2014 - The Year of Healthy Living

Okay, I've recovered from NaNoWriMo, enjoyed the Christmas holidays and hit into the New Year running. There's something about the beginning of a new year that gets me going. I love fresh starts and leaving the past behind.

Each year I spend the week between Christmas and New Years to spend extra time with the Lord, reviewing the previous year and seeking Him for direction for the New Year. This year, I didn't have to spend as much time discerning what He wanted me to focus on for 2014. That's because He started speaking to my heart back in mid-November about my health. I'm a diabetic and have a few other healthy issues that could be managed (or obliterated entirely) by eating right, exercising and getting adequate rest.

I started watching documentaries like...

Hungry For Change

Forks Over Knives

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

Food Matters

...on Netflix. The result was losing weight during the holidays instead gaining, and better still, my sugar levels dropped by 60-70 points!  It's amazing embarrassing how many times I prayed for God to help me with my weight and sugar levels, when all the time, He was waiting for me to cooperate with Him in making that happen.  Once I began to educate myself and apply what I was learning, God made it easy for me to make wise choices with my health.

So, for me, 2014 is The Year of Healthy Living - not just physically, but spiritually, emotionally, mentally, financially and relationally. My goal is to add things to my life that will make me healthy in all these areas and eliminate anything that hinders healthy living.

As for writing, I'm getting back to the joy of writing. I've been so focused on writing for publication that I've lost the pleasure that comes with weaving a story, writing a devotional or poem.  So in the coming year, I'll be posting more fun writing, both here on She Fancied Herself a Writer and on my blogs...

Refreshed by the Word   and  A Song For Him

2014 is going to be fun!


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NaNoWriMo No Mo

I first heard of NaNoWriMo way back in 2009. My daughter, Carol and I had been writing together via Skype and she encouraged me to give it a try. Up until then I had written mostly non-fiction, but we had been writing 5 minute flash fiction from writing prompts and it was fun, so I thought, why not give it a try.

I had no plot going into NaNo, but wrote furiously. Throwing my characters into one situation after another, loving the twists and turns that the story was taking. I squeaked across the finish line on November 30th with just a little over 50,000 words. I had done it! I'd written a rough draft of my first novel. I was a novelist!

I let it sit for about a month and then went back to start revisions. I started reading through the manuscript and cringed about every five minutes. The writing was bad...really bad. The characters were fun, but acted inconsistently. The plot...what there was of it...was badly in need of a plot doctor.

In short, I was so overwhelmed by what it would take to fix the novel, that I put it back in a drawer and gave up.  Then I started reading book after book about writing fiction. By the next time NaNo rolled around I thought I was ready to write a real novel.

In 2010, I got to about the 10,000 word mark and fizzled out. Same with 2011 and 2012. This year thought I was ready. 2013 would be the year that I finished a NaNoWriMo novel. It didn't happen.  This year I got to 11,587 words and fizzled. I didn't know where to go next with my story. I got uptight. I liked the story so far, but I didn't want to just push through for the sake of a winning word count only to have to go back and fix the whole thing. I gave up. Not on the book, but on NaNoWriMo.

I was feeling like an utter failure until I read a post on Chip MacGregor's blog by Amanda Luedeke titled "Why I Hate NaNoWriMo" and suddenly a huge weight was lifted from my writerly shoulders.

excerpt from Amanda's post...

This is why I hate NaNoWriMo. It sets writers up to fail.

As if writers need yet another reason to question their craft. To doubt whether they’re cut out for this author gig. As if they need another reminder that they can’t do it. They’re failures. They should quit while they’re ahead.

NaNo does this to tens of thousands if not HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of writers each and every year. There are over 300,000 signed up for the program this year. Let’s say a two-thirds achieve the 50k in one month goal. That’s 100,000 WRITERS WHO HAVE FAILED.

I hate this. I hate this, I hate this, I hate this.

(read the entire article HERE)

Thank you, Amanda, for setting helping me see that failure to finish NaNoWriMo is not failure as a writer!

I'll finish my book, but I'll take my time and do it at a pace that won't make me crazy. I'll spend more time on character development and plotting and when I'm finished, I'll have a revisable book, not a heap of hopelessly confused words.

How about you? Did you start NaNoWriMo, but not finish? Did it make you feel like a failure? Are you going to finish your novel or did you give up? 

PS - for those of you who did NaNo and will finish - CONGRATULATIONS! I know it works for so many people and I'm glad. I'm just not one of them and that's OK.


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Book Review - A Marriage in Middlebury by Anita Higman

 Just finished reading Anita Higman's newest release, A Marriage in Middlebury.

Imagine being deeply in love yet having to refuse the proposal of the man you love because accepting would mean shame and embarrassment for both of your families. To make matters worse, you can't tell him why you can't marry him.

Ten years later, that man walks back into your life with a fiancee in tow. Your feelings haven't changed, and from the look in his eyes, he's still carrying a torch of his own.

Author, Anita Higman

I thoroughly enjoyed this story about Sam & Charlotte's second chance at love. Were it not for Sam's conniving father's unimaginable cruelty, this couple would have been married years ago. On the other hand, were it not for a slightly quirky, well-meaning friend, who took matters into her own hands, Sam & Charlotte may have missed their second chance at love.

Aside from a good story, I fell in love with the little town of Middlebury. I'd love to visit Charlotte's garden behind the Tea House. Would also love to tour the Wilder home and grounds. The author brought the setting to life, drawing me right into the story.  Hoping there are Middlebury stories to come.

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Off to a great start on my NaNoWriMo novel

Stayed up last night so I could start working on my novel at 12:01am and got in 1200 words. The best part, however was chatting with Shelby, my new NaNo friend from Texas until it was time for me to start writing. She's a real sweetheart. We wrote and cheered one another on until my eyes couldn't stay open anymore.

Then I hit it hard again this morning with a write-in at Crossroads Books and Coffee (my favorite writing spot) with my pal, Leola. Enjoyed some Salted Caramel Oatmeal and a Dark-Chocolate Caribou Latte while I wrote. YUM!

Current word count is 2706 words, so I'm a little ahead of the game right now. I'm really enjoying the story so far. In fact, the last chapter I wrote included a wonderful breakfast of huevos rancheros made by Maria, the ranch cook. Made myself so hungry, I had to come home and eat some lunch. Wish it had been what Maria made!

Found a blog with a yummy looking recipe for huevos rancheros over at ClosetCooking.com. Check it out.

Hope your NaNo novel is going well, too.

Happy Writing!


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It's a Double Whammy!

 I'm a writing Superhero!

Just learned that MBT (My Book Thereapy) is running a "write-novel-in-30-days" campaign simultaneously with NaNoWriMo. I signed up!

Now I have twice the support, twice the fun, twice the writing community and that gives me double incentive to finish my novel in the month of November.




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It's NaNoWriMo Time!

Here we go again, friends! November is creeping up on us like a vampire on a moonlit night and we're about to spill blood on to the page as we frantically pound the keyboard with the 50,000 word goal pushing us hard.

For those of you who don't know what NaNoWriMo is, let me explain...it's CRAZY, that's what it is! NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Each November, people around the globe gather at the NaNoWriMo website and sign up for the wildest, wackiest month of frenzied writing ever. You have 30 days to write a 50,000 word novel.

You're not competing against anyone but yourself and the calendar. 50,000 words sound overwhelming? It's not so difficult. If you type 1667 words a day for 30 days, you'll reach your goal and you'll be the proud owner of novel. Well, a rough (sometimes very rough) first draft of a novel. The months following NaNoWriMo are for editing, revising and polishing that novel until it's ready to send off to an agent or publisher.

So, that's what I'm doing this November...what are you doing? Ever thought of writing a novel? Pop over to the NaNoWriMo website and sign up  (it's free) and we'll do it together!

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Driven by Raging Cravings

He grabbed the sticky black receiver and dropped a quarter in the slot. Sweat poured off him as he punched in the number.

“Hello?”

That was not the voice he was expecting.

“Hello?”

He tried to disguise his voice.

“Uh, yeah…is Daphne there?”

“Who wants to know?”

“I’m just a friend. Is she there?”

“Is that you, Jack?”

Jack slammed down the receiver and swore under his breath. He felt like he was going to crawl out of his skin. He needed to score a hit and fast. Daphne was the only person who might still trust him enough to loan him some money.

He decided to chance it and ran the 8 blocks to her house. If she was there he might be able to get her out of the house somehow without her old man seeing him.

He was in luck. He could see her through the window of her bedroom. He picked up a few pebbles and tossed them at it.

Daphne slid the window up.

“Jack, what are you doing here? You know my father will kill you if he sees you.”

“Baby, I’m in bad shape,” he said, “I need some money.”

She shook her head, “No, Jack. I’m not going to help you feed your addiction.”

He jammed his shaking hands in to his pockets, trying to think of something to say to make her change her mind. His head was pounding.


 “Daphne, after all we’ve been through, I can’t believe you won’t help me out.”

“Jack, it was your fault I got addicted in the first place. It started with the first kiss you gave me. It was so sweet. I thought you loved me and I just wanted more and more. That just led to the bars and finally, I didn’t care. I took it any way I could get it. I starting doing the liquid stuff…drinking it straight. You were there when my parents finally found me huddled outside the convenience store with the stuff smeared all over my face and hands. It took months for them to clean me up. Go away, Jack – I’m not helping you.”

Jack was desperate. “Daphne, I know you must still have some stashed somewhere. Please…just help me this once and I won’t bother you again. I promise.”

Daphne understood his pain. She knew what it felt like to crave the stuff so badly that your mouth went dry and your mind conjured up the very smell of it. When you were that bad off, it didn’t matter if it was the brown stuff or the white stuff - you had to have it.

Reluctantly she crossed the room to her dresser drawer and grabbed the last of her stash. She didn’t know why she had hung on to it, but now she was ready to let the stuff go for good.

She dropped it out the window. “Jack, this is the last of it – now get out of here before my Dad hears you.”

Jack scrambled to pick up the package from the grass, waved and hurried to the shadow of a nearby tree.

He peeled back the foil covered and popped it into his mouth. He felt the thick rich lump begin to melt in his mouth. He swallowed and felt it begin to course through his veins.

Ah, chocolate!
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