After months of writing like gangbusters and ignoring the healthier lifestyle I’m supposed to be living, I feel the pendulum swinging back in the other direction. My weight loss blog has been getting all the attention (and is already closing in on 400 hits for the month), but I...

I’ve been having lots of family fun on vacation. Driving around the country, exploring Mall of America, playing games with the kids … But I’ve had next to no time to write. One day when I fired up the computer, the Boyfriend interrupted me about 10 minutes later. I’d...

Question for you: How do you find people you trust to read your MS? I’m not necessarily talking about full-on critique partners, but just people who will read it and tell you what they like and don’t — without stealing your idea for themselves. I know our chapter president...

Now that I’ve had time to synthesize my score sheets from the last contest I entered, I’m pleased to say I’m on the right track. No, I did not final. The max score was a 161; mine was 130-something. That being said, I wasn’t displeased with the results. That...

During our last NARWA carpool, we were chatting away when my friends decided I was organized. My first thought? “Yeah, right.” I believe I said something like, “You wouldn’t say that if you saw my desk at work.” That’s true. My desk is one of the messiest in the...

Writers have to read, even if it means taking time away from writing to do it. I go through spurts of reading like a madwoman or writing like one. Rarely will I do both at once. My book club just finished “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett. Published in February...

That’s approximately how much I’ve written on Bethany and Cody’s story … and I have yet to get them to the island so their adventure can begin. They’ve been taking a side trip, with Beth’s mom attempting a reconciliation. I guess since I have a total of at least...

It always amazes me how attending my RWA chapter meeting recharges my creative battery. Sure, it means a long day for me. I usually don’t get to bed until at least 2 a.m., and I’m up before 8 on meeting day. We meet from 10:30-ish to 2 p.m. and...

Sometimes, all it takes is a little shove to get moving again. I received one  today, courtesy of one of my NARWA sisters. Jacqui Jacoby was a guest blogger over at Seekerville. The topic? Surviving the Abyss. In it, she told the story of her lost year of productivity,...

I’m not surprised no one is reading my blog. Why should they when I haven’t been updating it? I’m sorry to say there hasn’t been much writing going on this past week or so. (Ran into a little writer’s block early in the week and then spent most of...