The First Weekend of NaNo

The First Weekend of NaNo

Well I hope you all don’t hate me considering I told you I would have been giving you daily updates on how things are going and I am now in Day 7. I am happy to say that I am still writing, but I’ve definitely had my challenges. Here is the break down starting with:

Day 2- I had to work. Now between you and me Friday’s are usually my slow days I take my time to clean up all the back end stuff from the beginning of the week and I move at a slower pace. This is also a good time to get in some heavy word count, because I have a total of 1hr of free time (2 breaks and a lunch). Well of course this had to be the Friday when I had work coming out of my butt. Let me tell you I was so pissed! The good thing, however, I still managed to squeeze in a couple of words during my break and I had the evening to take it to the next level.

Total word count: 3,695

Day 3- It’s Saturday! Usually the day I get to sleep in, but not this day. I was up at 8AM, had my tea ready and at the computer. I was hyped I had the entire day to just sit there and write.

 I had some challenges for one I went back from the beginning and started editing that’s a no no in the rules of NaNo you are suppose to write until your hearts content and save the editing and rewriting for December, but what can I say I couldn’t resist…I’m a suck of reading the words I wrote and sometimes become in awe with myself to know that I have such a creative imagination, it also gives me a boast and a little confidence in myself that hell ya I can do this.

Another challenge I had was the internet, can I tell you that I’m obsessed! I’m either googling something or I’m on FB checking status’, the official NaNo site to see how everyone is doing and the Savvy website…I mean it was crazy.

And lastly the television; I know, I know what was I thinking, but in my defense I was watching the Investigative Discovery channel (ID). That channel is INSANE and I love it! It deals with crimes around the world, cold cases, fugitives, survivors and the list goes on. What can I say I’m fascinated with that kind of stuff, but it’s really good in helping me develop my villain so in the end it was for a good cause.

 Total word count: 8,497

Day 4- It’s Sunday! Now for me when I am home and not visiting family. Sunday is my chill day and when I say chill, I mean chill. I do nothing, nada! I stay in bed and relax. But in NaNo world this is the perfect opportunity to get even more writing done.

 Now I don’t know if you all remembered that the time change, but I didn’t. I got up at 7AM, when in actual fact it was 6AM, I tried to go back to sleep but it didn’t work so I decided to write and the worse thing that could ever happened did. I was not feeling my story, now don’t ask me how in the world that happened considering I had a really good day on Saturday, but it was really hating it. I found my characters Sydney and Lucas were not connecting the way they were suppose to. The vision I was seeing in my head was not filtering on paper, it was a mess.

My better half Kolin, who I must say has been cheering me on from day one called to check in and see my progress and I told him I HATE it he was shocked, especially since I was giving him great updates since I started. I started making excuses one why I wasn’t feeling it. As I had mentioned in the beginning this was not the story that I had planned for NaNo, and last minute I had to do a 360 change, dealing with new characters, plot, setting, everything and I don’t think I was as prepared as I was with the first one.

Now the good thing about Kolin is he’s a great listener and considering I’m the talker of the relationship it totally balances us out. He told me to take a breath and explain why I wasn’t feeling it and he wanted to hear the story idea again. I broke it down for him and he was taken aback as to why I wasn’t feeling it because he thought the idea was a good one. I figure he was saying it to make me feel better, but he really liked. He even tried to give a few suggestions on how to make it better, mind you some of the ideas where way out in left field, but I had to give it to him he was in it with me.

I jumped back on that bandwagon and tried to see if I could re group from a slight meltdown and pull a decent word count. Can’t say I was happy with the results.

Total word count:  3,628

Grand total word count: 18,619

Overall the first weekend was not bad. Could I have done better? Of course I could have, considering I was looked indoors for the entire weekend. I am proud of myself? Yes I am, writing a novel is no easy task! But I’m doing it! J

Until next time

NaNo- Day 1

It's day one of NaNo and man am I hype. I originally wanted to start at midnight (the official start time), but I was out like a light by 11:30PM. In the past I usually take off a couple of days just to get my feet wet, but considering I'm running out of vacation days before the end of the year I had to plan differently.

Get into the office for 8AM and all I can think about was my characters and finally bringing them to life. My characters… let me introduce you. My heroine is Sydney Jacobson and my Hero is Lucas Harris and the Villain who for now will remain nameless …come on guys I can’t tell you everything! J.Oh did I mention that I have a tentative title that I’m working with?

Now before I tell you what it is you need to know something about me. When it comes to coming up with a story idea I love to have a title to go by…to me it makes it more suffocated when I’m beginning my outline line and I got a title to work with. This story was totally different, because I had to come up with a new idea quickly it was all about the characters, the plot outline, etc…leaving me completely stumped on a title. Finally just on Tuesday afternoon it hit me HIDDEN REVENGE…now as I mentioned it is tentative, because who knows I may come up with something else later, but for now I got myself a working title! J

Okay, okay, okay….you wanna know how my first day went. Here it is. It went great! I started writing on my lunch break and some more this evening. HIDDEN REVENGE is slowly taking shape.

Total word count for Day 1: 2, 799 words (5 pages), not too shabby considering my daily goal is 1.667.

Until tomorrow

The Calm before the Storm

For those of you who know me know that every November I speak about NaNo that’s The National Novel Writing Month. It’s the month where you’re challenged to work 50,000 words in 30 days.  It’s fun, intense, and rewarding when you cross that finish line. I’ve tried to participate every year, but for some reason November seems to be the month where something comes up and just derails my dream and my focus. Not this time. Not this year! J

I came across this website Savvy Authors (writers helping writers) and they are having a special NaNo event Entangled Smack Down Boot Camp. So how this works is your broken down into your genre choice…I chose Romantic Suspense and from there split into a group of 5 with one Moderator.

In our group we are to write a total of 1, 667 words per day which is approx 4-5 pages and post it on site. There are also “Sprints” which are timed writing to help increase our word count and keep us moving forward.  At the end of it if we have a great product, who knows it can be considered for publication. That’s of course if all the guidelines are met.

When I first registered I was asked to submit a synopsis of my story (never done one in my life). I submitted my synopsis for Unspoken Secrets, but it was rejected because it didn’t fall within their guidelines L, so I was forced to come up with a totally different story and rewrite a new synopsis. It took me a day to come up with something, but keep in mind I only have the outer shell I haven’t gotten filling just right yet. I’ve been working for the last 3 days to work on the setting, plot, character, etc. Am I done? Not even close. I’m a stressing? Maybe a little. Will I succeed? HELL YA I will!

Did I mention that NaNo begins at midnight!

The great thing about NaNo is I could write whatever I want for a month and then fix it all up for the remaining 11.

For the next month I’ll be posting my daily word counts, my ups, my downs, my stress level, and whatever crazy experience I’ll go through and I would love to have you all follow along with me.

The one person who I know will be on this journey with me is my girl B. If she were here right now she would be saying “Come on Warren, you can do this”…it’s funny I can hear her voice right now J. 

Wish me luck folk…I gotta a funny feeling I’m gonna need a lot of it!

Until tomorrow!

Camp NaNoWriMo~Day 3

So it's Day 3 of the challenge, but it's actually my Day 2, because I started a day later. I must say I'm quite proud myself. I've in the middle of my 4th chapter and it think it's coming pretty well. I'm also excited that I have chosen a name for this novel and it's called BACKFIRE...believe it or not, it's a Young Adult novel. Why Young Adult, you might ask, considering I'm all about romance and suspense. It's what came to me and I had to go with it.
I started reading Young Adult books, just to get a feel of the genre...and NO I'm not reading The Twilight Saga, Hunger Games or Harry Potter. I'm reading a novel called "I know It's Over" by an author named C.K. Kelly Maritn who happens to be Canadian and its a pretty good story so far. I'm getting a better idea of how to write a YA novel and I'm liking it.

Now just for the record, just because I'm writing BACKFIRE doesn't mean I've forgotten about my original novel UNSPOKEN SECRETS...I've got big plans for that one...only I'm not saying anything for now. Sorry folks! :)

Well I'm calling it a night. Wordcount in 2 days: 12,736 only 37,264 to go!

Camp NaNoWriMo

Pretty much everyone has heard me talk about the National November Writing Month. It’s a writing challenge for you to a write novel in 30 days. I entered the challenge last November, but unfortunately didn’t complete it. I was bummed, but to be honest it wasn’t in the cards at that time.

Just this past Tuesday I was sent an email from one of the many writing blogs I’m signed up to and was excited to discover that there is a summer addition to NaNoWriMo known as Camp NaNoWriMo it’s the same challenge write a novel in 30 days needless to say I was on cloud 9, not that I need this challenge to write my book, but it does give me a little bit of a push to get it done and makes it even more exciting they have the challenge going twice for the Summer. One starting on June 1^st aka YESTERDAY, and the second on August 1^st.

With just finding this out in less than I week I had no really time to prepare, it looks like I’m going to have to wing it and that’s exactly what I’m doing. I officially started writing today and currently on my second chapter. Has it been easy? Hell No!Am I having fun? Hell Ya! Do I know what this story is going to be about? Sort of! Lol!

You see this is the beautiful thing about this challenge; you go with it and see what happens in 30 days.

Well off I go...it's writing time! :)

Be Positive. Believe In Yourself.

Writing has been my passion every since I was young girl. I always had a huge imagination and one day I decided to put it down on paper. I've written many stories in my time, but have never had the guts to publish anything. I guess it's fear of being rejected, but that's the writing world. Sometimes you have to be rejected to be finally be accepted.

The last couple of months have been very difficult for me. I lost my best friend B and on of my biggest supporters when it came to my writing. She was the only one I had the guts to allow read my work and now she's not here. Never once in my life no matter what was going on rather good or bad did I ever lose my passion to write, but I did. I LOST MY PASSION TO WRITE!!! That took a lot for me to say, but I'm saying it. I lost my passion to write.

Last weekend I spent the afternoon with B's three goregous kids, her husband and mom. It was the first time I've been there since she died, it was hard because I was expecting her to come to do the door and say "What's up Warren, you finally made it down to our neck of the woods" and give me a hug like she always did, she never did. But the minute I walked through that door I felt her presents, she was all over that house and I it felt nice. I was able to look at some her things and I came accross a bracelet...can I tell you that my girl LOVED jewerly...there's a reason why she went by the name "Miss B.L.I.N.G " The bracelet read
Be Positive. Believe In Yourself. These words were words that B lived by she was the most positive person I've ever met and she believed in herself and others.

It was a sign. She was telling me "Be positive. Believe In Yourself Warren! You can do this!" It's funny, I could actually hear her saying that to me. That was the push I needed and I'm getting my writing groove back.

Thanks B for always looking out!

My Best Friend ~Alison Selena Cisse aka B

This post is by far the hardest post I'll ever have to write in this lifetime. As I'm typing the words my eyes are filling up with tears.

On Thursday March 8, 2012 my life changed forever. My best friend of 16 years Alison passed away. It's been almost a month and I'm still in disbelief. I feel like I'm in this long nightmare that I will eventually wake up from.

Alison was a wife, mother of three beautiful children and daughter to a wonderful woman. but to me she was my best friend B. She was beautiful, vivacious, kind, loving, caring, funny, smart, and so full of life. When she walked into a room she lite it up. When you were in a bad mood she could easily put a smile on your face. When you needed her support she was there in a heartbeat. She was everything that you would want in a best friend, and I was lucky and blessed to have her as mine.

I had the opportunity to say good bye to Alison before she died. To tell her how much I loved her and how much her friendship meant to me. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life and there is not a day that goes by that I don't think about her, look at her picture, say her name and ask the question why? Why her? Why now? We had so many plans for this year. "2012 was going to be our year" those were words she spoke all the time. It turns out it was her year to become an Angel and light up the world.

I was asked by Alison's mom to do her eulogy along with with her cousins. I'll be honest with you I didn't want to do it, because writing it and reading it was confirming the truth I that didn't want to face she was gone. It took me a long time to put my hands on the keys and type away, but I did it. As a group we decided to each write a memory about Alison and it was hard to pick one thing, because there were so many. Here's one of my favorites

Taken from Alison's Eulogy:

B and I had one thing in common we love to talk and when I say we love to talk I mean we loved to talk. It never mattered how long it was of not seeing each other the moment we got together that was it, it was as if we were never apart in the first place. We would have girls’ night out where we would do dinner just to catch up with what’s going on in our lives and we went to the Canyon Creek restaurant at Scarborough Town Centre. We got there at about 8PM and we talked until they were no longer serving refills for our coffee, we talked until they started putting chairs up on the table, we talked until the hostess started vacuuming, we talked until the radio stopped playing, we talked until the light finally went on and we started seeing the staff getting ready to go home…it was then we realized maybe we should head home.

Today is Wednesday. Wednesday use to be my favorite day of the week. You're probably wondering why Wednesday? Why not Friday or even Thursday, why Wednesday? Wednesday use to be the day that Alison and I use to have our weekly call to catch up with each other we called it "Touchpoint Wednesday". Man they were fun. B would bbm me at around 9:30PM and I would call her and we'd start talking until one of two things happened: 1) We realize that if we didn't end the call we wouldn't be able to function the next day or 2) B's cordless phone would die.
Let me tell you I'd be half asleep at my desk because I was so tried, but you know what I wouldn't trade that for anything.
Now Wednesdays are the hardest day of the week, because I know I won't get that bbm and I won't be dialing her number, and we won't be talking until the wee hours of the morning or until the phone dies. What I would give to hear her voice just one more time.

One of the things B encouraged me to do was write my book. She was the only person that I would allow to read my work. She was honest and if she didn't like something I wrote she would let me know. She also always got a kick out of adding addtional/crazy ideas to my story and we would laugh up a storm. God I miss her so much.
"Unspoken Secrets" was the one story she was pushing me to write. I started it in November, but never finished. But I will finish it...in honour of my beautiful friend.

My Finals Words:

"B there are no words to describe how fortunate and blessed I’ve been to have you in my life for 16  years. You are the true definition of a best friend and I wouldn’t trade what we had for anything. I love you and I’m going to miss so much.  You know they say a man and woman destined to be together are soulmates. That’s exactly what we were….soul friends now and always.

NaNoWriMo- Day 3

So it's Day 3 of NaNoWriMo and I officially started. Due to work and attending meetings for my business I couldn't start on November 1st like most people. So I took 2 days off work to focus on catching up.

Honestly I was struggling with figuring out what I was going to write. I did mention in my last post that I was going to finally write Unspoken Secrets, but a few days ago I was struggling and I almost changed my mind planning to go with another story in my head. I guess this is what happens when you don't have an outline. For two days I was going nuts and finally this morning when I woke and got ready write I decided to seek a little help. I called my cousin Adrian and gave him a brief run down of both stories and which one he would be intereted in reading and as I was explaining "Unspoken Secrets" to him I could hear the interest in his voice. I could feel him hanging on the edge of his seat wondering what the end was going to be like and it was right then and there I knew the story I was meant to write.

And so it begins. I completed the prolouge, and I'm currently on the 3rd chapter. Total word count: 7,024 all in one day. My goal is to try to write at least 3,000 words a day, so I've made up for the two days I missed! Yeah baby!!!

I'm off again tomorrow. Planning on getting up bright and early and getting down to business. I hope it will be another successful day! Courtney and Noah are slowly, but surely coming to life...oh and Ethan, I can't forget about Ethan.

Until the next post!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! NaNoWriMo

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! (I'm singing by the way) and no it's not back to school, or Christmas...although that's just around the corner. It's the National Novel Writing Month aka "NaNoWriMo"

This is what I consider my most wonderful time of the year! Why? Because I get to attempt to write a novel in 30 day.

Have I done this before? Yes I have. I've been doing it for 5 years finished twice!

Have I done anything with the story I've completed? Not a damn thing, but you know what I'm okay with that. The story was good, but not great. Now I'm more focused and I believe that I have a great story in mind and it's ready to come out.

The story? Unspoken Secrets...ya that's the one...the story I should have done last year, but unfortunately never got the chance to do. I put it away for a year and focused on my writing course that I've been taken, working on my short story assignments....I have an assignment that is due this Sunday and I'm almost finished. I'll be getting that out of the way and dedicating myself to this story, which will be filled with suspense, romance, and betrayal.

I have my characters....Courtney & Noah. They are finally going to come to life and I can't wait to introduce you all to them.  I'm going to be honest with everyone I didn't do a full outline, I mean hell, I tried, I really did, but I wasn't feeling it. I'm all about winging it! I know, I know...it's a risk, but that's what this challenge is all about taking risks and as of November 1st I'm going to put it all down on paper and let the magic flow.

Is that smart? Hell if I know, but I'm doing it anyways, damit! Never forget when it's all over I could go back rewrite and polish my baby up to get it ready for the world.

Throughout this month I can almost guarantee that there will be highs and lows and I'm pretty sure you're gonna hear all about it, but at the end of the day when I reach my goal of 50,000 words...and  I WILL. It will be all worth it!

Just 4 more days and counting...Man I can't wait!!!

God Knows- In Memory of Gretel Warren

God has a way of doing his thing
And its just because he can.
We have a way of not understanding,
For we refuse to be strong.

God gives and he taketh,
So as it is written in his words.
For he alone knows our sorrow,
And with loves gives us strength for tomorrow.

Three years ago he said you had to leave,
Dear Lord give us a little more time please?
My dear children this I must do,
For I love her so.

Here we are today thinking how much you were loved,
You will always be one of Mom's special dove.
Know always you will be in our hearts,
Even death can't keep us apart.

Dedicated to Claire and Family from all of us.  We miss you Aunt Gretie. Gone but not forgotten.

Written by "Papats"

Birthday Queen

It was a day I will never forget. My brithday. I'm not sure about many people, but me I take my birthday seriously. Its my day, a day where I should be pampered, where all the attention should be focused on. I mean it only happens once a year right? So I have the right to wanna be Queen for a day.

This birthday was nothing different I was Queen for the day and I was looking forward to a night of salsa dancing with friends. The guest list was big and I was excited. Let me take that back, now don't get me wrong I was excited, but I was also a little sad, because of all my friends that were coming out to celebrate my special day there was one special person that wasn't gonna be there.  We had been talking for a bit, I won't say we were dating, but we had a great friendship developing with the potential of it going further and I wanted him to be there, but unfortunately for me being in Mexico and sipping on pina colda was a lot more fun. Now of course it wasn't my place to have a hissy fit and even if it were my place it wasn't in my DNA to put up one. So I let it go. This year the Queen would be without her King.

I dressed in a black fitted dress, sexy stiletto heels and worn my hair down with a part in the middle, not much of a girl who loves make up it was simple eye shadow and lipstick. I must say I looked hot!

The club was packed and merengue music filled the air, all my friends were there which was awesome and filling me up with liquor which was even much better! I was on the dance floor shaking what my mama gave me and having the time of my life, but still a part of me  felt empty my guy wasn't here.

Suddenly out of nowhere the smell of Swiss Army cologne filled my nostrils.

"Damn" I said to myself. "I must be really missing him." I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder I turned around quickly and right before my eyes was the sexist man I had ever seen in my life. His skin was rich brown chocolate, with designer glasses giving him that professor look. He was clean shaven and had a smile to die for. He was dressed in a black dress pants, with a black shirt and the hottest suede jacket. Denzel Washington had nothing on him.

"Surprise!" he said with a grin. I had to do a double take making sure the liquor wasn't playing tricks on me. I could feel my heart start to accelerate, and I started to feel a little warm I was in desperate need for a drink to quench my thirst and cool my body down. But there was no way in hell I was moving and besides I didn't to let on how happy I was to see him. I needed to play it cool or at least try to."Happy birthday, Babe." he was cool calm and collected. I jumped into his arms like it was no body's business and kissed him all over. Forget about keeping it cool, I could blame it on the alcohol later.

"I thought you're flight wasn't getting in until tomorrow morning?"

"That's what I told you."

"So you mean..."

"I had every intention of celebrating your birthday with and what better gift than to suprise you!"

I was surprised alright and also very taken aback and it was right there I knew that this man wasn't going to only be my friend, but this Queen finally had found her King.

I wrote today's post as part of the WOW-Women on Writing Blanket Tour for
Letter from Home by Kristina McMorris (www.kristinamcmorris.com). This debut
novel is the story of three young women during World War II and the identity
misunderstandings they and the men in their lives have. Ask yourself: Can a
soldier fall in love with a woman through letters? and What happens if the
woman writing the letters is different from the woman he met the might
before he shipped out, the woman he thought was writing the letters? Is it
still love or just a lie?

  Like many authors, Kristina has had a wild selection of "real jobs"
everything from wedding planner to actress to publicist. She finally added
novelist to the list after  Kristina got a peek at the letters her
grandfather wrote to his sweetheart(a.k.a. Grandma Jean)while he was serving
in the Navy during World War II. That got her wondering how much two people
could truly know each other just from letter writing and became the nugget
of her novel.

  In honor of her grandparents, and all the other families kept apart by
military service, Kristina is donating a portion of her book's profits to
United Through Reading, a nonprofit organization that video records deployed
U.S. military personnel reading bedtime stories to their children. You can
learn more about the program at http://www.unitedthroughreading.org/

  If you comment on today's post on this blog or any of the others
particpating in Everybody's Talking About Surprises, you'll be entered to
win a special surprise prize! It includes an personalized copy of Letters
from Home, a Big Band CD, Victory Garden seeds, and more.  To read
Kristina's post about surprises and a list of other blogs participating in
Everybody's Talking about Surprises visit The Muffin.(we'll forward you the
link to the listing on the Muffin)

Letting a story go...for now

I am going nuts! For about the last month I've been trying to write this short story for my writing assignment and everytime I think I got it, I realize I don't. It took me God knows how long just to figure out how I wanted to begin and now that I have the beginning I can't seem to grasp the middle. I do have the end, but the middle is the meat of the story and without it it's just two pieces of bread with nothing in between!

I'm at the point where I feel that at this time I need to put this one aside and think about writing something else. Does it make me feel like a failure? Most def! I hate backing down from a story that's giving me such a challenge, but I think for my own sanity right now it's the best thing for me to do. Maybe this is not the story I'm suppose to be submitting at this time and I'm alright with that for now.

My deadline to hand in my assignment is March 21st. That's 10 days away and I have to start all over again. Do I think I could make it happen? I guess we'll just have to see :) Wish me luck folks!

I'll keep you posted.

Bringing a story back to life

Ever since I was in grade 6 I wanted to be a writer. The very first story I wrote was called 10 to Midnight, I stole the title from a Charles Benson movie with the same name. It was good; at least that's what I thought at the time. Now not so much. Recently, I came across some of my old stories, a lot of them were written when I was in high school, and honestly I have to say I was impressed. I’m not going to say it would be a best seller, but it shows I got a little bit of skills…

Almost two years ago I started a novel called “By the Touch of his Hands” it’s of course a romantic suspense I actually wrote it for a writer’s group I was apart of. Unfortunately the group dismantled and I completely forgot about it. I was doing some spring cleaning of my memory stick and came across it and started to read it and I couldn’t believe how good it was. I wrote 3 chapters, and I was hooked from Chapter 1. Needless to say I’ve made the decision to bring this story back to life. I haven’t started working on it, but I will very soon. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

The First Sentence

Why is it that every time I have a story idea I always struggle with the "first sentence". Even though I know the start, most of the middle and the end, that pesky first sentence always wants to do battle with me. Is it because there is so much riding on it? I mean come on, if I can't grab a publisher’s attention to read my story after the first sentence how am I going to get my work published?

I'm currently in the process of writing another short story called "The Best Friend" and seriously I've been struggling with the first sentence for the last three days. It took me almost a week to figure out how I wanted to start the damn thing after my first attempt was a complete flop, and now here I am excited about how I want it to begin, but yet I can’t find that catchy first sentence..

I've gone as far as to Google "story starters" just to give me that boost, and still nothing. I know eventually it will come to me, whether on my way to work, at work, at home, in my dreams or just from talking to my "I think I'm a writer" boyfriend. I just hope it’s soon or I’ll just have to start with “It was a dark and stormy night…”

My writing update

Well I gotta say I've been a very busy girl. This week I started my Freelance Writing course and completed my first lesson. I started working on my next writing assignment I've decided to call "The Best Friend" and no it's not  your typical best friends between two girls it's a lot better...at least I hope. I'm also in the process of rewriting my previous short story "The Choice". It's going to be my first short story I'm going to try to publish...oh my God did I just say that???

I've also started reading again. Reading has always been a passion of mine ever since I was a young girl. I was always known as the book worm of the family, because my head was always in some kind of a book.

My favorite genre? Hands down suspense and now romantic suspense, of course it is considering that's the genre my first novel falls under. Just yesterday I walked into Chapters to pick up a book that I had ordered a few weeks ago and ended up coming out with 4 more. I haven't book shopped in a long time, but in the last month I've purchased a total of 8 books.

I'm currently reading "Silent Killer" by one of my favorite authors Beverly Barton. So far it's got me on the edge of my seat, but that's all you're going to hear for now. You'll just have to wait for the full review on Kcee's Reading Pleasure.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Happy New Year everyone!

Ya, I know I'm almost a month late, but better late than never right! I hope that 2011 is being good to all of you. I must say for myself things have been going well.

Now I'm sure the burning question everyone wants to know is have I been writing? The answer to that question is yes I have and I'm loving it. Here are the things I've done so far:

• I've been working on my writing assigments for my correspondence writing course with Long Ridge Writers Group and that's been going well. I just received some really good feedback from my instructor for my short story I completed called "The Choice". I'm currently in the process of revision and getting it ready to submit for publication. This will be my first attempt at submitting a piece of my work to the public and I'm nervous and excited as hell.
• I also start working on my novel "Unspoken Secrets" I've completed the Prologue and Chapter 1. My characters Courtney and Noah has come to life so quickly I can't wait to see where they take me.
• On Monday January 31st I'll be starting my 10 week Freelance Writing Course with WOW! Women on Writing. This is course I've been so looking forward to taking.

 So as you all can see I've got my hands full and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

In Loving Memory of Rhona aka "Teacher" Warren

This poem was written by my mother Pat in loving memory of my dear Aunt and her sister who passed away a year ago today.

It has been a year since she left us

The father says no more fuss

She had given life her all

But it was in the next life her name was called.

Dear Father why did you leave us hanging

Waiting for the phone to start ringing

Because she never forgot to be in touch

Lots to say, it was never too much.

I am the one who makes the call

I am the one who knows it all

I am the one who knew her pain

I am the one who knew with me there was much to gain.

Dear Father, I won’t question your ways

You are the one with all the say

Thank you for the many years you gave us

We will just remember her with no fuss.

There is not a day that goes by that we don't think about you. We all know that you are in a better place, but it's still difficult accepting the fact that you are no longer here. We miss and love you immensely.

It's been a while

Hello my fellow followers and friends,

I know it's been a while since I've posted, and you're probably wondering how NaWriMo went this year and unfortunately I did complete the challenge. Believe me I'm completely bummed out about it, but again this thing call life and the trials and tribulations that comes with it has intervined, yet again.

Now even though I didn't hit the 50,000 word count that doesn't mean my novel hasn't been progressing, it's just been progressing a little slower than I would like. The good thing is 2010 is coming to an end and 2011 is about to begin, which means a time for change and a time to make some New Year resolutions. I bet you can't guess what one of my New Years resolution is? LOL!

This will probably be one of my last post until the New Year, but don't worry when I return I'll be coming back with a vengence!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

NaNoWriMo has begun

Well it’s day 6 of NaNoWriMo and I must admit I am really far behind in my word count. Last year this time I was almost at 10,000 words, but you know how it is everyday life and some unexpected circumstances has forced me to delay jumping on the band wagon as quickly as I would have liked, but I’m happy to say I’ve officially started and I’m making good head way.

One of the things that has made my writing go smoothly this year (even though I'm behind on my word count) was the help of creating a outline beforehand. Over the years when participating in NaNoWriMo I'm usually the kind of person that likes to free style write and go where the story takes me, but sometimes I go off in a totally different direction and I lose interest and push it aside. Not this time, this time I played it a little smarter. I used a writing tool called Storybook- it's free  and it helps you structure your novel. It stores information about your characters, scenes, locations, plots and so much more. It's like a big flow chart right at your fingertips. It's something that I found to be a great asset to helping me see where I want this story to go. It's a tool I would recommend to anyone...did I mention it's free!

This weekend has been dedicated to hitting at least 3000 words. It’s a big goal, but I’m determined to make it happen. I started the prologue of my novel “Unspoken Secrets” and it’s coming along very well. My heroine Courtney Jamieson is preparing for the biggest day of her life, her wedding day only she not as enthusiastic as she should be, but her groom can’t wait to finally make her his wife. Why you ask? Well that’s something you’ll have to wait and find out!

NaNoWriMo is getting closer. OMG!!!

With just a little over a week left before Nov 1st and still not having my plot completed yet, I'm under a lot of pressure. Am I freaking out? Not at all, this is the type of rush and intensity I enjoy in the writing world.
This weekend is a complete right off, because it's all about family, but come Monday it's a whole new ball game.

I just received the schedule for all the events that will be taking place during NaNoWriMo this year and I am hyped, it's great to see people who are in the same boat as you, working their butt off to accomplish their goal and come out on top. I'll be creating a schedule for myself and definately sticking too it, it's gonna be long, hard and tired, but I'm up for the challenge.

It's all about success and now is the "write time" to make it happen!

Enjoy the weekend!