The Writer who counts her Blessings. The Reader who reads Charles Dickens.

 You know how thanksgiving is all about the food, and getting together. Mostly cooking for days and then hoping it turns out good. Well I think Christmas is all about the gifts. I mean all the advertisements and such that try and get you to buy. Your so busy trying to find the perfect gift you forget the price, you buy whatever is left. Or you are one of those people who shop the day after Thanksgiving and hope they don't get killed shopping for socks! It is so funny to me the complete polar opposites Thanksgiving and Christmas become. Yet they were both formed to give thanks for you blessings and your families, our freedoms. I am so glad there is still sanity in my house, we generally make our Christmas gifts, and I only buy things for the kids. It has become a tradition for me to make ornaments of some shape or form for the grownups in my family. I love the symbolism of the ornaments an how they represent special times, and memories in our lives. I am a sucker for cheesy Christmas movies too, and I have to have a real tree!! I know I am weird...

 As a Writer, it is all about the details and describing that perfect person, that perfect place, and the perfect scene and sometimes it is difficult. I mean right now, I have a vision for this scene and I cannot seem to create it on paper, so then I will look for visual aids. Sometimes I find them sometimes I don't. It is a process like this when creating anything. So I guess my traditions of making ornaments is like writing a book. Its a process and its different and unique each time. So I look forward to see what my family thinks about what I have created. So even my gifts are all about the details..

 The Reader me is always reading wonderful stories of hope during this season. My kids and I always chose to children from the giving tree and purchase gifts for them another one of my traditions...Christmas is that amazing time when people give more of themselves and help others I love it..Reminds me of my favorite Christmas movie and book. A Christmas Carol..Dickens has been a favorite of mine for years and years. I love his stories. I hear a lot of stuff about the man, but all I know is the stories. So if you have never read his book it is one that should be read!! Scrooge learns that giving is way better then receiving..He is amazing at his details, smells, sounds, you feel as if you are in the story! I aspire to this. Its amazing.

Quotes above and below are some of my favorites. Enjoy.

 ~I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. ~Charles Dickens

I agree Mr.Dickens, Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed holiday season.

 ~Until next time readers, and hopeful writers. Jess =)
PS I have three query letters ready to be sent out in January, cross your fingers for me..

The Writer who's never been to a critique group before?

 So I may be the only writer on the planet who has never been to a critique group. I was trying to figure out why I had never been critiqued. My result I have been living in my story, and its characters for so long (10+ years) I forgot to ask what other people thought. Does anyone else have this problem? Every project I enter into is a complete immersive experience and I forget all else lol. I either have an all or nothing button. I use with everything in my life. There is not medium button.
I started editing my book and I have to stop myself from over editing. It is very hard. I worry I do not have enough, and then I worry I have to much so it is a precarious ledge I find myself on.

So when I went to a critique it was just to see what it was all about, and it was very interesting. I was intrigued by all these people and there amazing ideas and stories. So many different ages of writers too, There were retirees, college students, moms, teachers, college professors, and me just a working gal. It was also an affirmation for the Writer me, that I am not too old to chase this dream, I am not too old to get this book published. The moderator is actually a publisher and an editor so her experience is going to be so great too. The best part for the Reader me, it was fifteen books being read simultaneously  in two hours, it was awesome. I was thoroughly impressed by how the group was organized and run. Each person critiqued two pieces in a group of fifteen. Each person got assigned different books each week so there's lots of variety.  There is memoirs, short stories, children's, science fiction, young adult, romance, humor, and action adventure in this group. I cannot wait to go back in December. Unfortunately I can only go this group once a month. In my rotation at the hospital I only get one Tuesday off a month, this  group meets every Tues morning. So my stuff has not been evaluated yet. It will be next month though. I will have to keep you posted as to how that goes. I took most of last month off from my reading and my writing, I was a little burnt out I admit. We had a lot of family activities as well.

 Writer me, has been doing some study this month on the psychological aspects of characters.Characterization etc. I found a wonderful book at the library called: Breathing life into your Characters. How to give your characters Emotional, and Psychological depth. By author Rachel Ballon PhD... I was so wonderful in fact I bought my very own copy. I will have to keep you all updated on how that book goes and how this pertains to my new Character in my second book. Reader me is working on an 8 book series I just got from the library. It is action/thriller/romance which is what my second book in progress is. So its also research at least that is what I tell myself lol.

In reference to what I was reading, this last month. I didn't read much but my kids were reading a lot of the R.L.Stine Goosebumps series, and it reminded me of a favorite author I read when I was just 13-15. Christopher Pike, his scary young adults books were just what I needed when I went through my goth, and black period. I wore only black and read only horror Frankenstein, Bram Stokers Dracula, and numerous other titles. He was a wonderful author that focused on high school students and murders in small towns. They were fantastic. In the spirit of Halloween and last month. Here is the link to his page: https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherPikeBooks
http://christopherpikefanclub.com

Until next time readers, and hopeful writers. Jess =)

The writer whose dream to finish her novel has become reality!

Reading has been my thing since I was my son(10) and daughters (13) age. I was  one of the anti-social kids who always had her nose in a book. If you read my previous blog I also read in part to block myself from the bullies, and the snobs I went to school with. I equipped myself with learning anything an everything! My Mom used to pick a word from the dictionary and we would learn its meaning. So cool. Also nerdy,lol..

 I felt that knowledge was power. As a kid we never had a lot of money so we would spend our summers, and weekends at the library. It is one of the best memories I have. Libraries are the best invention next to hot water heaters as far as I am concerned lol..

 At Age 10  I wrote my first story. A women in the civil war, and it was 30 pages long. I still have it. I have since added lots of history to it, and changed it. That is one of my many books I want to write. So this is just one of those stepping stones to get published.  I do have two short stories that I published,  on amazon so its a start. 

One of the authors I started reading when my son was a newborn was; Debbie Macomber, She was a mom too, that wrote when her kids were young, and ended up sending out a manuscript and she used her last $ to do it. She was such and inspiration to me. I got to meet her in 2001, she was as lovely as I thought she would be, and so nice.  So she is the author I am selecting this time to highlight.

http://www.debbiemacomber.com, the first book I read of hers was 

~Lonesome Cowboy; it is a Texas series set in a small town. Similar to her Cedar Cove series. All her books are heartwarming an charming. Filled with great little towns, everyone wants to live in. So I hope you will check her out. She has inspried me a "nobody" to go for this dream and live it.

When I started this blog I was excited about my accomplishment. I had finished my novel. It took me 10 years and three months to write it. This book has changed so much since I started. I think is my sixth version.Those have all been stepping stones, and many stairs, I have climbed to get to this point. I think that life is always a work in progress. A journey and its moves in all directions, and sometimes not the ones you plan. That may seem like a long time, but in those ten years, I went to college, moved states, had two children. Worked in retail mostly, and watched several of the stores I had worked for close. I have had so many lows, and so many highs in that time. Yet I feel like this is a brand new start, and exciting challenge. I was unable to go to the critique due to family illness, but as soon as I go I will post my observations and what we are reading. Happy reading, dreaming, and writing! Jess