What Music Gets You?

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Listening to: Journey, Separate Ways

I'm a cliche, there's no other word for it. The music that really gets me is soft, romantic country music. Don't get me wrong, I love rock and roll. I love a rockin' country song, classic rock and even oldies...

But when I'm trying to get in the mood to write or think happy thoughts, I go with my country favorites. :D

What about you? What music gets you?

The End

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I love talking about finishing up another story. Getting another manuscript under my belt. Whippee! I wrote THE END last night. My first novella--about 25K words--and it took me longer than my last full length. Yuck! But, yay I'm done!

And it's good. Hopefully I'm not the only one who thinks so. haha! :D

Well, onto other matters. There has been some blogging talk around the blogosphere. What works, what doesn't. I've been maintaining four blogs lately, and perhaps falling a bit behind.

So, my biggest question right now...

What do you think of my blog design? Do you think it's too dark? There is speculation that dark backgrounds are not very easy on the eyes. I've never had trouble with looking at my blog... but maybe I'm the only one!!

And if I changed my design... would you feel like you've lost a good friend? :D

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PS I've changed it since the original post. No longer that deep, country blue, I did look for a replacement with blue in it... cuz I do like blue. Now, what do you think?

Boy Scouts, Y2K and your Current Manuscript

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Do you remember Y2K? I'm a good Catholic girl who, at the time, lived near an ultra conservative, traditional Catholic University. Boy, could I tell you stories! As it was, my hubby and I didn't liquidate all our assets, we didn't build an underground bunker to stock full of the essentials of survival for a family of 3--like diapers and toilet paper. We didn't even buy an extra gallon of milk that week.

But we'd heard enough. People were worried and preparing for the breakdown of western culture as we knew it then. On the religious side of this coin, it was like preparing for the Coming. And I remember thinking, we won't know! As soon as you know when the end will be here, just cross that day off your list. *wink*

So, let me back up a step. The Scout Motto is: BE PREPARED which means you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY. [taken from wikipedia] I don't think this means to be preparing at all times. I think it means always ready. Though we may need times to rejuvenate, I think we need to be consistent--in our actions, in our deeds.

One last topic jump to the big finale! :D

In writing, I like to be prepared. I do hear stories of people who might query on an unfinished manuscript. I don't recommend it, even if it's true that the likelihood of a response on a partial submission before you finish isn't that great. DON'T DO IT!! Finish your story! Take the time you need to make it the best, then put it out there. Be prepared to send the entire thing to that dream agent or publisher. Because really, you do not know the hour or the day [that agent is going to read your manuscript and think, OMG. I must have it].

I like to think about the Second Coming in regard to my manuscripts... because everytime I write what I think is THE ONE, it's not. It can be better. It doesn't get the requests I thought it would. I find myself wondering how I will make the NEXT manuscript THE ONE! hahahaha.

Happy Writing this Week!
Happy Easter!
With Love,
Bethanne

Contests

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What are they good for? [I'm actually hearing a song in my head right now. Any guesses as to which one? :D]

Well, I've judged a few contests lately, and I'm BEAT!!! They can take a lot out of you.

But they are worth it. The opportunity to win a contest and add that to a resume is a bonus--no doubt.

The feedback--hopefully--is helpful. It's not always going to be, but most of the time... yes. It can be helpful. How? First, it guides. Is your story headed in the right direction. ARe you keeping the reader's attention. Second, it edits. Do you have more than the story to worry about? Should a writing class be on your agenda or will you do?

Judging keeps me on my toes...and it also helps me keep in mind that I'm just one opinion. That happens often because the entries I judge to be top-notch have never seen the finalist lists. NEVER. And I think just once, an entry I judged as needing LOTS of work, ended up finaling. What can you do? It's pretty subjective.

But that's the way the industry works. There is no such thing as an objective opinion.
Take it easy over the holiday!!
Happy Easter!
With Love from Christ,
Bethanne

Manic Monday

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Today is my second official Cleaning Monday.
Yes, I'm one of those people who never had a cleaning day...
I just sorta took opportunities as they arose to straighten and clean.

Two weeks later, I'm pretty pleased with how good it feels to have a cleaning a day. My week starts off on a good note, and my hubby is happy, too. In the last week, I didn't have any feelings of guilt or paranoia... the urge to watch my DH for signs that he was noticing something unclean. Seriously, I would do that. Watch him for signs that he was unhappy. Does that mean I don't care about clean?

No, but it just doesn't bother me as much.

Of course, the feelings of paranoia lead down the slippery slope of self-defense...
And that's always fun. Being right and wrong at the same time can be a tricky position. *wink*

All that said, I didn't sign up for all this cleaning. :P haha.
Have a great week.
With Love,
Bethanne

Bottom Lines

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Chastity and Charity

After a bible study that featured these two elements, I couldn't help but think of how sexuality and love are such key elements in writing.

Especially in romance, readers are looking for heroes and heroines who are pure of heart. So, what does pure of heart mean? For me, this means, selflessness: doing for others first. Doing for my spouse and for my family and for friends, too. [and just so you know. I fail horribly! ALOT!]

Fitting traits of a lofty nature into your characters is part of the craft.

Let's face it, we're human and so are our characters--for the sake of this discussion, they're human. :D Can't forget those shifters, though! People are not perfect, they're possibly selfish at times, and on occasion, they're downright mean. The key is finding the glimmer of goodness within your character, your hero. Maybe he's harsh and stubborn, yet everytime that kid from down the street stops by, he can't help but give him undivided attention. By the end of the book, the goal is for the heroine to recognize the goodness because it doesn't really matter if he's still stubborn and occasionally rude. She sees the whole picture and loves him anyway.

And that's what we all hope for, someone who looks at us and sees the good in us. Love, the bottom line, the element in humanity that offers hope, and the emotion that pulls us to one person in particular.

Maybe LOVE isn't exactly or always about romance, but romance is definitely about LOVE.
Have a great weekend.
Bethanne

Finishing up my Revision

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There's been some discussion about the process of revising a story. Storyline edits, copyedits. Where do you start?

Mine sorta flow altogether at once.

I have a wonderful critique group. Passionate Critters put revision recommendations together for me, and I systematically go through them and apply which ones I think will best enhance my story. Sometimes that means changing a line or a word. Other times, that will mean scrapping or adding an entire section.

My current manuscript is the first in which I didn't finish the ms before I started subbing it for critique. I'm glad I didn't, though. I love that my last two chapters are waiting there for me. Just this week, I finished revising the last chapters I have written. Now, with so many revisions applied, my vision of the story is so CLEAR!

In other news....

It's SPRING!!! Hallelujah!
Enjoy the warming weather, my friends.
With Love,
Bethanne

Cooking without Looking

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One of my son's favorite things to do is help me cook. When I have that mixer going, he gets to the kitchen as fast as he can. He wants to put his fingers in the cool flour and to hold the shaking mixer. He's only four, so I imagine it will be some time before he starts cooking on his own, but what better place to start learning than right here? right now? Concepts are a huge part of learning. What does it mean to add? to measure? What is consistency?

Learning doesn't have to be about memorizing facts, reading books and spitting out info. I could tell him that the batter should be smooth and thick, but until I give him some cookie dough to play with, he wouldn't really get it.

Having someone blind in my life has changed things. Thinking about things in new ways is slowly becoming secondhand. I love considering how my son will perceive. Without vision, the world would be a different place for me. But without vision, the world is just the world for my son.

I can use that in my writing. It's so easy in writing to describe things visually because most people rely on vision more than any other sense. And as readers, we want to see everything. But what about blind readers? Can we give them enough detail to 'see' the world their way? And how much will be too much? I think there would be a fine line at over-doing it.

So, don't kill the pace of your story with description. Even a blind person won't notice everything. :D

With love and happy writing,
Bethanne

HomeSchool

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Shhh, don't say anything, but I'm going to home school next year. [i don't want to jinx myself...not that I believe in that]

My hubby and I watch PBS alot. One, because it's one of the very few stations we get, and two, because it has cool programming. We saw this feature documentary on a family who sailed all around the world. They weren't extra rich. They didn't go by yacht. They happened to meet on an island in the carribean, found a boat they could afford and took off.

They taught their children. They travelled the world and saw things most people don't see in a lifetime... and when the kids were getting into middle school and high school, they finally took a break and a few years on land so the kids could see what the other side was like....

Maybe it's crazy, but that's how I think of homeschooling. FREEDOM! It's taken a while to come to this realization. [and yeah, i'm not about to take off in my rowboat but] I think the mentality is the same. Will you look at your life and see a glass half empty? Will you always see how things CAN'T work? My husband and I have made some crazy changes this year in order to bend our mentality to what is actually possible. So, i'll be homeschooling and he'll be in Army. Strange happenings, eh?

Now, fieldtrips on a history lesson can actually INCLUDE the Alamo! or, The Pentagon. The battlefields of Virginia. ...is there a museum in California about the gold rush? That would be cool. Anyhooooo. I'm totally getting away from myself. We'll do Math and Reading, too. I swear it. :D

BOYS!

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First of all, I like the male gender. As a kid, I always wanted a brother. Adolescence and a laidback personality made me an easy friend of the female counterpart. I dated some as a young adult, and now I'm married to a man. Yup. That's me. A regular man lover.

So, why is it so hard for me to chat about boys with my daughter?

[pause]

...I'm sorry, did you expect me to say more?
If you could just leave your answers and clever fixes to my problem in the comment section, I'd really appreciate it. I'm off to the library to find a book...

With love and many thanks,
Bethanne

The Juggling Act

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Officially, I have four blogs. This one, my diabetes blog, my son's blog--which I regularly fail to update, and Penny Dune's blog. Okay, so I'm juggling things... and right now, not very well! :D

I thought about the blogging thing when I noticed that Christina Dodd has been on her facebook A LOT lately. I mean, everytime I stop in there, my Home feed has at least 3 or 4 posts from her in it. Not boring stuff either but fun, interactive comments and questions. Then I've got a friend in my crit group who is worried about being interesting because she had someone interesting follow her blog...

Ack! I have to be interesting?!

Isn't it enough that my characters are interesting?!

...wait, what if my characters aren't interesting either? Oh no!

*GRIN*
It's one of those days.

Let's talk books

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Dear Blog,

You've gotten to know me so well over the past three years. I feel we are the best of friends. There are days I fancy having known you before I ever married... how we love the same things, read the same kind of books, listen to the same kind of music. I'm so thankful for you.


I thought you would be interested to know that I finished Hot Pursuit. Suzanne Brockmann's 2009 new release. I'd completely forgotten about it. Can you believe it? When I finally got around to missing it, I ended up finding it at the library!

You remember how I was on the fence about her previous book. Large cast, over-the-top politics, well not that her politics were over the top, but that her portrayal grated on my nerves after a while. So, maybe this is one of the reasons why I didn't rush to the nearest store to buy her new book.

Remember Danny Gilman, Blog? Messed up family. Thought he was in love with Sophia for a while?

Well he meets Jennilyn, the heroine--or secondary heroine--again with the big cast. So here's one of the reasons I LOVE Brockmann. Real people. Not supermodels. Not extra strong. Not extra smart. You know Brockmann has those people, too but she has me in there.... [minus the liberal politics. *wink*] and you. People [and in your case computer screens] that I recognize. It was refreshing. Despite the large cast, the story was focused [unlike Murphy's].

I know you'll probably read the book, blog... One word: Izzy. He better not freakin' hook up with the too beautiful for her own good political candidate!

Talk to ya later,
Bethanne

PS You'll have to tell me what you think about the wonky HEA. WTF, right? Still, it's hard to complain when Sam and Alyssa are playing front and center. :D

You Are What You Eat

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I've been on this young family, tight budget diet for so long, my frustration level is at an all time high. I'm not sure what to do about it anymore. Perhaps I'm just stuck in a rut...

As a sit here typing, my son is calling from the living room, "Mom, what can I have to eat?"

And the first thing that runs through my head is Circle Cookies--Vanilla Wafers. Crap. Good crap, but crap. And cheap.

Let me go back a step. I'm training for a Marathon. I haven't found one yet, but I've got my 5K training schedule for beginners and I'm serious. One week into it, I realize I might get healthier, stronger by training, but I'm not going to lose any weight if I keep eating like I do.

Step Two: find sample diets to imitate. Put together a healthy eating schedule.

Problem-price and appeal.
Healthy food is expensive, natural foods are expensive.
It's not kid friendly...and the way kids eat [like they're starving], even if they did jump all over it like cookies and cake, I'd for sure be broke in a month.

Wow, I've become really cranky about this aspect of my life. Yesterday I chopped up an entire bundle of celery and ate the entire thing while making dinner. I just wanted something good to put in my mouth [...].

I want more good fruit and veggies. More protein. LESS SIMPLE SUGAR CRAP.
Even the stuff that isn't "SUGARED" is still crap... saltines, soft breads, tortilla chips, pastas.
UGH.

*sigh* I feel better just for ranting.
Thanks for listening to me B.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Bethanne

53+ Books in 2009

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I'm was thinking about moving all my blog posts to my webpage... but at this point, I can't find that option on my webhost site manager, sooooo I like my blog here too much to mess with it. :D Doing all that, I realized I still had my book list from 2009--AND IT'S FEBRUARY OF 2010!!

I'm pretty proud of my numbers from last year.
Thanks for sharing them with me.
This year....I'm going to keep track of WORDS!
thankfully, not words read. heh. That would be insane.
This year. Words written.

Keep an eye out for a new sidebar feature soon! :)