What Inspires You? Manuscript in Motion Mondays

Thanks to all of you who linked up your blogs to last week's Manuscript in Motion Mondays! It was truly a pleasure going around and visiting with you. A quick shout out of congrats to Jenni James for her Northanger Alibi launch this past week and to Janet Kay Jensen for winning second place in a national writing contest. Just goes to show that we have INCREDIBLE writers here at MMW, and dreams are coming true left and write! (Ha ha, get it? "Write"? K, I'm done now.)

Kathleen Brebes gets the nod for her fantastic post about an article called, "How Fascinating Are You?" I loved reading this and it definitely made me think about myself and a writer and my characters. Stop by Kathleen's blog and check it out if you haven't yet!

So here's the deal: I'm giving you a freebie this week! No link-up today, but it's because I want to give you a full week to formulate your post for next week. I've decided that you need time to put your best foot forward, so I'll give you a challenge one week ahead of time and then you'll have the opportunity to mull it over and come up with something brilliant that you can come back and link up to the following week. Here are some things I'd like for you to remember:

1. When you link up, use the URL from the link to your specific Manuscript in Motion Mondays post, NOT just your general blog url. That way I (and others) can read your post about the challenge without having to search through your blog.

2. Put the Manuscript in Motion Mondays button within your blog post, NOT just on your sidebar- this is really easy to do. Just copy the code from the window below the button, go to where you're editing the post on your page, click the "Edit Html" tab and paste it right in.

3. If you'd like to draw attention to your link, instead of actually putting in your name where it says "name" on the Mr. Linky form, put in the title of your post. You can even do like I did last week and place the title of your post with the words "@ (blog name or your name)" after it.

If you've been linking up the last two weeks and haven't been doing these things, no worries! It's a learning process for all of us!

Now on to this week's challenge: What Inspires You?

Have you ever read a portion of text in a book and just had a knock-me-over-with-a-feather kind of reaction? Have you ever read anything that just made you say, "Oh, wow. I wish I could write like that"? Well, I find myself having those moments often, and rather than drop our heads, scuff our feet on the ground and sigh that we'll never be that good, I suggest we USE those little textual gems and let them teach us how to be better.

Here is one of my favorite literary passages from "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski:

"And where the rising and falling water met, something like an expectation formed, a place where he might appear and pass in long strides, silent and gestureless. For she was not without her own selfish desires: to hold things motionless, to measure herself against them and find herself present, to know that she was alive precisely because he needn't acknowledge her in casual passing; that utter constancy might prevail if she attended the world so carefully. And if not constancy, then only those changes she desired, not those that sapped her, undefined her."

There is something about those words that just make my heart stop in my chest. Every time I read them, they just move me to no end. Part of it may be because these words are actually about a dog, Almondine, whose master has just passed away. These words are so deep, so full of emotion, as the author shows us that creatures are just as sensitive and aware of the world as we are, if not more so. I love that these words are for a being who has no spoken words, as they describe emotions that are more intense and more clearly defined than any human's. And if you have ever lost anyone close to you, then you probably are all-too-familiar with Almondine's expression of grief.

So how can I use this in my own writing? Well, I don't necessarily know that this would fit into my current WIP (a YA action/romance) but I think that I often try to conform my feelings about things into words that are conventional, rather than allowing them to speak through the more vague metaphors that I feel. I would like to start exercising this part of my creative abilities, and allow myself to express complex emotions in more abstract yet tactile terms...okay, that might not make any sense, but I know what I mean. :-)

So for next week, think over your favorite books and your favorite lines or paragraphs from those books. Why do you love them? How can you use that in your writing? Prepare a post for your blog, then be ready to link it up with Manuscript in Motion Mondays next week. Don't forget my 3 things to remember that I posted above...see you next week!

How to Love The Slush Pile

Like Megan, I too went to the ANWA Writer's Conference last weekend. It is always amazing to me the sense of sisterhood that there each year. I didn't enter the BOB (beginning of book) contest, and I didn't pitch to an agent this year, but I enjoyed the classes and the chance to meet more people who are just as crazy as I am. I did get to sell "Totally Cliche" at the book signing portion. That was new and exciting territory for Megan and I. We referred many people to blog and hope they are visiting us today.
Now, thanks to the permission of Lisa Mangum, I get to share with you what I learned at one of the classes. If your wondering why we have been featuring Lisa Mangum so much, it's because she's awesome, wrapped in a burrito of bodaciousness! Now I wrote these notes on my iPad, so there may be many, many mistakes sorry about that. Be sure to visit Lisa at her website.


MAKING THE LEAP: OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE SLUSH PILE
BY LISA MANGUM
Five things you can't control:
1. publishing is a business
2. Number of manuscripts submitted in a given year
3. Number of available slots a publisher has for new writers.
4. Other submitted manuscripts that are similar to yours
5. My mood.
It's not personal:
Writing is a personal expression
Book buying is an emotional choice
Publishing is a business

You get how many submissions?
A large publishing house can receive as many as 5K a year.
Deseret Book recieved more than 2500 in 2010 and 2011
Of those 2500 submissions, about 30 were picked up for publication
The more polished you are the more you will stand out.

Playing the Slots:
We average 150 products a year:
*Books (fiction, non-fiction for children, YA and adult)
*Audio
* Music
*Reprints
*Digital Releases (singles, e-books, audio)


In 2010: 94 book products, 12 were first time authors.

Haven't I read this before:
*four YA novels about vampires in 1 month? Really? Be careful trying to fit in with a trend.
*By the time a trend is identified, it's waning.
*Don't be "the next Harry Potter" be the first of whatever comes next.
A case of Mondays
*It's true...Manuscript Acquisition Editors are human too. Lisa is nicer in the morning and likes chocolate!

Five things you can control
1. Do your homework - Make sure you know who you are submitting to. Google them and read their blogs and websites.
2. Follow posted guidelines - don't make the mistake of thinking the guidelines don't apply to you.
3. Write a killer cover letter - or query letter depending on if you are submitting to a publishing house or an agent.
4. Showcase your talent - make sure the cover letter or query letter is written in your voice.
5. Deal with a rejection letter - it comes with the territory. It doesn't mean you're a bad writer. It's you're very own red badge of courage!

*Six questions:
1. Am I in the right slush pile? --Don't send young adult fantasy to a fly-fishing magazine
2. Who's going to buy this? --Find and know your audience
3. How is your book different? --Be clear about what is
4. What are peopole buying? --Knowing what people are bying may help you
5. What is your marketing plan? --A publisher may or may not be able to put alot of money into marketing your book. Are you prepared with unique ideas to help sell your book?
6. Have I let five honest peple give me feedback

Gguidlines are there for a reason, follow them
Your submission starts with the mailing envelope this is your first impression
*Is your name and address complete and legiblbe?
*Is your envelpe too small? too big?
*Is your manuscript hidden beneath too much packing material?
*Have you included the correct size SASE?

If you submitted electronically, have you followed posted instructions (Attachments vs. body text)
Do you have a professional email address/URL?

The Most important page
*Most decisions are made on cover letter
* A cover letter is a business letter.
*Keep it simple, short

*Who you are - Contact info
*What are you selling?/ Back cover blurb

the cover letter:

The Hook:
*Hero
*goal
*Obstacles
*Consequence of failure

*Why we should buy it? --Marketing plan
*Why should we do business with you? --Short bio, awards credentials

The Waiting Game
*It's ok to check in with a publisher for a progress report -- but don't be pushy. It's easier to say no to a high-maintenance author.
*Often no news is really good news.

How to deal with rejection:
*Don't stalk them and go postal!
If they give you revising advice, then do it!
Continue to submit.

Only way to get out of the slush pile is to be in the slush pile in the first place.

Part of showcasing your talent is being serious and going to writer's groups and writer's conferences.

Thank you, Lisa for visiting our blog again! -- Nikki

Did you Remember?

So...it's March, and I'm sitting here with 5 pretty copies of The Wild Queen in print form. It's a great way to usher in a new month.

Last Friday I asked for your help with today's post. Did you remember? Are your brains sharpened and ready? I hope so, because, for me, nothing has changed. I'm still totally perplexed by the title of this particular project.

Here goes: Synopsis--15-yr-old Ruby's life was shattered when a distracted driver cut off her family's car--and ended the lives of her parents and older sister. Now she lives with her aunt, uncle and their kids, 1200 miles from home. Torn between depression at her loss and guilt for being the lone survivor, Ruby struggles with every day moments, including the perpetual bubbliness of her cousin, Merrilee. Add to that Ruby's new-found fear of driving and irrational hatred of cowboy boots, and you'll find yourself wondering--like Ruby--if life will ever be balanced again.

Okay, so the synopsis still needs work. I didn't have the time this week to fine tune it like I'd planned. But you get the point. Ruby is struggling in a strange town with family she hardly knows, fighting her own memories and her innate resistance to talk about the things that truly bother her. Her aunt, Lisa, well-meaning but poorly equipped, tries to help her by getting her into an art class. There she meets a boy who helps her see that life isn't as bad as she thinks.

Though I caution you, this is not a troubled-girl-finds-boyfriend-and-all-is-well kind of story. They do become friends, and they may eventually pursue a relationship, but it's his take on life that helps her, not "finding a man."

Now, about that title. At first, I wanted to follow one of the current trends of one-word titles, and was going for something that had to do with the point in her life where everything changed. I was thinking Intersection, but the accident doesn't happen at an intersection. So, Intersect--the point where two lines meet. My husband suggested simply Ruby, but I'm still on the fence about that one. I also thought about the phrase "Into everyone's life a little rain must fall" and took Rain Must Fall from that, but this is a YA story and I don't know how many YA readers even know that phrase. I also considered the geography changes. She goes from Orem, UT to Duncan, OK. Never heard of it? Good. I live less than 30 miles south of it. And we did live IN Duncan several years ago. My 3 sons were born at Duncan Regional Hospital. I've scouted out the area of town her aunt and uncle live in, and picked a style of house. Duncan, OK is so geographically different from UT that it's a perfect for the story. It's also part of Tornado Alley, and is an area of the US known for brilliant rainstorms and high winds (without the mountains as buffers).

I'm ready. Give me your title suggestions, please!

Farkle!

....if ever a word could catch your attention (it sounds like something my four-year-old son would say, before laughing hysterically for three to five minutes).

I'd like to begin by expressing my excitement and appreciation for the opportunity to participate on this blog. Once the euphoria of being offered the Thursday spot began to wear off, it was quickly replaced by the humbling awareness of the responsibility that comes with this opportunity.

I've been following this blog since the beginning of January (I know - I'm just a baby!), and every time I read through a post, I have the same epiphany. Each time, what was said, was the very thing I needed to hear, at that moment.

And now it's my turn to wear the shoes. All week I've been pondering and praying and hoping that I can do the same. That I can offer you something, if just one small thing, that you need to hear, that will make a positive difference in your writing, or in your life.

Or at least, will make you laugh.

So here goes....

A few years ago my mom introduced us to a new dice game she had learned, that for whatever reason, was called Farkle (which name also made her laugh hysterically like my four-year-old son for three to five minutes).

If you've never played before, I recommend it - think Yahtzee meets Bunco. I don't want to go into too much detail here, because the point of this post is not to teach you how to play Farkle. Instead, I want to relate it to a principle of writing.

Basically, in the game of Farkle, you roll 5 or 6 dice (depending on the variation). Points are scored based on runs, three, four or five-of-a-kind, and for anytime a die rolls 1 (worth 100 points) or 5 (worth 50 points). Each player takes a turn rolling until they either a) lose all their points for that round by not rolling any pointers, or b) choose to keep the points they've earned thus far, and pass the dice to the next player. 1000 points gets you on the board. First player to pass 10,000 points, wins the game.

What's always fascinated me about this game (besides the name, of course) is the variation in strategies that players use to win.

Strategy #1: Go big, or go home. This strategy is simple. Following no more than what must be gut instinct, a player rolls until the odds are just too stacked against them, or until they bust. Essentially, a player gambles with their points. The catch: You never know how high you will go until you try. I've seen rolls of 3-5000 points. However, usually, a player risks too much and goes bust. Most people play this way. They sit at zero points and then bam!, they're at 2000. They stay there for a while and then bam! they're at 3500, etc.

Strategy #2: Take whatever you get. If I roll three 1's, a 4 and a 5, that's 350 points. I pass the dice and watch my total (slowly) accumulate. The catch: no (big) risk = no (big) reward. Players seldom adopt this strategy, because of the compelling question from strategy #1. "What if my next roll is the perfect roll?" That's not to say these players never get big rolls. It's just they usually don't stick out a turn long enough to see how big it could get.

So which strategy do I adopt? Well, I hate to admit it, but usually the first one. Strategy #2 just isn't that thrilling. It's the slow and steady wins the race concept. I love the thrill of rolling the dice, and the pride of saying "I guess I can settle for 2700 points this round".

The irony? Employing this exciting strategy seldom works for me. I almost always lose this game, to guess who?

Strategy #2 players. Who almost always win.

Slow and Steady wins the race.

So on to the writing metaphor.

As in Farkle, writing habits (and I mean the actual active of sitting down, pen to paper, fingers to keyboard) can be approached from two different methods.

Method #1: Wait for that big chunk of time, when nothing is in your way, to sit down and write like a mad man, producing words counts of 3-5000 words in a shot.

Method #2: Write when you can, when you can. Every word counts. Every fifteen minutes, every 200 words, brings you closer to the end of that story.

Which method do I employ? I'm sure it's not hard to imagine. For most of my life, as much as I love to write, I've believed I need the instant gratification of a soaring word count. Then I can pat myself on the back, and tell myself what a fantastic job of writing I've done that day. The catch? As a wife of a student, working mother of three, friend, daughter, sister, devoted reader, etc., when does one find big chunks of time? Last year, employing this strategy, I managed to write a grand total of approx. 83, 000 words (and 50,000 of those were during NaNoWriMo).

So with a new year, and a chance at new resolutions, I decided to change that. Instead of focusing on my word count, I focused on my method. Write when I can. Some days, I'm surprised at the time I can find when I'm actually looking for it. And some days all I get is fifteen minutes scraped together from I-just-don't-know-where!

But guess what? In January and February, I've already written a grand total of approx. 42,000 words. More than half of my 2011 total. In the first two months alone. Without the need to pull aside large (unavailable) chunks of time. Eeep!

Now, I'm not implying that these are the only two methods with which to approach our writing, or that mine is the method that is best for you.

What I'm encouraging you to do is to examine your method. Think about the way you approach your writing, and ask yourself the question:

Is it working for me?

Re-examining my habits and methodology has lead me to a goldmine of new writing opportunities: This and other blogging opportunities, an almost finished WIP, and the knowledge that I can make little moments for myself at the end of the day to do one of the things I love best: write.

Slow and steady to the end of my story.

What was always such a faraway dream just came in reaching distance, but I don't have to fly to get there.

What about you? What's your methodology?

BOB and Me

The BOB (Beginning of Book) Awards at the ANWA Conference last week had an original submission deadline of December 31st. There were several different genres to enter the first 500 words of your story (Or possibly the whole thing in the children's book category), but I was so swamped, including one child with a tooth abscess and another with a double ear infection over Christmas day, and then leaving a day late for our family vacation, the deadline came and went and I went, "Oh. Maybe next year."

Then the deadline got extended (maybe everyone was as swamped as I was). And when I didn't get Fairy Godfather finished in time to pitch it, I decided to take the $20 dollars I'd paid to pitch and split it between two entries for the contest. I knew I had the beginnings done, at any rate. I felt confident about "Fairy Godfather", entered in the middle grade/YA category, and not so confident about "The King Killer" in speculative/sci-fi/fantasy, but they were the best ones I had at the time, so I sent them in. And forgot about it. I wasn't going to win. Not a contest where I was competing against others.

The ANWA conference was the highlight of my year so far. So many great classes, hobnobbing with other writers, sitting with Nikki at the Mormon Mommy Writers table selling our "Totally Cliche'" books: I loved every second of it. It went way too fast.

Saturday lunch came and I honestly had forgotten about the contest until I noticed the announcing of it in the schedule. I started to get a little excited (Maybe I'd win!), but I also knew the caliber of the writers I'd be up against. Many of them published already. So when they started the announcing, I kept my anticipation down. I felt genuine gladness for the other women as they went up to accept their awards. I'd even forgotten what categories I'd entered, exactly, since they covered more than one genre.

They announced speculative fiction 2nd or 3rd, and my good friend Jennifer Griffith won 2nd place. (Yay! Go Jen!) I didn't place at all with "King Killer", but I couldn't remember what category it was in, so I had to look at the critique sheets I got back to remember which one I'd chosen and lost in. ;)
They went through all the rest of the categories, and YA/middle grade was last. I HAD remembered that "Fairy Godfather" was in this category. The tension built as they announced 3rd place. "DeAnn Huff, for 'Master of Emotion'!" And we clapped and cheered as she received her award and posed for a picture.
Now 2nd place. "Tanya Parker Mills for 'The School of Guardians'!" And we clapped and cheered as she walked up and took her award and smiled for the camera.
It was now or never. Had the judges hated my book? I wouldn't be surprised. I knew I should have looked it over again. Tweaked something. Maybe chucked it all together. If I go screaming from the room, will anybody notice?
"First place goes to Megan Oliphant for 'Fairy Godfather'!"
I WON!!! I squealed like a six year old on Christmas seeing her Cabbage Patch doll under the tree as I rushed up to take my turn to smile at the camera.
Through out the remainder of the conference, I would randomly lean over to the person next to me and say, "I won!" I had to keep saying it out loud because I didn't believe it.  But here it is. I even have a picture of it to prove it.

This is the first time since maybe the sixth grade that I won anything on merit. Sure, I'd done a lot of other things since then, but I got tired of doing everything I could (or not doing everything I could and knowing I hadn't) and then place 2nd. Or not at all.

So yeah. I don't entirely suck. Maybe I do have something of worth to offer. I'm feeling very Sally Field-ish right now. (I wasn't quite this effusive, however.)


Well, now that my motivation has reached an all time high, I think I'll go write some more. :)

Talent Incognito

Admitting to others that I write has been a challenge for me.  When I first  got invited to write for Mormon Mommy Writers I remember telling Jenni and Nikki that I was just a baby in the writing field.  Blending into the background would be so much easier.

Yet I know that I have been blessed with a talent that I must not hide from the world.  Do not get me wrong.  I am not claiming to be brilliant and masterful.  I think that is what has been the hardest part of acceptance for me.  I do write, I can write, but I'm not brilliant.  There are SO many other authors who can writer circles around me. 

When I came across the article "If Your Talents come Incognito" by Anya Bateman I was very touched and enlightened.

I especially loved this paragraph:

Recognize that there are different levels of development. Too often we decide we don’t have a particular talent because that talent is not complete or perfect. We forget that a gift in its beginning stages is still a gift. I remember feeling disgusted at my early writing efforts after reading a well-crafted article. But a few years later, after I had developed my talent further, magazines began publishing my articles.

Much is said about success coming through determination, but I feel that patience with ourselves is just as important to our development. It is essential to realize that things take time and that few of us can perfect talents overnight. With Heavenly Father’s help, we can learn to rejoice in every step we make—even if it seems minuscule. As we continue to nurture ourselves and seek his help, we will be astounded at the progress we make over the long run.

 So if you too have struggled with your talents, please stop trying to blend into the background.  Get out there and develop your gifts, and put in the work it takes to excel.  

"Too often we decide we don’t have a particular talent because that talent is not complete or perfect. We forget that a gift in its beginning stages is still a gift."

Manuscript in Motion Mondays: Round 2!

Welcome back to our second Manuscript in Motion Monday!

First, a big shout-out to Rebecca Carlson, our solo link-up from last week. She linked up to her fabulous post Pre-Flight Safety Checklist in which she reminded us of some important last-minute checks we need to do before submitting our manuscript. Definitely a must-read for any author- I know I learned a great deal. Thanks so much for sharing that, Rebecca!

Clearly, we had a pretty sparse turnout last week- this blog party thing I threw at you (along with a Rapunzel-hair-length post) might have been confusing, so this week I'd like to familiarize you with the world of blog parties to see if I can entice you to give it a try.

What is a blog party?

A blog party is an event usually held on a regular basis, like weekly, where many different bloggers link up their blog to a central location. In our case, Mormon Mommy Writers Manuscript in Motion Mondays.

Why participate in a blog party?

1. Exposure- When you link up with us, not only will your blog readers see your post, but all 361 of our followers will also have the chance to see your post. You will also have the opportunity to be featured on our blog (like Rebecca!) for your contribution.

2. Motivation- If you know that every Monday there will be a chance for the world to see what you’ve been working on during the week, you will be more motivated to produce something worth sharing. That not only makes you a better writer and blogger, it helps motivate the rest of us to up our games as well!

3. It’s FUN! It’s a party! It’s just plain fun to be a part of something bigger than yourself. The more participation we have, the bigger it will grow and the more fun it will be.

To give you an example of how blog parties can benefit you and your blog, check out this post on my other blog. You'll see at the bottom of this post that I put a link (I Have Paper Issues button) to the Paper Issues blog party. Well, the following month they picked their favorite post from their last blog party and featured me in this post on Paper Issues. I was awarded with a button (My Issue Was Featured at Paper Issues!) which I now proudly display on the left side of my blog. Because I participated in that party, I had not only my little following reading my post, but the nearly 1000 followers from Paper Issues checking me out.

As a blogger, I look forward to visiting blogs that host blog parties so that I can click through the links and get inspiration. I also appreciate the motivation it gives me to get my link up the following week.

So, to get everyone comfortable with this whole blog party thing this week, I'm not giving you a prompt or a challenge- just post a link to your blog and invite us over for a peek. If you can, copy and paste the code for our Manuscript in Motion Mondays button into your post (just enter it on the Edit Html tab) so your readers know you're participating with us.

<center><a href="http://www.mormonmommywriters.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Mormon Mommy Writers" src="http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o565/KaseyQT/MIMMButtonsmall.jpg"/></a></center>

With that, I need your input! Leave a comment with your opinion on the following questions about Manuscript in Motion Mondays:

1. Would you prefer that I give you a challenge/prompt to help direct your post or should we leave it open-ended? My hope was that a challenge would help motivate you through writer's block, but since we're all in different places with our work, perhaps a free-write is the best option?

2. If I do issue a challenge, would you like to have it a week in advance to give you time to prepare a post? Some parties do that, and I wouldn't mind at all.

Thanks in advance for participating! Can't wait to stop by and visit this week!

What? It's Friday, Again?

I have to confess I sort of have a head in my hands, it's my turn to post already, sort of morning going on. But that's okay. It's what I signed up for. Life is definitely not boring.

First, some news to get out of the way. The Wild Queen, print version, is officially LIVE on Createspace! I now have two, tangible, full length novels out in the world. And I'm kind of surprised that I'm not freaking out. It's probably because TWQ has already been published as an ebook, and has been out since last May. I think I'll be singing a different tune in the next few months when The Tyrant King goes live in print and as an ebook.

Now on to other news.

Last Friday, for my anniversary, hubby and I went to dinner. But--because I'm an author--it wasn't just any romantic dinner date. We went to a restaurant specifically so I could do research for a book I'm writing. Forget flowers and jewelry. The best gift a girl can get after 16 yrs of marriage is a man so supportive of her dreams he'll do anything in his power to make it happen. Ya, he's a keeper.

And, because I'm a mommy, I also got to go see my daughter in her first play that night. Pretty dang awesome. I know she's just got a chorus part, and is only on stage when the whole cast is, but they put her in a bright yellow dress so she stands out--and I watched her over the main players the whole time. She. Did. Amazing. And to see her glowing face after that final curtain was priceless. Despite the work involved, she may definitely have the acting/performing bug.

Considering neither my husband nor I could remember the last time he's been off work on our actual anniversary, I'm going to say last Friday was the BEST anniversary EVER. Dinner (author style) and a play (starring--not really but you know what I mean--my daughter). Priceless.

Stay tuned for next Friday's post. I have a super-secret-writing-project I'm working on almost nonstop but I'm totally stumped on a title and I need HELP. Next week I will post my plea for help along with a synopsis to help your brains turn in the right direction.

Introducing Mandi! Our New Thursday Blogger!

Staring next Thursday, Mandi will join our blog!  I just wanted to give you a quick introduction to her.  Be sure to give her a nice warm MMW welcome!

My name is Mandi.

I have always been a writer.  There is no hobby I enjoy more than writing about characters and places and events with such detail that they become as real on paper to others as they already seem in your mind.  Likewise, there seems to be no greater thrill than reading the works of others, who characters you come to know so well you might chance to call them friends.  And that is why I have always been both a reader, and a writer.

I have always wanted to be an author.  I have two short stories published in a anthologies, and won several writing and essay competitions in my youth, but never felt that my education was sufficient enough to allow me the daring to make the leap from writer, to author.

Instead, I've invested several years into my self-education:  I've attended three LDStorymakers Conferences, taken writing courses and workshops, been an active member of two different writing groups over the past three years, and spent as much time as I could reading and writing.

This past fall, something changed.  If felt a deeper desire to take my writing to the next level.  Despite several hurdles which made it seem easy to pass up the challenge, I committed to enter NaNoWriMo 2011, with a burning desire to finish.  And I did.  At 8:45-ish pm on November 30, 2011, I crossed the finish line.

Here is a little about me: (From the introduction on my personal blog)

MAYBE I'M CRAZY...

In an ideal world, I would live in a cute little two story house with a large garden, greenhouse and a menagerie of pets (including a chameleon, tropical fish and plethora of assorted cats and dogs - oh, and don't forget the guinea pigs! Why? I have no idea). I would read and write and play with my kids all day, preferably in my pajamas.
In the real world, I live in a squishy main floor rental with my handsome husband, three angelic children, and a spunky very social little beta fish named Donkey Kong.
My husband is a student, I run a small dayhome, and we enjoy regular trips to the library where we max out the limit on our card every time.
I have an insatiable appetite for books, I have a difficult time doing the dishes without daydreaming about my latest writing project, and I wistfully sigh at the sight of my cement enclosed back yard, dreaming up schemes of how to make plants grow from concrete.
It may not be the dream life I mentioned earlier, but you know what? I'm still happy.
Mabye I'm crazy, or maybe I'm just Mandi.

Time to Pay the Piper

A long time ago I heard some advice you may be familiar with. It basically says that whatever you really want, you need to send it out into the universe somehow, usually by writing it down, making it a concrete thing in both your mind and to the universe in general. We know that what we are really doing is sharing with our Heavenly Father what it is we really want.
What we also have to know is that those things don't come easily, or immediately. Sometimes they sneak in the back door and we don't realize that we have them until years later. Just recently, as we've slowly been going through boxes of stuff that have been boxed for years, my husband and I came across a list we'd made about 10 years ago, give or take. On this list were things that we needed or wanted. Things like a new washer and dryer. A home of our own. A new TV. Tangible things that we needed or wanted.
It surprised me to find that during those years, all of those "goals" had been achieved. None of them at the time I would have chosen, and none of them without sacrifice. But we had all those things. Even the new TV. :)
So I've learned the power of the positive, forward moving statement in writing in life. And so when I wrote THIS post, I knew that it would be a good thing for me to do, to yell out to the universe what my intentions were. And they were to get Fairy Godfather written so I could pitch it during the conference.

What I have to remember, however, is that these gifts from the heavens don't come free. There is a price for everyone of them. Especially when it's a personal goal, the Lord seems to say, "I can see that right now you really want this. It's important to you at this moment. But you need to be 100% sure it's what you really want, so I'm going to give you several trials. I'll help you know for sure that it's what you want before I give it to you."

So as soon as I said I wanted to have this book finished, all kinds of things happened. It's been challenging, trying to regain my equilibrium, but now that conference is around the corner, I have to share that I did not finish. But I have to be okay with that, and know that even though it was my timetable, it wasn't the Lord's timetable. It doesn't mean that I won't be finished eventually, but at a pace more conducive to reality.

So I withdrew from the pitch, but entered the Beginning Of Book contest (BOB) instead. I at least had a beginning I could share. :)