After trying and trying unsuccessfully to make myself expand on the fight scene at the end of the gnome book, I finally decided to print it out and start the editing/proofing process. I’m hoping by the time I’m at the end of the book, I’ll be fired up about the final fight scene. 🙂

Anya is working on the cover for the Libby Fox trilogy. I think I’m just going to call it Vampires’ Curse, as suggested by Michael Hubbard. It’s in two of the titles and it’s simple. Some people are mentioning that they think the apostrophe is in the wrong place. But it’s after the “s” on purpose. This is a curse for all vampires, not just one.

One thing that bugs me is when I go to a blog that’s all nice and pretty, and obviously a lot of work has gone into it to make it look great, but then I can’t read it. Sometimes it’s the fancy fonts that make a blog hard to read. Most of the time it’s the contrast between the background and the text. I went to the blog of a traditionally published author yesterday and the background was black. I’m not sure what the text color even was because I was out of there in seconds. Not only could I not read it, but it actually hurt my eyes! The contrast between background and text was horrible.

Here’s something that bothers me in some writing. Using big words to sound impressive. I know we need to expand our vocabulary and, as writers, we should find different words to use rather than the same old words all the time. But it really irks me when an author uses some off the wall words that most people would have no clue about. Sometimes the words don’t even sound natural in the story. They come off awkward and a little pretentious. Yes, stretch your vocabulary…but not to the point where it completely distracts the reader. Use the obscure words sparingly. A reader shouldn’t have to go to the dictionary more than once or twice. 🙂

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We are right in the middle of our busy spring season here at work. I’m so busy, sometimes I’m almost in tears because of the exhaustion and frustration. Here at the office I’m the accounting manager, internet sales manager, phone answerer, problem solver, and so much more. I have to file all kinds of reports, answer the phone when I really just want to say “why can’t you just use the internet???”, balance checkbooks, schedule deliveries….so much stuff! I’ll probably have to give up my Wednesday ROW80 check ins for the next month. I can’t visit all the blogs I want to. Grrrrrr. It hasn’t helped that I’ve been sick and missed some work hours. And a big disappointment is that I was writing my Christian romance during lunch, and now I can’t even take a whole hour. So I’ve been neglecting my Maggie story. You know why? Because I didn’t have time to sit down and write at LEAST 500 words. Today, it suddenly dawned on me. Why do I have to write 500 words? At home I’m editing my gnome story, trying to get a three novellas collection formatted for print, trying to get the Libby Fox series compiled into one ebook (Kait’s suggestion), so why can’t I just work on it there? (Hear the sarcasm here?) I can’t, so I have to do it at work. But there’s nothing that says I have to write 500 words in one sitting. In the past, I’ve written over a thousand words per day on this story. That’s just not possible right now. So why can’t I just write a little bit at lunch, even if it’s just 100-200 words? I don’t know why I got it into my head that if I didn’t write a certain amount, it wasn’t worth it. Every word is important. And writing 100 words is better than writing 0 words, right? So I’m going to start trying to sneak in a few words at lunch, even if I only have 15 minutes. It’s OKAY to write just a few words when that’s all you have time for!

I want to thank Fallon Brown for giving me the Versatile Blogger award. That’s the second time I’ve had this award, and it makes me happy. It means that people have actually been interested in what I have to say. 🙂 I feel like I’m letting Fallon down just a little because I don’t really have time right now to say things about myself or list other bloggers for the award. But it’s just not easy right now. Hopefully, in a few weeks, I can work on doing that. 🙂

Okay, I’ve used the few minutes I had left in my lunch hour to post this instead of actually writing on my story, but this was what was in my head. I thought maybe other writers might have felt this way and I wanted to tell them it’s okay. 🙂

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I was sitting here thinking about why I have trouble sticking to my guns when it comes to weight loss and good health. Suddenly there was an epiphany! I know why I have so much trouble with this. It’s called INSTANT GRATIFICATION. Let me explain. When I’m trying to eat correctly and exercising, I know that it’s going to take a while. I KNOW THIS. And yet, I look down the road and get discouraged when I think about how long it’s really going to take. And here’s the thing…I LOVE food. I know there are all kinds of reasons that people overeat. I used to work for Weight Watchers, so I know them all. Boredom, depression, sadness, loneliness, even happiness. But none of those are my problems. I just love food! And eating food is instant gratification. It’s so yummy. It makes me happy RIGHT NOW. And we are a world of instant gratification, aren’t we? We want everything at the very moment we think of it. Remember back when you ordered something and they said it would take 4-6 weeks for it to arrive? Not anymore! Companies like Amazon have gotten us accustomed to getting things quickly. And that’s not really a bad thing. But it does change the way we look at things in general. We don’t want to wait. For anything.

After realizing all of this, I’m having problems figuring out how I can use this knowledge about myself to my advantage. How can I “put off” the gratification until I can see real results? What do you all think? How do you make yourself opt for the long term instead of the short term results?

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Michelle DePaepe has just released her first young adult paranormal romance, Vampire Music. I was lucky enough to beta read this novel, and I enjoyed it from beginning to end. Here is the synopsis:

Kristal falls in love with Saxon the first day she lays eyes on him, but someone or something is torturing him, and she fears for his life. When Saxon’s uncle from Romania sends him an electric guitar for his sixteenth birthday, there’s no doubt that he has a beautiful voice to go along with his musical talent, and their relationship is going well until Valentine’s night when he disappears. Dealing with the stress of his disappearance and her parents’ divorce, her own demons begin to drive her into the dangerous arms of anorexia. Three years later, Saxon returns, but he has changed. He’s a successful musician in a band called Dragos; he also wants nothing to do with her. Kristal is heartbroken, but even though her body is weakened, her will is not. She vows to find out the mystery behind Saxon’s changed behavior. Even learning about his dark side is no deterrent to her quest to be with him. On the night of what may be his final concert, they face the greatest challenge to their love…and their continued existence. Neither one is prepared for the showdown with the queen of the Dark Ones.

Cover Art by Anya Kelleye Designs

Check out Michelle’s web site at Michelle DePaepe, and her book page at her site at Michelle’s books for the “buy” links. You can find her blog at Michelle’s blog.

Cover design by the talented Anya Kelleye.

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1. I feel marginally better. There isn’t quite as much wheezing in my chest, so maybe the antibiotic is doing its magic. Those are the biggest antibiotic pills I’ve ever seen. I still haven’t gotten the results of my chest xray, so I still don’t know if it’s bronchitis or pneumonia. I guess I’ll have to call them Monday. You can’t always count on the doctor’s office to call you. Which sucks.

2. I finished proofing the last novella in the three novella collection I’m doing for print. I haven’t felt like even doing that, but last night I picked it up and starting reading. It had been so long since I had read it that it was almost like reading something by another author. LOL. I read it in one sitting. Actually, I really enjoyed reading it. 🙂

3. Smashwords has a special catalog this week for their Read an Ebook sale. This is where authors discount their books for a week. I’m offering Dark Relic: Vampires’ Curse (Libby Fox Book One) for free for the sale. Here is the link:

Dark Relic: Vampires’ Curse and the coupon code is RE100.

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