Where am I?

I'm busy these days.  And not just with holiday stuff, although shopping for both sets of in-laws takes up a bit of time and that NaNo things was time consuming.  I jest.  Ha Ha!

Anywho, if you don't follow me on Twitter you might not know that I'm over at BookBuzzed.com today giving away a copy of Men In Uniform.  Tomorrow I'll be blogging over at Honeycreekbooks.com and on December 11th, you can catch me and a writer high school bestie at Barnes and Noble in Fenton, MO doing a signing. 

My calendar hasn't looked so full in awhile. 

Come check out all the fun and if we don't speak again soon, have a safe and wonderful holiday!

Honey Creek is Alive!!!!

Just a quick note today.  Honey Creek, the small town I love and write about launches this week.  Please come check out our new site and enter to win some great prizes.  Remember, the first book, Bloom, doesn't release until January but we're having lots of fun until then.

honeycreekbooks.com

I'm a Writing Vampire

Or I have an aversion to sunlight.  I'll explain.
When I started out writing, I wrote at night.  After the kids were tucked in bed, after the dinner dishes were cleared and after I done any work from my day job.  Sure, I was tired but when else was I going to write.
Don't get me wrong, I still have kids, a husband, a day job and a new side job.  I'm still ultra busy and now that I'm published I need to continue to write.  I've tried to write during the day when I'm home on the weekends or when I get an idea I want to flush out right away.
But yet, I'm not as creative or productive.  It's like the sun sucks  the creative juices right from my body and I'm left frail and clutching onto any thread of an idea I may have had.  But when the sun hides away or sets, my fingers fly across my keyboard and the ideas can't stay in my head. 
So with a warm cup of coffee or tea (if I may be gross, like warm blood) and no sunlight to be seen, I can crank out 2K words or more.  I jump from one scene to the next, reaking havoc in my path.  I drain the life from my character and leave them grasping to hold on.  And with every sip from my cup, a new idea forms and I'm off again. 
Why do I even shed light on this little aversion?  I'm getting down to the last 8K words on NaNo and while my child was home sick yesterday, I could barely crank out anything.  I thought perfect, she's home, no day job work to stop me, I can try and finish or at least get close.  Yet, the sun shown brightly in my living room and I could barely do anything.  Yet, as soon as the sun sank, I cranked out 2K no problem.  And today?  She's back at school and it's a rainy, yucky, OVERCAST day and all I want to do is take my MC and throw her off a cliff and see what happens.
*rubs hands and grins* Yep, I'm a writer.  Only question is am I writing vampire.

Why November?

As many have heard, it's Write a Novel in a Month, month.  Throw the confetti.  Sound the horns.

I'm a newbie to NaNoWriMo (isn't it a cute abbreviation) this year but I can't help but ask, "Why November?"

And here's why I want to know.

November is the worst month for me and probably others as well.  November kicks off the holiday season.  My hub's bday is in November.  The launch of Honey Creek Books is in November.  November is one month prior to December and we all know what happens in December.  Why not February?  Or March?  Those months are open for me.

Except I'm sure when those months roll around, I'll be saying the same thing as I am now.

I'm busy.

Wake up Jen, we're all busy.  And that I believe is the hook for NaNoWriMo.
Let me explain.
Anyone can participate but to have a certified NaNoWriMo novel, you need to start with word one on November 1 and end with word 50,000 either on or prior to November 30.  So you have to make the time to write almost 2K words a day on average.  You have to push yourself and among the hustle and bustle of your busy life, crank out a novel.  Now, no one said it would be perfect.  The point is not to correct or rewrite.  Just write, write, write and fix later.

But I think the draw is the challenge of it.  It's like extreme sporting for writing.  Extreme writing.  And in the end, the survivor doesn't win money or a prize or ruler of the island.  The winner has a finished, an unperfected manuscript and the praise among their peers for the accomplishment.  Many have tried and failed.

So to my fellow NaNoers, I say write on and prosper.  Sure this month sucks but when it's all said and done, you will come out a better person.
 Happy Writing!  

Men In Uniform

In honor of Veteran's Day, the authors of Turquoise Morning Press have gotten together and written an anthology of sweet romance stories about men in uniforms.  These valuable men dressed in their best stand proud defending our country and we just wanted to say thank you!
Thank you!
Why did I felt I needed to write a story for this anthology?  I'll tell ya.
Various members of my family have enlisted in different branches of the military.  My grandmother even met and fell in love with one before he was shipped over seas only to loose his life defending our country.  I, like most, understand it's hard work and often times thankless.  And for me, my small little romance is just one way I can say thank you.  Not only to the men but to the woman that stay home waiting for their safe return.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

If you're interested in purchasing Men In Uniform or learning about the many books offered by TMP, please check out the bookstore at http://www.turquoisemorningpress.com/p/turquoise-morning-press-book-store.html.

Funny Cards

Before I can tell you the funny, I have to tell you the sad.  Some of you may know my grandmother passed away in July.  She'd been diagnosised in June with Liver Cancer and battled barely a month.  Coincidentally, the day I took her to the ER with symptoms, I was offered a contract from TMP for my Honey Creek novella.  Yeah, it was one of those days.

Anyway, so I'm the oldest grandchild by 10 years and I was even listed as her POA.  Not fun but I needed to step up and be an adult because you see in my eyes, I was always a kid when it came to her.  She was more like my mother and bestfriend and to say I'm healed would be a lie.

So, we've been going through her things slowly, weeding out 85 years of stuff.  And let me tell you, she had some stuff.  While it's hard to throw some away, others not so much.  If you've every had to clean out a loved ones stuff after they've passed you might understand.  Some of it is was sad, like you can't stop crying and others are so funny, you almost feel bad for laughing. 

My grandmother was very good about sending birthday cards.  And she took such care in picking out the perfect card.  She had two shoe boxes full of various cards from holiday, to get well to birthday.   I decided instead of throwing away the cards, I'll just add them to my dwindling collection and try to use them. 

While going through the box, sorting out bad ones and trying to find evelops to others I came across a few particular cards that I think were intended for me.  The first one was Merry Christmas Granddaughter and it was covered in red and green glitter.  Very pretty and I'm sure I would've loved it.  The second was a Mother's Day card for a granddaughter.  It too had a glittery butterfly on the cover.  Grandma knew I loved a little sparkle.

I cried a bit at the cards and then looked up at my daughter, who is 10 and said, "I have the perfect card for your daughter when you get older, married and have kids.  We can all thank Grandma for doing some advanced shopping for me!"

We all had a good laugh and maybe it was a be there moment but I couldn't help but share it with you.  I miss her everyday but it's moments like this with the card that I really cherish the time we had.

Thanks.