Book Club

I decided that I could post what my book club's reading here as well. We're known as The Bookers (no comments on that please) and we are a monthly book club that meets on the first Friday of the month at my house.

Each month we take turns picking the book. Being the host I go last picking. For July I get to pick the book. So on Friday we meet and I will announce that we're going to be reading The Widow's Season by Laura Brodie. It sounds like an excellent book and the title and cover alone grabbed me before I even read the little description on borders.com. :) Here is the borders.com link to the book http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?view=2&type=0&catalogId=10001&simple=1&rpp=25&defaultSearchView=List&keyword=The+Widow%27s+Season&LogData=%5Bsearch%3A+91%2Cparse%3A+95%5D&searchData=%7BproductId%3Anull%2Csku%3Anull%2Ctype%3A0%2Csort%3Anull%2CcurrPage%3A1%2CresultsPerPage%3A25%2CsimpleSearch%3Atrue%2Cnavigation%3A0%2CmoreValue%3Anull%2CcoverView%3Afalse%2Curl%3Arpp%3D25%26view%3D2%26all_search%3DThe%2BWidow%2527s%2BSeason%26type%3D0%26nav%3D0%26simple%3Dtrue%2Cterms%3A%7Ball_search%3DThe+Widow%27s+Season%7D%7D&storeId=13551&sku=0425227650&ddkey=http:SearchResults But I also found this link more informative http://www.lvrj.com/blogs/booknook/The_Widows_Season_an_emotional_mystery.html

Well, I need to go read and try to finish My Sister's Keeper. It has to be done by Friday. Yikes!

Have a wonderful and blessed day.

With love and blessings,

Officially Inspired

Myrtle Beach--the place of inspiration

Oh. My. Gosh.

Myrtle Beach offers so many places where the scenery is just breath-takingly gorgeous. Beauty like this is usually awe inspiring for writing. *Trust me, it is. ;)

I'm leaving tomorrow morning about 5. I don't want to leave the ocean, but I want my own bed, shower, and Internet connection back. ;) This Internet connection is pretty slow, probably why it's free...

I went buggie boarding today. For those of you who've never buggie boarded DO IT! Seriously, it's a lot of fun. But you need the ocean--and the perfect waves. Oh, did I mention I managed to hit 4 swimmers--one of them multiple times...Sorry kid. You brought me good waves though. Don't worry. I didn't hurt him. He probably thinks I'm crazy...

Not that I'm not...

I went shopping too. I brought $92 with me and now I have like $15 or something like that. I had to buy my friends stuff!! Plus I got a Mets hat. I don't live in New York, but the Mets are awesome. Mike Pelfrey especially. If you ever have the chance to meet him--do it. He's the nicest guy you'll ever meet. He'd do anything for kids, he's a special boy that Mike. (Not anything like his grandpa--just kidding Harry.) Harry's my grandma's next door neighbor, btw. But be warned ladies--Mike just got married...so don't get any ideas.

Well, I need to go now. This post didn't have anything to do with writing, but that's okay. I'm still outlining, but have done none since I left. I'm reading my book club book, but it's hard to get into so far. It's My Sister's Keeper I mean, it's good, but nothing's really happened yet. I figure it gets better and gets to be more of a oh-my-gosh-I-can't-put-it-down kind of book.

Have a wonderful and blessed day.

With love and blessings,

Officially Inspired

P.S. I'm tan--but my shoulders, chest, and a little of my back is burnt.

See you when I'm tan!

<--- Me and my Daddy. (My Daddy and I, sorry)

I'm going to get a tan...or a sun burn...I'm hoping for the tan though. :)

I'm going to write when I'm gone, though, so no worries about that. I may or may not update while I'm in Myrtle Beach. We'll just have to see.

Happy Father's Day! *one day early* :)

Daddy's rock!

Have a wonderful and blessed night.

With love and blessings,

Officially Inspired.

Of course

Of course now that I need to focus on packing I suddenly am able to write again! Ugh, it's frustrating!

<---This is me staring at my novel frustrated. But in this picture, I'm at a good part that is a really emotional scene for my characters, as well as myself.

Packing. Sigh.

None done. Sigh.

Leave on Sunday. Sigh.

I'm going to pack. Tonight. And tomorrow. Wish me luck! *Last year my brother forgot his PJ's and tooth brush. He slept in a T-shirt and swimming trunks and (thank God) the hotel offered extra tooth brushes. :)

Have a wonderful and blessed evening!

With love and blessings,

Officially Inspired

Terrible Twos and Inspirational Video

My sister hits the Terrible Twos today! Yikes!

I am a member of Tangle, or if you type in http://www.godtube.com/ it'll take you to Tangle. Tangle sends out videos in emails and today I got this video that is very inspirational to me. It's a bit long, but please take a while to watch it. I promise, it'll change the way you see yourself. So this post isn't about writing, it's about changing the way you view yourself as a person and how you see yourself in everything you do. Here's the link to "God's Chisel" http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=849dc7c803281df74bb2&utm_source=newsletter0618&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weeklytopvideos

Have a wonderful and blessed day.

With love and blessings,

Officially Inspired

Guilty...

I feel kind of guilty. Not just today, but now in general. My sister turns 2 tomorrow, and I haven't been spending a whole lot of time with her because I've been on my computer writing. I'm reading Shadow Kiss which is the third book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. I've been reading that for a while and I'm almost done with it, but I haven't brought myself to finish it. I feel guilty about that too. I've abandoned my book a little bit because I decided to change the whole story line in my outline. So I need to actually finish it and then start revisions. But like I said, I'm not spending a whole lot of time with my family and friends. And both are so important to me that it hurts me not to. Today I'm going shopping with my grandma for a little while and then will come home and slave away again. I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes. But the outline is looking great and I definitely have a better idea of what I want from my book now and it's amazing how much better it's going to be now! *Thanks JoAnne!*

Well, my grandma's going to be here in 10 minutes so I need to go. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow!

With love and blessings,

Officially Inspired

Camp=NO WRITING!!

I had camp today. Camp sucked. I'm not going tomorrow. My outline has only gotten one paragraph longer. No writing has been done. I hate camp.

I'm mad, so this post is short. :)

With love and blessings,
Officially Inspired

Two posts in one day?!?!?

I know! Just thought I should update you and let you know the outline was not finished today. I will continue working on it though. :) As it goes in writing, push forth and reach for your dreams!

I'll see y'all tomorrow. :)

With love and blessings,

Officially Inspired

Wait! Pause! Stop! Re-evaluate!

Okay, so as of right now I am putting actually writing on hold. For a little while. Today I am going to re-evaluate my novel and the rest of the series. I am going to outline the whole entire series of books. It's going to be a busy day, but I'm looking forward to it actually!! My writing mentor has such faith in my writing and my novel that she's jumping up and down trying to get me to finish it...NOW! :) Which I love.

So, this post is going to be short b/c it'll take me a while to outline. Wish me luck!

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

With love and blessings,
Officially Inspired

Happy Birthday dear deadline happy birthday to you

Happy Flag Day!
Happy birthday to me! I'm 13!

Today's my deadline--which if some maricle doesn't happen, is not going to be met. I didn't get anything done yesterday. I had a wedding to go to and had to help my family out and didn't have much spare time yesterday.

Isn't it funny how the things we don't want to do get in the way of what we do want to do?

It's quite annoying, but it's always what happens. That is if you're a writer, a student, a daughter, and a big sister to a 2-year-old sister, oh and not to mention having online friends that want to talk to you when you just need to write, but you also want to talk to them. Usually my friends win out. :( lol.

So, my party is in 2 hours. So far I have gotten an awesome bedspread (I'll post pictures), a Pink Elephants Vera Bradley purse, and a camera card. I might add another post later tonight--if not I will post tomorrow.

Have a wonderful and blessed day.

With love and blessings,
Officially Inspired

Writer's Block (at the worst possible time)

Hey there! Ugh! I have Writer's Block...again. But this time it's at the worst possible time! I "have" to be done with my book BY TOMORROW!

Now, I know this goal will probably not be attainable. I still have 3 days to cover in my novel and there's a lot that still needs to happen. I'm totally stressed. My writing mentor's helping me through it. She's reading what I have so far and telling me what she thinks would be in the best interest of the story--which, at times, is hard for me to hear. I love my characters and story so much, but sometimes you have to deal with losing someone, and so far I'm for sure losing one character and might be losing a second one. Which is okay. I guess. They're not that important. Although, a dog might have to go too. Not sure on that yet though.

Revisions are coming up and I have a list of things right-off-the-bat that I need to change. If this ever publishes I pity the editor that has to edit it. Ha-ha. My spell check stopped working about 80 pages ago. ;)

For now, I guess I must go. I can't clean or anything because everything is clean. I could dust my bookshelf...again. I love books.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

With love and blessings,
Officially Inspired

Oh, and since I didn't get to talking much about writing today. You can check out my writing vlog on YouTube at www.youtube.com/ILuvRobPattinson. It's the featured vlog on my page--so feel free to watch those and contact me with any questions or ideas for writing vlogs at ILuvRobPattinson@gmail.com or contact me via YouTube and ask/ tell me. Also, please tell me you read my blog on blogspot.com!

...Must...Stop...Cleaning...

So I've been cleaning all day today. I really am hoping that that will allow me to write until my fingers fall off. *That's a hyperbole by the way* But you see I'm faced with a problem.

I told myself I had to be done with the first draft of my novel by my birthday this year. My birthday is Sunday, June 14th, 2009. I started my novel on January 14th, 2008. So that gave me a year and five months to lay out the bare bones. Simple. I thought so until June actually came.

Since Sunday is my birthday, and my "deadline", I've been extra busy. Usually, my party is not on my actual birthday, but because of Daddy's schedule, it had to be. So the past few days, instead of writing, writing, writing, I've been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. I did some SERIOUS cleaning today, so I'm really hoping that'll allow me to do some SERIOUS writing now. Because cleaning helps Writer's Block--or so I think.

More about my deadline. Even if I don't make it, it's not going to change anything. I'll still write that novel. I just told myself in January '08 that if I don't give myself a deadline, I'll never bring myself to actually write the book. I had no idea what I was going to write about. I just knew I wanted to write. Would I recommend this approach to anyone else? NO! It's not always going to work. It probably wouldn't have worked for me had I been who I am now apposed to then. I was dumb then. It shows in my writing. It's really choppy and bad. I mean BAD. I'll come back to this subject later as well.

As for right now, I need to get some writing done. :)

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

With love and blessings,
Officially Inspired

Cleaning and Writing

Okay, so these things are total opposite to me. I love writing, but I hate cleaning. However, what people don't usually see is that these two go hand-in-hand with each other. Allow me to explain.

Writer's Block often hits when you hit a slow point in writing, right? It does for me. When you get Writer's Block, you feel like you need to sit there and force yourself to write. DON'T! That's the WORST thing you can do! If you do that, you'll be able to see/feel/hear how your writing is "forced". It won't turn out as well as it would if you write when your Writer's Block is in remission and your writing flows. But a question that always comes up is "How do I get rid of my Writer's Block?" Now, I'm not going to tell you that there's a quick-fix for Writer's Block--because there isn't. But what my writing mentor JoAnne always tell me to do is...CLEAN.

Don't stop reading yet.

Cleaning helps! I swear it does! Maybe it's just me, but when I sit back down to write a while later, I'm in remission again. I find things when I'm cleaning and I work out scenes in my head.

Another tip I have for you that I will go more in-depth into later is don't sit at the computer for hours or lie around for hours when you want to write. STAY ACTIVE.

Now, I don't mean go out and join a lacrosse team or anything. Just simply keep doing things. Go out for lunch, walk the dog (or cat ;) ) just keep doing things. Just sit down for a short amount of time. You're going to write like a maniac in that amount of time and it'll be better than when you just sit and mope (I don't know if that's spelled right) for hours upon hours. If you're being lazy, your writing will be lazy too.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

With love and blessings,
Officially Inspired

Preface

This is the only part of my novel that I've made public. It is the preface to my novel, No Title.

For those of you who don't know, a preface is not a blurb from the book, but it does a lot of times foreshadow a major event in the book.

For example, in the book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, the preface starts out "I'd never given much thought to how I would die..." This foreshadows an event in the novel, but is not used again word for word.

With that in mind this is the preface to my novel. It does foreshadow an event, but will not be used word for word. I hope you enjoy it. :)

Sorry, I have been advised not to post anything about my novel b/c if/when I go to publish, some agents/publishers will consider it published if it is openly available for anyone to read.

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Intro (6/9/09)

Hey there! This is my new Website/blog for writing. Not only will I discuss different issues and techniques of writing, I will also talk about where I am currently in writing.

First of all let me take a moment to tell you that I am not a professional author, nor will I ever claim to be one. I am a student that loves writing and it is something that I will pursue.

Reading is just as important to me as writing. The Twilight Saga changed my life. Before I read Twilight I hated reading and writing. But once I read it, I decided I loved to read and that I wanted to write. I haven't looked back since. I started writing on January 14th, 2008. In that short while I have grown a lot as a writer and as a person. It shows a lot in my characters as well.

I am currently writing a novel, which I started on January 14th, 2008 (two days before finishing Twilight). It is almost done and it is called No Title. Seriously, it is. The title does fit, and I'll talk more about that later.

I'll try to post everyday, but I will be going to Myrtle Beach soon so I'm not sure how regular my postings will be. I'm hoping they're pretty regular!

Have a wonderful and blessed day! Summer vacation's finally here!

With love and blessings,
Officially Inspired