My writing

I was asked in an email how my own writing is going. Well, lately it hasn't been. I was sick all of November with a respiratory infection, or walking pneumonia--don't know exactly what, but it was a cough that hung on for 5-6 weeks. Miserable. That hampered my writing most of the month.

Then December was...well, December. I decided not to even try writing that month. I didn't need any more stress. And it was a good thing. We had many health crises in our family. Between a father with unexplained chest pains, a brother with cancer, and a father-in-law with cancer, it seems like someone has always been in the hospital since mid-December.

In fact, we just celebrated Christmas with the in-laws on Friday because Brian's dad went into the hospital Christmas morning and was only released Wednesday.

Now, those are all convenient excuses. But in reality, writing should have been my pressure valve, my release and getaway.

I've let perfectionism get in my way. My WIP wasn't coming out the way I wanted it to--and I can't think of how it should end--so I stopped altogether. Because of my fears, what used to bring me pleasure is now simply another source of stress.

Will someone kick me please?

To understand more, go to Brandilyn's post for today, if you haven't already. I particularly liked the gem, "The perfect is the enemy of the good." And what it said about quitting is me exactly. In fact, if I didn't have a wonderful agent on my side, it would be so easy to quit. But he believes in me, has invested time in me, and wants to see what I come up with next. Besides that, landing an agent in the first place was God's confirmation to me that He wants me to keep writing.

So off I go. I intend to write today. If I don't write a single word today, I'll have to come back tomorrow and admit it to you. And I really don't want to do that. I want to come back and say I wrote at least 500 words. But even if it's only 5, I can say I got back to it.

See you then.

What's next?

I apologize to my readers, if I have any left. It's no secret that once the critique requests stopped coming in, I had no idea what to do with this blog. The contest didn't work. Not a single chapter came my way.

I'm turning my attention to reviews right now. I've never been a reviewer, so I'll have to learn how to write a good review as I go. Look for sporadic (at least to start with) reviews to appear here in the near future.

If I can think of anything to say in the meantime, I'll post.

For today, Brandilyn Collins is posting excerpts from a great book called Art and Fear. Today's post resonated with me, so I'm linking to it, even though I suspect most or all of you already read her blog.

What I learned while cleaning out the refrigerator

It's the end of a year. Out with the old, right? It had been way too long since I cleaned my refrigerator, so I thought this was an appropriate time.

Usually, while scooping dead food out of containers, I hold my breath, try not to look, and get it over with. This time was a little different. Maybe because I'm eating healthier and exercising every day, I find it easier to look at the positive in every situation. Whatever the reason, this dirty job held more fascination for me than ever before. Here's a short list of what I learned:

• The mayo in tartar sauce will turn translucent when left to sit long enough.
• The plastic wrap placed over a dish of sour cream and salsa dip will harden in places, and fuse directly to the dip in other places.
• Cream (real, raw cream directly from the farm) will separate into many distinct layers of color and texture. The top layer was thick and red. Really a brilliant red. Below that was a thin layer of black. Next came a creamy yellow layer--creamy in both color and texture, and the thickest cream I've ever encountered. I could pour out the fourth layer once I reached it. And finally was a white layer that I believe was close to cheese, yet still soft. It smelled like cheese. If I were a braver person, I would have tasted it. (Brave, insane. Either would have worked.)
• My husband and I have an inability to finish a container of cottage cheese. I cleaned out five of them, each with precisely an inch and a half remaining.
  
• All in all, there was only one thing I couldn't identify, so I learned that it hadn't really been that long since I'd cleaned out my fridge.

Now wasn't that a treat on this New Year's Eve?

Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas

I hope all of you have a wonderful time with friends and family. May Christ's love surround your Christmas celebration.

And the winner ...

... of Miralee Ferrel's The Other Daughter is:

Cathi Hassan (user name, cathikin)

Congratulations, Cathi. Please contact me with your physical address. My email is in the sidebar.


And don't forget about this contest, which runs through December.

A Date

For my birthday Monday night, Brian took me to a movie. Normally my birthday treat is going out to eat at a nice restaurant. But I've been having some food sensitivities and until that's all straightened out, it's safer to eat at home.

So I suggested that a movie would be a good birthday date. I love movies. Brian, no so much. Although he's usually game for a good comedy. We decided to see Enchanted. A Disney movie spoofing on Disney animated movies sounded appealing.

And it was. No spoilers here. Suffice it to say we laughed hard during the first half of the movie. But the second half was disappointing. It felt to me like they wrote themselves into a corner. The ending may have been satisfying to some, but to us it felt like the ending of every Disney cartoon. Like they decided they'd better stop making fun of themselves and slip into their old routine.

If they'd used half the imagination at the end that they did in the beginning, it would have been a movie I could heartily recommend. For the sake of the beginning, I'm not sorry I saw it. But my advice to you, if you haven't seen it, wait for DVD.

But it was fun to have a date with my husband. We have no children, so privacy is never an issue. We don't have to go out of our way for time alone. But a night out every once in a while is still special.


Tomorrow will be your last chance to comment here to win Miralee Ferrell's The Other Daughter. Don't miss out!

Happy Birthday to me...

Yes, I'm shameless, but I like birthdays. I turn 34 today.


In other news, I realized yesterday what a helpless female I am. I got stuck in my driveway when I was heading out for church. We'd gotten a foot or more of snow during the night (jealous, Joy?) and the snow plow always leaves a nice big ridge at the end of our drive. I knew I had to really gun it to get through, but I didn't have enough of a run at it and got high-centered on the snowbank.

Brian, my hubby, is our church's maintenance manager, so he was already at the church plowing the parking lot before our road was plowed. So I was alone. You wouldn't want to write a female character as helpless as I am when it comes to getting unstuck from snow. I was close to tears. I knew myself to be completely incapable of getting out of that snow bank.

I grabbed a shovel and started clearing around the tires. I have a bad back. I should never shovel. After only a few minutes (but long enough to hurt my back) a truck stopped. An older man got out and shoveled my tires clear, but they'd still only spin.

After 25 minutes of shoveling and trying to drive back and forth, it looked hopeless. Then another truck stopped and two young muscular guys got out and pushed from the front while the older man backed out. My car was free.

There's no point to this story, except that I'm praising God for sending someone to my rescue. In that half an hour, those were the only two vehicles on my road. And they both stopped.

I was supposed to be at church early for music practice--I work behind the scenes in the tech room, having no musical ability. I was pretty late, but then so was half the worship team, so I still got there before they started practice.

And despite the inconvenience, I'm grateful for the snow. Last year we had a brown Christmas. This year, everything is beautiful and it looks like even more is on the way.