Friday Five

I'm still here and still pregnant, so I guess I should do some sort of a Friday Five update?  Perhaps?  We'll go with it.

1.)  In blogging news, I have two reviews and TWO contests coming up.  Bwahahahahaha.  Teasing isn't it?  The contests don't have to do with me getting an agent, but they do include some great books.  (One is an ARC that I'm sure many of you have been waiting for by a certain lady with the initials EJ and the other is a book from a wonderful lady who writes about ghosts...and goths...).  I'm hoping to get the interviews and contests up by May, so you may just have to hold still for awhile.

2.)  How am I going to do all these contests with a baby in one hand and my computer in the other?  I don't have to...I picked my Ereader/Tablet.  Yes, I'll probably do a post on this, but after doing some more of my own research my husband bought me the Ipad2 as a mother's day gift.  It's still going to be at least another two weeks before it gets here, but you can except some wonderful 2 am tweets!

3.) In writing news, I decided to put aside my "for fun" novel and start on another project.  It's very gritty, very dystopian and it's a love story.  My original idea ended up sounding like everyone's dystopian project, so actually after reading a review of MEMENTO NORA I thought of how to make mine different.  For now it's a secret and only my critique partners know, but maybe I'll share something someday :)

4.)  When I decided to start doing book reviews, I didn't realize how many of them I would actually get.  It's definitely not a bad thing, but man I feel like I'm giving you all a review a week.  Are you okay with all of these reviews loyal blog readers?  I still have four more books to read before June and if you are tired of my reviews I'm willing to bow out.  I don't want to have a complete review blog, but I actually kind of enjoy reading books and figuring out what I like and dislike about certain writing.  The more you read, the more you realize what you like.

5.)  The hiatus is still coming and I'm sorry for being so grumpy and not posting regularly.  I've realized that there are a lot of ups and downs to late pregnancy and have even been comparing it with querying.  You know how you work for months, years, whatever on a novel and you get out to query and you think your so close to getting that agent and only end up with rejections?  Yeah pregnancy false alarms are like that...  But in the end I know that someday I will have an agent and someday I will have a baby (even those women with the stone babies for 60 years eventually have theres!).  And I actually haven't received a rejection lately, so at least I have something going for me...right?

How is everyone doing?  Did you miss me?

The stroller that almost killed me

A few months ago my husband and I went to Babies R Us to register for our first child.  We tried out EVERY single travel system at the store until I found one that I loved...this one.

Cute, right?  Well we didn't get it at our bigger shower, so we decided to take back some of our duplicate things and pick up this travel system on our way home.  We get to Babies R Us and there it is MY travel system.  Only when we looked on the shelf...none were left.  So we found a sale's clerk and she said that they had discountinued the stroller, but we could have the floor model.

Neither my husband, nor I wanted the floor model, so we picked out another one, one that we thought was better with an MP3 hook up and jogging style wheels.  A guy went to the back, brought it out for us, and we were so excited.  Of course we should have looked at the box before we got home because once we opened the box we realized that it was NOT the stroller we picked out at the store.

My husband said, "It's fine, let's put it together and see what we think."  But it wasn't the same...to me I had really wanted that three wheeled stroller.  I wanted it, just like I thought I didn't want anything else than my first choice stroller.  I got upset, so my husband just looked at me and said, "I really like it, are you willing to compromise for me?  I don't want to have to pack it up and take it back."

As Tim said those words, it made me think about writing.  When I started HOW TO DATE AN ALIEN, I had this grand idea and wrote the first chapter that I proudly brought to my RWA meeting.  That was the first time I ever got a critique from Best selling author Jade Lee.  I actually cried when she tore my first chapter to shreds, but I knew she was right and wrote another new beginning.

Like my new stroller, I was excited to have that new beginning and bring it to my RWA group, too bad that new beginning didn't go over as well as I wanted it to.  It was good, but it just wasn't up to snuff. 

Then, like the third stroller, I had to learn to compromise.  I took what they said and injected into the new manuscript, but still kept the beginning that I really liked.  Life is really all about compromise after all.  If your agent or editor tells you that something should be changed on your manuscript, but you don't exactlly agree, then you still have to take what they say into consideration.  You may not love that they don't think that makes sense to your story, but when you really look at it and are willing to compromise, you may just find that you love it just as much.  (Note:  After playing with the new stroller for a little while now I've realized that it is just as good as the other two, if not better.  AND there is nothing funnier than hearing my husband say, "Look, we can put this down and coo at her.  We can say 'COO, COO, COO."  I don't think he knows what cooing is...")  (Note, note:  AND I do LOVE my first chapter of How to Date an Alien, so it should all work out.)

I hope this made sense to everyone...maybe it didn't?

What have you had to compromise on(writing related or not)?  Was it worth it?  Would you make your husband pack up a stroller and take it back?

Balancing Writing and Life

When I first became the punching bag in middle school (circa the 1990’s), I had more time to sit around reading and writing.  Of course this was back in a time when the internet was just starting, so I didn’t have all the resources like blogs and social networking sites.  Now that I have all these great tools to use as a writer to fight back and write back with…I suddenly have so many other things going on!

In my early punching bag years I would come home after school, do some homework, and then have time to sit and read or go roleplay in AOL chat rooms (yes I was one of those girls).  People weren’t calling me to hang out and I didn’t have a family to take care of.  Let’s roll to the present.  I currently work full-time, married, having my first child, and all of that while still trying to finish a novel to query and keep up with my blog and social networking schedule.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE blogging, reading, and writing so I do it as often as I can and this actually worked out for a pretty long time in which I had lots of free time to do these things.  Then the last few months of my pregnancy happened…  Now I find myself going to some kind of pregnancy class once a week, pre-natal yoga so that I can sleep, getting my house ready for a new child, and it seems like I’m traveling every weekend!  The punching bag is really starting to miss the days in which everyone ignored her and she could just sit by herself and read VC Andrews novels…

But *sigh* this is a reality for SO many writers, no matter what stage they are at in their career.  Veteran writers have to worry about meeting deadline while attending conferences and keeping up with their family life and us newbie writers have to balance our writing career with our current careers as a worker or busy stay-at-home mom’s.  It’s a never ending process and one that we all have to learn to balance.

 I did get half way through my final revision of HOW TO DATE AN ALIEN (thanks to a few snow days), but I don’t even know if I’ll get to devote the time to it again until March.  My goal is to have it done by the end of March and start querying shortly after (hopefully I can start before my daughter is born, but sometimes things happen).  Now it’s just taking the time to figure out how to balance the last of my revisions/querying with being a new mom.

How do you balance writing and life?  Do you have any big secret or schedule?  Do you miss those days when you had time to write and didn’t utilize it?

The Friday Five

The Friday Five:  BABY EDITION

So, some of you may be sick of hearing about my pregnancy and others of you are eagerly awaiting to here if baby is a boy or girl.  Well after the 19 week ultrasound, we're pretty sure that it's either a boy or a girl...  But let's list off the Friday Five with how the Old Wives Tale's stack up.

1.)  If your baby's heartbeat is over 140, then it's a girl.  The heartbeat started out at 140, went all the way up to 160 at one point, and has stayed pretty steady at 145.

2.)  If you're carrying your baby low, then it's a boy.  I'm carrying very low, I was in maternity jeans during the first trimester, because baby was right at my pant line!

3.)  If your skin is breaking out, then it's a girl.  I haven't had this much acne since I had bad bangs and was in middle school!

4.)  If you are craving sour food, then it's a boy.  I love pineapple, alot.  I can eat a whole can in one sitting.

5.)  So am I having a boy or a girl?

The answer is...


Have you guessed it?


Did the Old Wives Tales give it away?


IT'S A GIRL.

We thought she was a boy, it's true.  But the proof was in the pictures! (Sorry, not putting my daughter's lady parts on the internet, but you can see her face and legs!) I guess that explains my acne, the heartbeat, and the fact that somehow I can write a really good emotionally angsty teenage girl right now... I think I'm in for a treat in the future!

I will keep everyone posted on updates and until then my baby girl and I are going to keep trucking along on our editing!  (Yes, she helps by kicking me, so I can't sleep and then get up to edit.)

The Friday Five

Okay...so I know you were all expecting a Fangirl Friday today, but I've been a bit busy and do have two authors lined up for Fangirl Friday interviews.  There will also be a Fangirl give away for blogfest, so don't get too bummed!

So instead I'm taking direction from Mandy Hubbard's livejournal and doing a Friday Five.

1.)  I had my first ultra sound yesterday.  Baby's heartbeat was 140.  An old wives tale says if the heartbeat is above 140 it's a girl and if it's below 140 it's a boy.  Thus, baby hasn't decided it's gender yet.  (Picture above).

2.)  I have 35 pages left to revise/edit for MY PAPER HEART and they are coming along VERY slowly.  I know where the story is going, but sometimes life and TV gets in the way of that.  (And figuring out that the story went in a completely different direction than it originally started.)

3.) I have an in-person critique partner who writes Erotica!  She is buying me a smoothie before our local RWA meeting on Wednesday and we're going to discuss our project.

4.)  I'm going to make mousepads for "The punching bag" part of my giveaway and the "Fangirl" part will be a book from "The Fangirl's bookshelf."  Watch for it with blogfest September 9th-12th.

5.)  My husband would like me to tell the world about our Staffordshire terrier named "Snogs" and to share a picture of her.  So here it is (and my husband putting up Christmas lights last year): 

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!