...That's What She Said

Sporadic observations and accounts of my daily world and creative pursuits

Current Status:

Volunteers needed to critique a sci-fi short. Please feel free to comment if up for the challenge!

Quote of the Week:

“A short story is a different thing all together - a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger.” ~Stephen King

Showing posts with label Blog Hop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog Hop. Show all posts

IWSG: Nothing to see here, move along...




Thank goodness for First Wednesdays... and thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh, it's the day we insecure writers come together to share our pitfalls and inspirations.  To learn more and read other's posts, click the photo link!

Hello again, dear IWSG members... Instead of sharing an insecurity about my writing (or lack thereof) for September, I'm going to share this:  At the present moment, I only have doubt in my ability to be of service to anyone who follows my blog... I worry that I've taken what few readers I have for granted.  And because of that, this is going to be my shortest post in the history of my blogging.  Instead of sharing thoughts here on my own blog, I intend to spend the next couple of days visiting as many other IWSG posts as I can and leaving comments on each blog I read.  If you've stopped by in hopes of more substance, I offer my sincerest apologies... but I promise there will be more reading for you to do soon. Interesting things have been happening, though documentation of those things can wait.  For now, please join me by hopping to as many other IWSG posts as you can!


CONFESSIONS BLOGFEST





















Pssssssst.... lean in a little closer.  It's time for some confessions.  Brought to you in part by the wonderful Jackie @Bouquet of Books and Dani @Entertaining Interests (Click the photo link above for more details.).

This blogfest was not only fun to work on, but rather challenging, too! You see, I have the option to dig waaaaaaaaay back into the past, or simply think back to yesterday to find a confession to share with you.  That's the beauty in living just outside the box of "normal", I suppose.  Outside of IWSG each month (or nearly every month in my case), I haven't participated in a blog hop in a while.  Therefore, I feel it is my duty... nay, my supreme responsibility... to over-share.  That's right, folks... it's a Top 5 List for your reading pleasure.  So without further adieu, in chronological order, here are my confessions (narrowed down from 20 original ideas, yikes!):

1.)  When I was nine years old, I joined a scooter gang. Living in a ghetto suburb of Miami, there was an abundance of trouble to get into. My father worked late and I walked home from elementary school daily, just 5 blocks away, but still an obstacle course of would-be kidnappers... to find my stepmother asleep on the couch with the witty banter of The Golden Girls as the only sound in the house. Instead of doing my homework, I would sneak out to meet the neighborhood kids. Lucky for me since I didn't know how to ride a bike, the preferred method of travel was by scooter. Mine was purple. Every day, we scooted to the Cumberland Farms convenience store. And I would steal *gasp* yes, steal a green apple or cherry flavored Jolly Rancher. We're not talking the little individually wrapped rectangle shaped ones, either. I took the long, flat ones that cost $0.25 each. I think I made off with at least $50 in those things over the course of that school year. And worse yet, I can't find them anywhere these days to actually buy them. Perhaps that's part of my punishment.

2.)  When I was twelve, I dismissed a kind boy's Valentine for misspelling my name and laughed at him when he tried to hold my hand incorrectly because I knew we were being watched by the entire class. At age thirteen, I gave a perfectly nice boy the cold shoulder after two popular girls called him "chubby".  This, after said boy and his family had taken me to Disney World for my birthday.  I was mean and cold for all the wrong reasons.  These were the first times I was faced with the split decision of being accepted by the "cool" crowd in school versus being a good person no matter the result.  I chose wrong in both scenarios and it haunted me through the rest of my school days... where I found myself outcast from those cheerleader girls and not one single boyfriend until high school was nearly over.  

3.)  I was 26 and I had a pretty fancy car for my age.  It was a lease that I worked hard to pay for, but I drove it like I stole it.  One such instance was on the way home from a Jet concert, where I had the top down, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" blaring through my Bose speakers, and a good friend's boyfriend in my passenger seat.  Now, before you jump to conclusions, this confession isn't about the guy.  My friend had encouraged the outing since she wasn't a fan of the music and while he did try to kiss me, that aspect was fully revealed to the grateful friend who used it as a reason to finally break-up with her questionable partner. So, back to the confession. Obviously, I was showing off in my James Bond-esque vehicle, taking hairpin turns at three times the speed limit through some side streets at 2:00 am... and as one would expect, I didn't have time to make adjustments before seeing red & blue flashing lights pull out behind me.  Me, being young and not of sound judgment, decided it would be better not to stop.  The details of my high speed chase that ended in a movie-like cloud of dust at a construction site will be featured in my book, but my confession is that I was so shaken up by my risky escape (yes, I got away with it) that I cried about how I didn't want my family to see me on Cops for over an hour before I gathered up the courage to put the keys back in the ignition and finish my drive home... slowly.  When stupidity settles in and adrenaline dies down, one's true colors tend to come out.  And mine was the black of my eyeliner that completely covered my tear-streaked face, flushed with embarrassment.  I often wonder if anyone is as fearless as they make themselves out to be.

4.)  I eventually settled down, climbed the corporate ladder, got married.  And after that, I found myself pregnant with my one and only son.  During those nine months, I hated nearly every minute of it.  I referred to my unborn child as an "alien parasite" regularly.  It was meant to be a joke as I was not one of those "look at me, I'm glowing with creation and love it" preggos... Nope, I was a sweaty hippopotamus who couldn't fit into shoes.  I was grumpy and mad all the time... granted, it was August in Florida, but still... I went above and beyond the call of standard hormonal imbalance.  But after my baby arrived and I fell in love with him more than I thought possible, I regretted making those jokes.  I still do.  And now that he's 4 and can make sarcastic comments to his parents, I often wonder how much of that was absorbed through the womb.

5.)  On Monday, yes, as in just this past week, I took my dog on a long nature hike through the trails behind our development.  Since she's at least 50% water dog, I thought she might like to check out the lake. Unfortunately, what looked like a solid bank turned out to be two feet of soft mud that was only dry on the topmost layer.  Needless to day, my yellow dog turned black from paws to hips.  Being out of work this summer, the family budget is rather tight.  So, when I see the opportunity for a free dog-wash, I'm going to take it.  If you add a revenge aspect into the mix, a little spark from my old life might get ignited.  It was the first day of school, so the entire complex was vacant.  No one was in the gym and the pool was empty.  This is one of several different pools, mind you... and this one is the super cool, fancy infinity pool with a waterfall and a hot tub that I never get to go to because it's typically full of beer drinking, foul mouthed twenty-somethings.  Instead, my little family gets banished to the small, boring pool behind our townhouse. It has some decorative rocks on the side. Whoopdie-doo, right? Anyway, back to the situation at hand.  I looked down at my disgusting dog, then at the sparkling off-limits pool area.  And I think you can guess what happened next.  Yup, I'm the jerk that clogged the community hot tub with mud and dog hair.  But hey, I was twenty once... so I justify this act by saying that there are far worse things that have probably clogged up a hot tub.

There you have it... five randomly selected confessions, past and present.  Please feel free to share a comment if you aren't completely put off by what a horrible, rule-breaking person I am!  In the meantime, I simply cannot wait to hop to some of the other blogs to see what other secrets people have chosen to reveal.  Click the link above to join in our naughty fun ;-)


A cure for the common blog lapse?

In my last post, I was in the market for a blog hop to help get myself back into the swing of things.  Well, (no thanks to you guys... just kidding!) I found one that should be fun.  Not too many bloggers have jumped on this bandwagon just yet, so I encourage your participation as well!

Got a secret weighing you down... or are you guilty of doing something silly that you're willing to admit to the blogosphere?  I don't know about you all, but I'm willing to pull back the curtains and let a little light shine into a dark corner.  Ok, so maybe not a "dark" corner... more like a dusty funny bone that's been sitting unused in the guest room that no one goes into.  Anyone who read any of my blogfest entries last year knows that I can take any awkward aspect of my life and use it to put a smile on someone's face.  Considering I haven't done so in a while, I think I'm willing to go all out.  Any other takers?  Here's your chance:






















Click the photo link above to get more info on the Confessions Blogfest hosted by Jackie @Bouquet of Books and Dani @Entertaining Interests and sign up to participate today!  You've only got four days to pick your confession... which for me, is a short amount of time to narrow down a lot of options... hehehe ;-)


IWSG: Your First




Thank goodness for First Wednesdays... and thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh, it's the day we insecure writers come together to share our pitfalls and inspirations.  To learn more and read other's posts, click the photo link!

Well hello out there, fellow bloggers! I can't imagine that too many of you are glued to your screens this week, as everyone I know seems to be packing up and taking a trip due to the four day holiday weekend.  Sadly, I had to cancel my trip home to Florida (see prior posts)... [whomp, whomp]. But on the bright side, I will now have the opportunity to check out some of the local festivities that I would have missed otherwise. One of my favorite memories takes place on a beach on the fourth of July, as I counted the fireworks in Spanish with my grandparent's summer guest, an orphan from Mexico.  This scene will be featured in my memoir style novel (yes, still in progress), so I'll talk more about that in a future insecurity post, I'm sure!

In the meantime, every single one of you is probably familiar with Ernest Hemingway's quote, "The first draft of anything is sh*t." If that statement is 100% accurate, then I've been sitting on the "S" word for nearly six months... and it's starting to reek.  I'm not going to lie, I've had zero motivation to edit my sci-fi short story.  Worse yet, I don't want to give it to any critique partners because I wanted to at least share a second draft, not my first.  My first is literally stream-of-consciousness writing.  I could only imagine the red ink that would come back from someone's critique analysis.  I desperately want to share it with someone after I've at least made some of the improvements that I am already aware of.  So... I guess my question is this:  How many of you let someone read the first draft of your work... that very first, steaming mess of words that you just know isn't your best?  If not, at what point do you share?  And how do you feel about Hemingway's famous quote?


IWSG: No press, but depress(ed)




Thank goodness for First Wednesdays... and thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh, it's the day we insecure writers come together to share our pitfalls and inspirations.  To learn more and read other's posts, click the photo link!

*Ahem* Hi there.  It's me again... long, lost Tanya... attempting to post something before being banished forever from the IWSG.  One writer I sincerely admire once said something to the effect of me not posting very often, but when I do it really means something.  I hope that's true... not so much that tonight's entry will be a life-changing prolific event, by any means.  But I do hope it means something to someone somewhere, perhaps even will be helpful in some way.  I know I cannot be alone in my thoughts, so why not share them and see if I can spark inspiration from the depths of what will hopefully not sound like a pity party.

I avoided the blogosphere in April like the plague.  Sure, March was a busy month with family visits and birthday junk... but the only excuse I thought I had for April was shame.  If I'd committed myself to it, I could have done the A-Z challenge.  I probably would have had fun and been pretty proud of myself, too.  But no, I was too busy, too distracted, too tired... even far too exhausted to participate in supporting my fellow bloggers with commentary... or so I thought.  Then along came May.  My band of misfit employees rallied together with insubordination and disrespect when I hired a team lead from outside the company. This caused a reduction in staff and long hours for me to pick up the slack. Once again, I told myself that after working 10+ hours at the office and then being on mom duty was just too much and there was no way I could make time to write. Of course, after getting the little one down for the count, I'd spend an hour lying in bed in the dark with the light blue glow of my iPhone illuminating my face.  What was I doing every night?  Lurking on Facebook and Instagram.  Lamenting over the social circle I left behind in Florida over a year ago.  Feeling like a sad, lonely voyeur... when I could have been writing.

Now it's June (yikes!) and it wasn't until today when a random someone left me a comment on my last post... from April (yikes again!) that the source of my trouble revealed its true identity.  The comment said that I must not love writing first, or I'd have made time for it.  Tanya Tip: The best way to get me to do something is to challenge me that I can't.  And so, that was my inadvertent wake-up call.  I've thought about it all day.  Could it be true that I really don't love writing?  Is it not actually one of my passions? What is my problem?  Then I got a text on my way home from a Florida friend complaining about her baby continuously pooping in the bath tub, which cracked me up and made my heart sink all at once.  I had laughed at the humor in the situation, but I was not happy to hear from my friend.  Just like I couldn't feel happiness for all those social media posts I'd "liked" but didn't put forth the effort into making actual comments as to why.  I just felt sad.  Then I realized I felt depressed.  And then I realized that I've been depressed for a while.  Depression isn't something you know you have until it's pretty well set in.  And depression isn't a feeling.  It's a state of mind that prevents you from feeling... anything... even finding joy in the things you love the most, something that I'd mistaken for simply being sad and nostalgic for my friends.  Instead, you just pass through life from day to day, remembering what it used to be like to feel things and not understanding the fact that you aren't feeling things in the present.  I think that acknowledging depression is the first step in recovering from it and finding yourself again, but I also think that exploring your state of mind and expressing what caused it will help the feelings return.  So either, I'll write to rediscover my feelings or I'll start feeling my love of writing as it happens.  Either way, the stalemate ends tonight.  Thank you, IWSG.


IWSG: April Challenges



Thank goodness for First Wednesdays... and thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh, it's the day we insecure writers come together to share our pitfalls and inspirations.  To learn more and read other's posts, click the photo link!

Who's feeling like an April Fool for not participating in the A - Z challenge this month?  This gal, right here.  My contribution to IWSG this month won't be inspiration to others this time around, unfortunately.  Instead, I'm wallowing in a slump of insecurity about my abilities to commit to writing... this blog, or otherwise. 

In the last three months, I took a little time away from blogging to work on editing my completed sci-fi short that clocks in at about 7,000 words.  Then, all heck broke loose at work.  So, after nine hours of non-stop stress at the office, an hour in traffic, mom duty, puppy duty and clean-up... these last few weeks I haven't mustered the energy to even sit down at the computer, let alone type something at the end of the night.  What about the weekends?  Ah yes... those... well, first my mother was in town, then my hub's best friend, then it was my birthday... 

So, dear blogging friends, how do all of you find the time to dedicate so much of yourselves to your writing, to your readers... just to yourself? At this point, I'll take any and all the advice I can get!


Belated Liebster Award


So, it has been several weeks... and I've had out-of-town visitors staying at my house over the past 3 weeks... but I'm finally able to get back on here to announce that I was awarded the Liebster Award from Nancy LaRonda Johnson at Writer's Mark! Like her, I'm very honored as this is also my first nomination for a blog award not related to a flash fiction or writing contest. I'm starting to get sucked into this little blogging community more and more... and I think it's a good thing!

Here are the rules:

  1. Thank the blogger who presented this award and link back to their blog –
  2. Thanks Nancy! This was just what I needed to get back into the swing of blogging & it's a fun way to get to know one another better.
  3. Answer 11 questions posted by the presenter, ask your nominees 11 questions, and list eleven random facts about yourself.
  4. Check.
  5. Nominate 11 bloggers who you feel deserve this award and who have less than 200 followers.
  6. Check.
  7. Post the award on your blog.
  8. And check!
Here are 11 *random* facts about me:
  1. I am the only person I know who has successfully escaped a high speed police chase.
  2. I have a pension for adopting defective animals - the more disease ridden, strange looking and/or neurotic, the better.
  3. I met my mother for the first time when I was 24 years old.
  4. I was inspired to track down my mother and start a relationship with her as a result of my love of watching my second favorite TV series, Gilmore Girls.
  5. My first favorite TV series is Battlestar Gallactica.
  6. The only broken bone I've ever had was a hairline fracture in my jaw, from being sucker punched in the bathroom of a country bar.
  7. I don't like or listen to country music, especially since my one and only visit to a country bar.
  8. R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People album was the sole reason I survived high school.
  9. I find cat vomit hilarious... in fact, I'm giggling right now having merely typed the words.
  10. I have been attacked, chased and/or bitten by the following animals: dog, cat, horse, bobcat, mole, squirrel, raccoon, barracuda, giraffe, goat, snake, hamster, rat, alligator, wolf spider and sand shark.
  11. I've only had rabies once.
The 11 questions asked by Nancy with my answers are:


  1. Does your name have a backstory? Were you named after someone, does it have a special meaning, etc.  
  2. I don't have a lot of info on any childhood backstories, unfortunately... so, I don't know if it's true, but my grandmother once told me that my name was going to be Dawn until my father met a little girl in the hospital who was dying from leukemia named Tanya while my mother was in labor. I do know that roughly translated, my name means "Russian Fairy Princess"... The princess part couldn't be further from the truth and I'm not Russian, but fairies are ok, I guess.
  3. What’s the one thing you wish you could brag to everyone about?
  4. Well, of course that would be that I am a published author, but I can't do that until I've finished a project worth publishing.
  5. What’s your favorite word and why? Actually, "why" is my favorite current word... because it's so much fun to answer when my 4 year old son asks it.
  6. If you could eat as much of anything you wanted without stopping until you could pop whenever you wanted, what would it be?  Without hesitation, I pick NY style cheescake. Wait... maybe pizza... No, I'm going to stick to my soon-to-explode gut and say cheesecake.
  7. What’s the one thing you wish you could say to your spouse/parents/siblings/best friend but haven’t?  I'm pretty open with my spouse and best friends... but parents and sibling, oooh... that's a tough one... and personal, too... I will say that it wouldn't be something very positive.
  8. If you could make someone in your family the MC in a book or story, who would it be and what type of character would they be?  Well, my current WIP is a memoir, so they are all playing themselves.
  9. If you could be a #1 NY Times bestseller for the one book you’ve written and can ever write, or be a relatively unknown writer of many books, what would you choose and why?  I think my answer might be the opposite of most, as most people have tons of stories to share... Myself, on the other hand, I have many stories to put into a memoir that could very well turn out to be my life's work at the pace I'm going, so I'll go with the #1 bestseller for a single book... because I would be very happy to have that one thing do well.
  10. Who’s your favorite actor and in what movie?  I loved Tim Robins in The Shawshank Redemption, Robert Dinero in Heat, Brad Pitt in Fight Club, Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook... equally, don't make me pick.
  11. If you could only have a TV or stereo system (and no other music playing device), which would you pick?  This must be a trick question.  Does this stereo system have a built-in MP3 player or how about satellite radio?  I don't listen to the radio if it can be avoided, but I do prefer music over television these days since nearly all of my favorite shows are off the air.
  12. Would you rather vacation somewhere hot or cold, and where would that be? I grew up in Miami, FL, where many people vacation, so I would love to take a trip to the mountains soon... Montana or Colorado.
  13. What’s your most controversial belief? There are two things I never bring up at family dinners, and those same two things I generally keep out of my blog, too: religion and politics. But to not skirt the question entirely, I will say that I believe that both science and religion go hand in hand and should balance each other out.
The 11 nominees I am choosing to keep the Liebster Award going are:
  1. Millie Burns
  2. Kristen Hart
  3. Ed Venture
  4. Leslie Starr O'Hara
  5. Jessica Marcarelli
  6. Rachel Featherstone
  7. Sarah Chafin
  8. Lexie C.
  9. Mencara
  10. Jess Schira
  11. Sarah
And the 11 questions for my nominees to answer are:
  1. Why did you start your blog?
  2. Are you going to participate in the A-Z writing challenge in April? Why or why not?
  3. Enough about writing, we talk about that all the time... let's get to know you! What was the very last thing you ate?
  4. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
  5. What book are you currently reading?
  6. What is your least favorite thing about yourself?
  7. What is your favorite thing about yourself?
  8. What are your thoughts on happy endings?
  9. What was the last movie you watched? Did you like it?
  10. What is the farthest you've ever been from home?
  11. Do you have any odd or special talents?
There we have it... let the Liebstering continue!  I'm looking forward to sharing with some new people and making new connections, how about you?  :-)

IWSG: Your Craft


Thank goodness for First Wednesdays... and thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh, it's the day we insecure writers come together to share our pitfalls and inspirations.  To learn more and read other's posts, click the photo link!

For anyone following my slow progress, I am still editing my first work of science fiction.  Over the past few IWSG posts, I've received some great feedback to calm my insecurities as well as a couple of comments that have spun a few of them into overdrive. I suppose that's what happens when you ask for honest critiques, and it's not always a bad thing. For better or worse, they make you think... and thinking about your work is good.  The problem occurs when too much thinking leads to questioning your written voice. For this round, I'm going to do my best to share some inspiration that I've been tossing around in my head over the last month. 

Just as an example, I learned a lot from the commentary being posted to competing stories in last year's Write Club challenge, but there were some voters offering up personal preferences instead of sharing unbiased critiquing. One such scenario was advice as to the tense used in a piece. Some people prefer to write in first person narrative, others in third, and others in a plethora of variations. One thing I've given some thought to is the definition of one's writing craft.  Your craft is personal and any manner in which you purposely use words to display your ideas should be considered your signature.  If you use first person narrative on purpose to make your point hit home, then it doesn't matter that I prefer a different style. Moreover, if you use all caps to make a statement and you purposely use it consistently throughout your writing, then who are we to tell you that it isn't grammatically correct?  Do you love semicolons and oxford commas? You do? Well, then by all means, use them if it lends to your craft! And hey look, I just used an exclamation point!  I bet you've read some writing books that tell you not to... but I say, listen to you heart... and always stay true to your craft.  Your writing is meant to define you.  You are what you write.  Never let one critique create doubt in the style that represents your voice.  Your editor will help you sell your book... just be careful not to sell your soul.  There's a big difference between correcting grammar to reflect skillful writing and completely changing the fundamental style that makes you, well... "you".  I suppose that's my long-winded way of saying that we should never make a change unless it feels right and true to our own personal craft.  Happy writing!

Beginnings Blogfest


Happy Blogoversary to L.G. Keltner! Completing a first year in this writing community with just shy of 200 followers is an accomplishment in itself, but doing so while sending out enormous amounts of positive energy and dedicating tons of time to supporting fellow writers deserves some recognition.  I'm a fan of this blog mostly because L.G. writes awesome flash fiction in one of my favorite genres, but also because her entries never fail to inspire me to focus on the positive side of writing.  If you're not a follower, you probably should be!  In celebration, some of us are participating in the Beginnings Blogfest... which you can find more info on by clicking the photo link to the left.  As for my entry... It all began long ago in a far away place... no really, it did!

Much like another planet, I started my blogging journey on LiveJournal and by long ago, I mean December 22, 2004.  Holy cow... now that I've put that in writing I feel SUPER old.  Was that really 9 years ago?  Yikes.  I was 25 years old, newly (again) single and trying to find my way through transition. I complained about boys, friends who were boys and boys that I worked with. Basically, if I'd set my mind to it, I could have written the scripts for the new HBO series "Girls" back then.  I had an audience of maybe 5 followers, but I wrote with dedication and ferocity just about every single day. The venting was my stress relief and the party recaps were my bragging rights.  Then on March 19, 2005, I posted a goodbye to LiveJournal with the announcement that I was moving over to MySpace "in an attempt to make real friends, not just computer friends".  Spoiler alert: it worked.  My daily blog on MySpace was a hit... I received friend requests left and right... and I even got plagiarized once by an elementary school English teacher.  Through that site I made a few life long friends and racked up a couple more ex-boyfriends.  I fed off the energy of all the commentary and discussion threads that my posts ignited. Of course, my biggest fan was myself.  I would go back and re-read how clever and witty my entires were and laugh to myself in the middle of the night.  Yes, I truly was full of myself back then. Many of my favorite entries were transfered here to Blogger when MySpace died off and Facebook became supreme ruler of social networking. If you were bored and had about a week of free time on your hands, you could probably read through them all, as they were posted during the month of December 2009... but I wouldn't recommend it.  Not a single one is about creative writing or anything truly constructive. So, years later, here I am with a repurposed blog focusing on my intent to get myself published (eventually) and I have to wonder... when would my "blogoversary" be?  Surely, I can't count all the years spent pontificating my existence and making friends laugh within in a private circle. I guess I'd have to set my start date to May 24, 2012 when I shifted from a private blog meant for friends only to a public blog where I meant to join an online writing community.  That was also the point when the complete and total confidence shifted to modesty and insecurity.  No longer was I making jokes about my social life (partly because as a wife and mom, I no longer had one), but instead I was sharing my writing journey with *gasp*... strangers! Of course, I soon found out that these "strangers" were actually a group of the kindest, most supportive people I'd ever come into contact with.  Alex J. Cavanaugh's IWSG blog hop every month was instrumental in pulling me out of my shell and forcing me not to give up, even when I'd slacked off for a week or two without posting a word.  And there were several other flash fiction style blog hops that were a blast.  It's been such a positive experience and I look forward to finishing my WIPs so that I can spend more time giving back to the blogging community that has helped me so much... but back to the point: this is about beginnings.  In summary, I suppose you could say that my beginnings are really just beginning.

Thanks again to L.G. for not only hosting this blogfest, but also for providing months of inspiration and entertaining reading. Cheers to year two!

IWSG: Learning to Share



It's a new year, but luckily, traditions carry over... thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh, we insecure writers come together to share our pitfalls and inspirations on the first Wednesday of every month.  To learn more, click the photo link.

My first IWSG installment is going to be a brief one, mainly because I won't be able to hop around to everyone else's posts to offer support and draw inspiration until the weekend after I've gotten some rest... that's right, if you actually read my previous post, you'll know that I'm still recovering from some minor brain trauma and the computer screen is not my best friend right now.  That being said, I do have an insecurity to share and I'll stop back by in a few days to participate with a little more gusto. My question for those much farther along in their pursuit of becoming a published author is this: Where/how/when do you find good critique partners? I've finally completed one of my WIPs and I'm doing my first round of editing on the first draft. At what point to you take this work, this thing of your own creation, and just trustingly hand it over to someone? And where do you find that someone (or someones)... how many should there be?

Cheers, Cavanaugh Blogfest!


There are a lot of blog fests happening this holiday season, but so far, only one has stood out enough to compel me to join in.  In the spirit of giving, and more specifically giving thanks, who better to say "Cheers" to than a member of the blogosphere who has created a safe haven for aspiring writers, published writers and even dabblers to all come together and provide one another with monthly support?  I do my very best to post on the first Wednesday of every month for IWSG, and sometimes it's that deadline alone that keeps me from completely losing track of my blog when life gets hectic... and generally the encouragement I receive just from those posts alone is what keeps me writing.  And so, today is the day we all gather to collectively shower the founder of such a special networking blog hop with thanks, praise and possibly even severe embarrassment: Mr. Alex J. Cavanaugh a/k/a The Ninja Captain!  With a handful of followers (that I'm very thankful for) and only portions of writing projects completed, one might ask how I know Alex or why such a small spec in this blog circle would participate.  The answer is easy. I don't know him at all... but I'm joining in because Alex obviously cares about each and every writer he's connected to... even little ol' me. You can tell by the insane amount of commentary he leaves across hundreds of blogs throughout the month, as well as the thoughtful words he offers.  Alex is never generic, never fake, never rushed... it truly is amazing.  His words have meant a lot to me, so a public thank you is really the least I could do.

The rules of this blog fest are pretty simple... We all must complete the following:

1. In +/- 20 words, what does Alex look like? 

Like this, of course:













2. In +/- 20 words, who could play Alex in a documentary? (Living or dead.) 

Alex is so fast he cannot be caught on film, therefore, Morgan Freeman would have to play him via narration.

3. In +/- 20 words, who does Alex remind you of? 

I'd have to say my favorite high school journalism teacher who always took the time to give one-on-one advice to every student.

4. In +/- 100 words, (excluding the title) write flash fiction using all these prompts: 

Cavanaugh
Ninja
IWSG
Cosbolt
Guitar

An Insecure Future

The girl touched her finger to the square labeled "5" on the digital calendar, marking the end of the fifth day of December in the year 2096. She fell into her reading chair and reached for her guitar, intent on strumming away the day's stresses. Her elbow caught the end of the small stack of books that called her end table home, and her less than ninja-like reflexes were of no help. As she cursed lightly under her breath and stooped down to gather them up, the title of the most weathered cover caught her eye. Her father had given her his copy of CassaStar over ten years ago. Byron the Cosbolt pilot had been an icon of adventure to her growing up, but now, nearly a woman, she felt a special kinship with the lone soldier. After the loss of her father, she buried herself in the stories told by Alex J. Cavanaugh.  It wasn't until a year ago after researching the author a bit more that she discovered that he'd been the one that founded the infamous IWSG network nearly a hundred years before. Her desire to document her own struggles was fueled by the intergalactic support group that kept the written languages of thousands of different races alive. At times she felt as though fate had had put that old book in her hands instead of her father. She glanced up at the calendar again... it was Wednesday. Cursing a second time for the evening, she returned her beloved novels to the table with all thoughts of playing music forgotten... and rushed to log in to the reoccurring monthly meeting that gave her the courage to share with others.

For Bonus Points: 
In +/- 40 words, leave a comment for Mrs. Cavanaugh - thanking her for sharing.

Considering that I have such a hard time dedicating time to my own writing let alone generating support for my fellow bloggers due to a husband, kiddo, pets and job to cater to... and considering that my own spouse often competes with my writing for attention... I can only imagine that Mrs. Cavanaugh must be a saint.  Even if she's not Catholic.  Seriously.  Behind every great man, there is a great woman... and so I must thank you both for allowing this network of support and encouragement to keep on growing!


Want to read more tributes to Alex? 
Of course you do, so click here!