Looking For Some Feedback...

Alright. I actually had the entire house to myself Saturday evening and I did my best to take advantage of the quiet. I've been focused on the beginning of my story, "Crowning Absolution" and determined that it should begin with a conversation. Well, it kept stumping me and so I began to work around that focus to find somewhere else to start.

Everyone talks about that very first sentence of the story. The one to draw you in and then draw you deeper with the first paragraph. I think... I think I might have nailed it. Sometimes it takes me a while to realize that I am obsessing over how I think it should be, rather than what is going to work. I would like to share the very beginning with you.

It is only 171 words long at the moment, but I tell you what, I revised each one of those words to tighten it up even more, trying to make sure I didn't end a sentence with a preposition... one of my lovely habits apparently. I've tried to eliminate the use of the word 'was' as much as I could... Okay scratch that, 165 words. See? Am I obsessing? Yes, yes I am.

Okay I will stop fussing and fretting until I see what you have to say about it. Maybe .

"The last memory Kayta Ni'adzul clung to as she fell into the cold, unforgiving sea was the brush of Alabassin's lips against hers and the promises he had whispered in her ear. She struggled to keep her eyes open, but the blow to her head made focusing difficult. The icy water stung her exposed skin and her hands flailed about looking for anything that would support her, buoy her in the high waves. Above Kayta, the fighting ensued and others fell overboard, most of them already dead when they hit the water. A loud crack sounded as the smaller, attacking ship rammed into the larger one. Pieces of Kayta's ship fell around her, striking her prone body. She held tightly to a large piece of wood that supported her, but as debris rained down, pain coursed up her leg causing her to black out as something struck her, breaking the bone. As she sank into blissful darkness, her best friend screaming her name followed her down into the abyss."

Okay, so it ended up being 169 words as I had revised yet again before posting. What can I say? Anyway, as the post suggests, I'm looking for some feedback please. Don't worry about hurting my feelings, be honest. Thanks!

Reading For A Cause...

We've all been there. Sick, scared and more often than not, no insurance and broke due to medical bills.

I'm in that same place these days. Although I have no diagnosis so I am not going to post details yet until I have one.

There is a woman, though, who does have a diagnosis, she's a mom, a wife and has breast cancer. My sister-in-law is donating ALL of her proceeds from her book as well as her e-books to her friend to help with the medical bills.

As Cheri says, "A little click can go a long way..." So head on over to Cheri's Blog and read the details to see how you can help. And please pass this along. Tweet it, FaceBook it, Post about it... If you can donate, do so. If you can't, do what you can.

Working It...

I've been given a little boost in inspiration from two of my Blogger buddies.

Mary over at M.P. MacDonald Has The Write Stuff. Her offer to join her and her friend in their one hour writing sessions. I have yet to get in on one due to stupid Doctors. But I really look forward to participating in one soon to get me back in the groove of writing!

My other inspirational buddy was Hart over at Confessions of a Watery Tart. Her Divine Order post had me thinking... I'm already doing that!

I have had the idea for awhile to gather a following before promotion when (and if) I get published. I have my website up and running with all sorts of information as if I am already published.

What I didn't think about, was what Hart said in her post about promoting other authors. It isn't just good Karma, but it configures into all the networking we do. I have tons of author friends on FaceBook and "know" dozens of authors in my networking efforts. Plus, I've been trying to figure out what exactly to add to my website pages. Well, this is it. My author promotional page. I get to take down the silly page of books on my personal shelf and leave that specifically as a sidebar. There are lots of people who want/need promotion.

So here's the deal. You send me: Website link, a pic of your book (.jpg is preferable) as well as a pic of yourself and a short bio. Even a quote from your book or review quote. You name it. I'll make your little section look as professional as possible on my site. All I ask in return is a link back to my site. Once I get published, we'll talk details. :D

Eventually I will be getting around to guest blogs. I would like to post guest blogs here and on my website as well. I have a blog as well as a forums area where I can archive the guest blogs/interviews.

So where do you send your info? Right here: Paridzule.Keep@Gmail.com. That's me! I'm looking forward to this. :D

What ...Writing?

Oh yeah, writing. That is what this blog is supposed to be about. Silly me. I almost forgot. :D

Not really, but over the internet you really can't appreciate my dry sense of humor or my sarcastic wit. Hmm.. maybe you can.

Anyway! Yes, this is a blog about my "career" as a writer. However, it seems like life gets in the way more often than not. Things these days are more of a struggle than they were say... several months ago. I did not participate in the last National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I have fallen out of the habit of logging into my Writing.com account.

Quite honestly, I don't remember the last time I wrote something or edited or revised. Huh.

I wake up every morning to my map on my wall covered on one side with blue post-it notes. Ideas had even flashed in my mind awhile back about turning it into an online role playing game similar to World of Warcraft.

What has gotten into me? Well... work. But that doesn't stop most authors I know. Life. Doesn't stop them either. Being sick... no. Being lazy... probably closer to the truth! Instant gratification taunts me. But I think my biggest motivator as of late has been....

Fear.

Every artist/author experiences fear to some degree. Everything has to be perfect. This is US we're selling, after all. For me, I'm a bit of a conundrum. Fear of success and fear of failure play huge roles in my life. I so need to get over it or I won't publish until I'm 80! Or won't be published until after I am dead. Where's the fun in that? I won't get to enjoy the ride!

So basically I am back to telling myself to get over myself and DO something.

Yeah, I'm working on it. :D

Who Do You Love...

The way to know life is to love many things.
~~Vincent Van Gogh~~

I love a great many things. I love writing, I love my family, my friends. I even love my cats. ALL FOUR OF THEM! I'll be the Crazy Cat Lady later on in life, I'm sure of it.

I love the outdoors. I obviously love food. I love music, movies, games.

Life has been good to me for the most part. Every day has been a lesson or a struggle in lots of different senses of the words. I almost always feel like I am fighting an uphill battle, but at the end of the day, I do get to sit down with my family at dinner and reflect.

Was it a productive day? More often than not, it hasn't been very productive. That is my own fault, though. When it has been a productive day, when things have actually gotten done, I sit and enjoy the glow of satisfaction.

My favorite time of day... well I have two. It sounds very strange, but my favorite time of day is when everyone is home and sleeping. The quiet of the house is nice. My other favorite time of the day is dinnertime.

My sister-in-law introduced "Favorite part of the day" at the dinner table. My son picked it up and began doing it with us when he visited and we picked up the tradition as well. (That also happens to be my favorite tradition now.) I love listening to the conversation at my dinner table. Living with my husband, daughter and brother-in-law means having some interesting (sometimes socially unacceptable) dinner conversations. Our dinnertime tends to last at least two hours. Forget television. We do very well entertaining ourselves, thank you very much.

Personally, I like living life that way. Everything slows down at dinnertime and we get a chance to sit there and let our food digest while we enjoy the conversation. It is difficult, though, when we have friends over. We ask them to participate so as not to feel left out. There are a couple who don't participate. We know to just gloss over them now and pretty much ignore them and don't let them ruin it for us. Sounds mean, but hey, if you are going to bring your misery to MY dinner table, deal with the rudeness. Hehe!

So what do you love?

Aww, Shucks...

Well I had an awesome Mother's Day, thanks to my family. Got to do a whole lot of nothin', which is becoming more the norm these days... Anyway... I want to share a few links with all of you. First of which is a song my daughter wrote for me and posted on YouTube.com. You can see it here: Her Hero (Original)

Also, when I woke up today, I had an email waiting for me from Jen over at "A Book, A Girl, A Journey" telling me she had awarded me the "Stylish Blogger" award.



Woot! It has been awhile since I have received an award, so thank you so much Jen! I love it!

And as usual, I must pass it on with rules. I have thanked Jen, who bestowed the award and I have to give the award to five (5) new bloggers. So I have found five (well, more than five) more blogs to follow! That is always awesome, of course. And I have to tell you seven (7) random things about me. Oh boy.

Ok, so here goes!

1) I have obsessive compulsive tendencies. Basically meaning I have germ phobias about certain things. No, I'm not like Monk in the fact I have to have a wipe after shaking hands, but that isn't a bad idea....
2) I am addicted to Word Whomp over at Pogo.com. If you play over there, you can find me under CapnSorcha.
3) Hmm...harder than I thought. I play Alliance on World of Warcraft. (Probably already knew that... lol)
4) I have watched the entire first season of "Glee" through Netflix.
5) I write fantasy but I am a Horror fanatic at heart.
6) I did try my hand at writing Horror and failed... epically.
7) Let's see.... I don't like country music. (Don't hate me! lol)

Okay, phew! That is finally over. Now I can move on to the fun part! I get to give the award away. Woohoo! The Stylish Blogger Award goes too.....

1) Pamela at Reviews She Rote
2) Marcie at To Read or Not To Read
3) Cheryl at Cheryl's Musings
4) Charissa at A Day In the Life of An Aspiring Author
5) Scott Niven at Scott Niven - Author

That's about it for today! Hope everyone had a great weekend, mothers or not. Have a great week as well!

To Moms Everywhere...

This pretty much sums it up. But I would like to add to it anyway:

To all the moms out there who love their kids, maybe sometimes too much. If there is such a thing.

To all the moms who want to catch their children when they fall and to the ones who bite their nails when they're older, still wanting to be right there when they stumble.

To all the moms who struggle to make ends meet and to all the moms able to spoil their children.

To all the moms who stay up late at night, listening for the key turning in the door. And to the ones who lose sleep even though their children are miles away fighting in ugly wars.

To all the moms strong enough to take on the responsibility of raising a human being to become a contributing member of society and to those moms who make the heartbreaking decision to give their child a better life than they can provide for whatever reasons.

We all know that anyone can be a parent, that there are those who shouldn't be. So this is a day for those who stepped up and sacrificed more than anyone knows to do the right thing.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wow, Who Knew?...

I spent some time working on the new layout of my blog. I'm sure you already noticed that, because you're quick that way.

I, however, just figured out I had a whole bunch of new followers. I'm up to like... 153! What is so cool about that is, I didn't even have to use the calculator or ask my husband to figure out that number. How freakin' cool is that? Totally awesome!

This is motivational, you know. Makes me want to keep blogging and writing and getting my rear in gear! It also helps to stave off depression. You guys, that is. And the writing as well, but mostly knowing that you guys are still here, even after my months of hiatus.

Well, gee... now I have to think of something cool for you all. Oh, the pressure! ;)

Still Here...

Awesome, I have a couple new followers. Welcome and hope I don't bore you to death. Actually, I've been told I'm pretty entertaining.

These days I don't feel very witty, however. Lots going on, too many details to really divulge. Especially when most of what I know are just "Possibilities". Nothing concrete as of yet to share.

It seems that my brain-to-fingers connection is still working as well as it was several months ago. Now if I could just get that brain-to-mouth connection back, I'd be as quick witted as ever. I like being he comic relief.

Speaking of comic relief, I absolutely enjoy writing in those quirky characters that make the reader laugh. It gives me an outlet for all my sarcastic, snarky, smart-assed-ness that just seems to build up in my system and has no way of being let out. I could be more like that in these blogs just the same, but then no one would read my stuff. Ha!

So how do you use your characters to your advantage? What is that dark side you hide, only to filter through into your creations? I want to know!