Typical

I was intrigued when reading a post over at A Day in the Life of Me where she describes her typical writing day.  It made me laugh and I wanted to post my typical writing day.  Maybe some of you can empathize here. 

2:30am            Two year old gets up.

430am              Two year old gets up and wants breakfast

5:45                 Alarm goes off, hubby gets up.

6:00                 I get up.

6:30                 In theory this is my exercise time but usually two year old gets up and I plop him in front of the TV in an effort to keep him quiet and not wake up 18 month old.  Which means not much exercise but some blogging and emails. 

7:30                 18 month old wakes up, we all eat breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth.

8:30                 3 days a week 2 year old we babysit arrives.  Other two days a week we go on walks in the stroller, go to the store or play monster, puppy, kitty, airplane, or blocks.

9:30                 Snacks.  Clean up snacks, sweep floor, mop up applesauce.

9:45                 Change diapers

10:00               Play, read books, go outside, do laundry, wash dishes,  etc.

11:00               say “no, it’s not lunch time yet” fifty thousand times. 

11:15               Change diapers

11:30               Give in and feed them lunch.

12:00               clean up lunch, sweep, mop up peanut butter, do more dishes.

12:20               Change diapers

12:30               Nap time.  Post blog, tell two year old to get back in bed, tell 18 month old to stop playing in crib.  Repeat.  Finally pull out manuscript and try to get something done.

2:00                 Wake up! If I’m lucky they’ll play toys or watch tv while I visit blogs, do finances or make phone calls.

3:00                 snack, clean up snack, sweep.  Think about mopping but I’ll just have to do it after dinner so why bother.

3:30                 Change diapers.  Read books. Play monster, puppy, kitty, airplane, fold laundry, and maybe do my hair.

5:00                 2 year old we babysit leaves.  Start dinner.  Tell children it’s not done and the stove is hot, don’t touch.  No you can’t climb in the dishwasher.  Don’t hit, don’t bite, Give her back her toy.  Don’t throw trains through the window. 

5:30                 Kids eat.

6:00                 Hubby home. Start crying with joy.  Eat. 

6:30                 turn on TV and collapse on beanbag. 

7:30                 Snack.  Sweep. Tell the mop I don’t think so and lock it in the other room so it will stop mocking me.  Brush teeth, pajamas, change diapers.

8:00                 Bed time.  Halleluiah chorus.  Write.

9:00                 fall asleep at computer until Hubby says “hey, aren’t you supposed to be working.”  Turn off computer go to bed and watch TV since I just took a nap and can’t fall asleep. 

What is your typical writing day?  If you post one on your blog leave a comment here so we can come enjoy!

Fail

I just read an amazing post by Sara Zarr about failure in writing.  It has to do a little with my post yesterday so I'm linking to it here.

Fear Not

I've been thinking about fear a lot lately.  The closer I get to finishing the more afraid I become.  Afraid that my best won't be good enough.

I recently saw this post where Rachelle Gardner tells this story about a friend.

 I called my editor this summer and said, “What the heck is going on? This is my sixth novel! Shouldn’t I at least have my creative process figured out by now?!” And she laughed at me.
She laughed.
At.
Me.
And then through snorts she said, “Oh my gosh, is that really how you think this works?”

I guess I'm not going to get any less worried as time goes on, but that's ok because I also saw this: In her first comment to this post Joanna Bourne says "Never stop worrying.  It keeps us young."  What?!  Worry makes me old before my time.  It gives me wrinkles and ulcers.  But then I thought about how my worrying has improved my writing.  When I'm afraid something is poorly done I work harder at it, I try something new, I get new energy as I see myself improving. 

For me the opposite of fear is work.   So I keep working.  When I first started this novel I got to the middle and didn't know what to do.  I almost gave up, thinking it would be better to quit than to know I wasn't good enough.  Fortunately I kept working and I showed myself that I could do it.

There will be a point when I can't work anymore, where I have done everything it is in my power to do.  At that point we'll find out if it's enough.  I'd rather fail at that point, knowing there was nothing I could change, than fail because I didn't do my best.

What do you do to overcome fear, or do you make the fear work for you? 

New Books

There have been a lot of people I know, or at least have read their blogs, releasing books lately.  So I thought I'd do a big post listing all the recent releases I can think of.

WARNING

I have not read all these books.  I am not saying they will be a perfect fit for everyone.  What I am doing is putting them out there with links for everyone to find what they may or may not like.  So, read at your own risk.  Or enjoyment. 

Crossed by Ally Condie

Monarch by Michelle Davidson-Argyle

Wild Grass and Other Stories by Davin Malasarn

Not my Type by  Melanie Jacobson

Man in the Cinder Clouds by Rick Daley

Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption by Jo Murphey

Mortal Instinct by Widdershins

The Lady's Fate by Anne Gallagher

The Next Door Boys by Jolene Perry

By the Pale Moonlight by Jen Hendren

Firelight by Kristen Callihan
ok, this one isn't published yet.  It comes out early next year. I won an arc but will wait to blog about it closer to the release date.

Ok, I've probably missed a few.  If I did please, please forgive me and please please comment so we can check it out.

Like a Kid in a Bookstore

I’m helping to spread the word.  There is a “take your child to a bookstore day” on December 3^rd.  

I think most people who come here like books.  I’m guessing many of us are in fact book pushers.  You know the people who are constantly telling others “You should read this”.  It makes sense that we would want to support books, bookstores and just teach our children to love them too. 

There are link here and here where they have buttons you can put on your blog (and by you I mean people who can figure out how to do things like that) and posters you can print and hang up around town.  So help spread the word.  And if you can, grab your child, your niece, nephew, or some kid off the playground (ask his mother first) and take them to a bookstore.  Go to your favorite indie, a box store or wherever you go to buy books. Amazon doesn’t count.  Even if you don’t have the finances to purchase anything take your child.  Introduce them to the wonder that is a store devoted to books.  Let them touch the spines, smell the paper and breathe the words.   If for some reason you can't get to a bookstore, are afraid you won't have enough  self control, or have been banned from all bookstores near you then take them to the library, get them their own library card. If you take them, they will love.

 

I’m planning on taking my two; I even know which book I plan to find for them. 

Tools of the Trade

How many of you have heard of or used Scrivenor?  It’s a writing program, designed by writers for writers.  I used to hear a lot about it from some friends over at Compuserve. They raved about how it was the most amazing thing ever and made writing so easy.  You know, other than coming up with the words.  But as it was only for Mac and I refuse to own anything Mac or Mac related I stopped paying attention. 

Last year just before November the good people at scrivener announced that they were working on a windows version and guess what, you could try the beta version out free for NaNo.  And if you won NaNo you got a code that would give you fifty percent off the finished program when it came out in 2011. 

Well, my friends have been raving for so long I thought I would give it a try.  It was free after all and if I didn’t like it I could stop using it.  I admit I loved it.  It has more bells and whistles than I will ever use.  There are lots of things geared towards outlines and I don’t use outlines but for the most part it was pretty darn good. 

Because I’m a pantster and a chunkster I am often moving scenes and chapters around. This program made it so easy.  In fact for my NaNo novel last year I had four threads that weaved around each other and I was able to keep each one in its own thread then shuffle them together when I needed.  It has a split screen ability so if you want to have blank page for writing and still have an old scene up so you can check eye color or last names you can.  You can split the screen horizontally or vertically depending on your preference.  Not quite as nice as dual monitors but since I don’t have those very helpful.  There are places for notes by scene, chapter or as a whole.  I could never detail everything the program can do so you’ll just have to go check it out here. 

All in all, this program made it very easy to draft my novel.  They are releasing the full version on November 7^th and it is now available for pre-ordering at ten percent off. (Twenty for students)   If you won NaNo last year you got a code for fifty percent off. If you lost your code I’ve heard you can tell the good people over there your NaNo name last year and they’ll look it up for you.  It’s only forty dollars to begin with, which isn’t too bad for a great program anyway.  And if you really want, I think you can still download the beta version and play around with it to see if you like it before ordering. 

Winners!

We have a winner!  Congratulations Deniz!  You win the $20 gift card.  

Honorable mention to Widdershins who guessed the author right.  You win a $10 gift card.  

If both of you would email (sara.bowers@cox.net) me and let me know if you prefer Amazon or Barnes and Noble that would be great. 

My kids are dressed up as Nac Mac Feegle, or Wee Free Men.  At least as close as I could make them in a reasonable budget.  They already had the kilts.  If you haven’t read the Wee Free Men series I SERIOUSLY advise it. Especially if you like parodies of life, dry British humor or amazing talent with words.  Go.  Read. 

Wee Free Men

A Hat Full of Sky

The Wintersmith

I Shall Wear Midnight

I read the first and last book but listened to the middle ones on audio book.  I drove off the road twice I was laughing so hard and had to stop listening in the car.  Seriously, I was crying.   

Thanks everyone for playing along with my first contest.