hard...no, not at all. And I'm quite enjoying being able to add in my hero's thoughts! Very fun actually!!

But what I'm noticing as I do this edit, my word count keeps fluctuating. It goes up when I write in some of my male characters POV, then goes down when I edit out a blah paragraph. And now that I'm in the middle of copy edits with my editor for A Bitch Named Karma, I am learning soooooooooooooooooo much and it's amazing how I read my work now and can instantly pick out spots that are worded wrong. And dialog tags...I never thought I was horrible with them...but boy...I am cutting a bunch out!

Love that I am constantly learning new things and strengthening my writing!!

So overall the word count makes me happy. For the moment it's lower than it was when I originally finished the story...but I know there are spots I need to add in more of my hero's thoughts...so I expect it to end up back where it originally was.

Quite pathetic....

All year I've been reading other bloggers who made a goal to read 100 books in one year. Seemed absolutely awesome yet crazy at the same time. That's 2 books a week! Where in the world do you guys find the time to read that much?????

I thought of trying something like that myself.....but I have kids. One is in school...so the first hour and a half of our day is quite hectic with breakfast, getting dressed, making lunch, etc... Once she leaves I am doing laundry, playing with my little one, etc... 11:30 is lunch time...then nap time for him. Then it's my time...3-1/2 glorious hours of whatever I want to do. Usually the first hour is email, blogging, Facebook, etc... Then I spend the rest writing or editing. 4 comes and it's time to start making dinner...then eat dinner, then clean up from dinner. Then we have some family time. Kids get in bed, I get in the shower and then sometimes get back on the computer. Add in nights where I go to writers group meetings and also my weekly dance class and my daughter's dance class. Weekends...forget about it...always something going on. So not a ton of free time for reading. I get, at the most, an hour before bed.

I just went on to Goodreads to see how many books I actually did read this year..assuming I logged in every one. There were many I started and never finished too (I'm so much more critical now that I am a writer...and if something does not grab my full attention it gets put down), so those weren't added in. The count...a depressing 16.

I guess it's not awful...more than 1 a month. I think with my schedule...it would be unrealistic to try to read more than say 30 in an entire year...that's a little more than 1 book every 2 weeks.

So I will try to read 30 books in 2010. That is my goal! Now that I have my Sony Reader, I am determined to fit in more reading time (and get full use out of such an expensive gadget!). I have 9 books loaded on it ready to go. But I started reading the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. I'm on book 1 and if I love it...I will need to read the next 3 immediately. The library has them- they're kinda old, so no waiting. I can't see buying them.

Another fabulous contest!!

@ Nathan Bransford's blog

I entered!! Lots of fun and FANTABULOUS prizes!!

Check out this awesome contest!!!

Go to Shooting Stars!!! Check it out right now!!

I love when bloggers do contests! Such a fun way to bring everyone together!

I love when a story affects me like this!

This is what writing is all about...for me, anyway. It's the emotion.....the way a truly great story stays with us and changes the way we think or feel about life.

Some of my all-time favorite stories are The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I am a sucker for a coming of age story and especially one like this that also shows the immensely strong connection between girlfriends.

I read book 1, got it from the library, and loved it. Not really sure where I heard about it or why I picked it up, but I was hooked. I read books 2 and 3, also from the library. The first movie came out (based solely on book 1), can't remember if it was before or after book 3, but I adored it. It didn't disappoint in any way (though it resolved an issue that wasn't resolved in the 1st book...it was resolved in book 3). It took the characters I adored and brought them to life.

Book 4 was due to come out and I wanted to buy it. I knew I wanted to eventually collect them all. I had just seen the movie, so instead of spending the cash right away, I just bought 2 & 3, and read them to refresh my memory before 4 came out. 4 came out and I couldn't even wait for paperback...so my collection is all paperback except for 4.

Movie number two came out and I was disappointed.....I loved some of it but found many faults it the way 3 books were squished into one 2 hour movie. So much was cut and that I'm sure disappointed far more fans than just myself.

So now we're at present day and while shopping for Christmas presents a few weeks ago for family and friends, I happened across a box set: both STP movies and Book #1...which I still did not have. I hinted to hubby that I would really like it for Christmas. And it was only $23! Needless to say, I got it and when I opened it up and looked into the eyes of the actresses on the cover...the four friends who had also become my friends, I got teary. My mind flooded with their story, the ups, the downs, the sadness, the joy.......

My dream is to make my readers feel this way about my stories.