Archive for the ‘Anna's Soul of the Matter’ Category

The Big, Bad UGLY We Don’t Talk About: EARLY WRITING

Tuesday, June 7th, 2016

How to explain how planning and prepping and early drafting for a new novel feels…?

It’s like finding out you’re pregnant, I guess, and wondering what your new baby will be like. Or graduating from college, hoping and dreaming about that first/new job. Or meeting the man/woman you think will be your soul mate, and wondering if your life together could really be that amazing.

Or, if you’re an angsty writer not liking not knowing if what you’re doing is going to suck EGGS, like this.

head in hands

Or this.

crazy writer

Or this.

panic

I’ve written 27 wildly successful novels, by many’s standards. I’ve often made a living creating something out of nothing. Which is decidedly more often, lucky me, than most who get a hankering to write a book and embark on the crazy journey I’m on.

How can I still be so nervous? Worried? Troubled to my very core, so much so that I can’t really write deeply yet, because all the reflections on the surface keep shimmering in and out and away from me, too quickly for me to see clearly.

You know you want to do what you’re doing. You’re dying to get see what the beautiful thing your creating will be, once it’s done. And you’re petrified. You’re feeling less than. You’re stumped as to how anyone could possibly think you could do this. Or is it just me?

fear what would you do if you weren't afraid

We sense the danger of being wrong, of failing, of not living up, I think. (more…)

Christmas DAILY DEAL! Just $1.99

Saturday, November 8th, 2014

Christmas on Mimosa Lane is today’s Kindle Daily Deal!

Grab your copy of this #1 Amazon Family Saga and Series Romance Best-seller for just $1.99.

New York Times and USA Today Best-seller Lori Wilde calls Christmas on Mimosa Lane a
“…charming, tender delight that furls around you heart like a Christmas ribbon.”

COML Front 240x360

Grab your copy while the price is right!

And don’t miss my new Christmas novella, with returning characters from Christmas on Mimosa Lane and the other Echoes of the Heart books…

Here in My Heart, also ONLY $1.99, and currently the #1 Women’s Short Story on Amazon!

Fresh Fiction calls Here in My Heart,
“One of the most powerful novellas I’ve had the fortune to read and review.”

HiMH Final

Fairy tales are more than true…

Friday, July 11th, 2014

Once upon a time is every day. Our life to dream, our future to bend…

Make our Own Fairytaile WM

The dream is the thing, the vision, the voice. Any time, anywhere, we are what we see and what we choose to believe, so choose wisely.

“Fairy tales are more than true:
not because they tell us that dragons exist,
but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
~ Neil Gaiman

Do they come true, the tales we tell? (more…)

Everybody has a dream…

Wednesday, July 9th, 2014

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

perfect day wm

Don’t confuse dreams with fairy tales. They’re meant to be the inspiration that gets us through the hard work, sustains us over the long haul, and says, “Get over it, you’re doing fine,” when we stumble about, clinging to our path.

“Dreams don’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat,
determination and hard work.”
~ Colin Powell

We have to first Wake Up from the dream and face reality for what it is. We must find our purpose each and every day, keeping our motives true. We must want with every fiber of our being, without losing sight of the consequences of the sustained work to be done to reach a dream sweeter than imagination. Because once achieved, that dream is the culmination of effort only we could give and imagination only we’ve been blessed with.

Our dreams are our reality. They’re our voice. They’re our all, if we want them badly enough.

“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die tomorrow.” ~ James Dean

Live with your all, your dream firmly in your reality, fighting for forever.

That’s the way to wake up every morning.

“Live your life from your heart…”

Monday, July 7th, 2014

“Live your life from your heart. Share your heart. And your story will touch and heal people’s souls.” ~ Melody Beatti

Grateful habit wm

THIS is why I write, create, wake up in the morning and work through the night at a job that shouldn’t be a job, but the business of it is the only way I reach the readers I’m blessed to.

So I’m grateful–insomnia and anxiety-riddled rough drafts and painful edits and all.

“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~ Melody Beatti

I’m so grateful to life the life I do.

“To love beauty…”

Monday, July 7th, 2014

“To love beauty is to see light.” ~ Victor Hugo

quilt tranquility wm

As easy as it is to submit to the problems and the hassles and the disappointments of any day, we’re rewarded so much more by seeking that flicker of light our soul needs to catch flame and thrive. Amidst the most trying of circumstances, there is an ember of who we want most to be. BE that someone, despite the rest.

If we make each moment about who and what should consume us, then that sparkling goal becomes our reality, not all that stands in our way.

“Each one prays to God according to his own light.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Happily Ever Now…

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2014

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ~Winston Churchill

happily ever after

Now is our real, our chance to mark time as more than killing.

What of now will you remember always?

Make today a happy that stays.

Because…courage.

Because you lived.

Piecing life together…

Sunday, June 29th, 2014

“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” ~ Bruce Lee

quilt pink double wedding ring

Heirloom quilts and Bruce Lee quotes? Leave it to a women’s fiction writer.

Quilts are strong, durable things once they’re pieced together. From variant bits of fabric, often discarded scrap, evolves a tapestry that can last decades, centuries. Like any other unique idea, any creation, any voice uniquely owned. And if you make a mistake making a quilt, making a life, making a vision come into being, you can always pull stitches out, see your next path more clearly, readjust and rework.

It’s hard work, leaving something so beautiful and enduring as your legacy. But look at the amazing thing you’ve done, once you admit what you know, what you don’t, what you’ve done wrong up ’til now, and make the decision to move onward.

I don’t craft quilts, though the gift is in my genes, women on both sides of my family craft working their entire lives. I craft words and thoughts and ideas into story. I miss and mess up more than I nail a concept at first pass. I flounder and struggle and prick my pride and damage my self-esteem and let the language the moment get the best of me, when the vision of the whole is what matters. And then I right myself. I admit my folly. I push on, forgiving what’s not perfect behind me and (more…)

The PERFECT Road Trip

Friday, June 27th, 2014

“People don’t take trips. Trips take people.” ~ John Steinbeck

My ideal road trip?

PERFECT road trip

Dreaming. Floating away. My best friend, my lover, my life at the wheel beside me.

I write and read best on the road, traveling and experiencing and loving the day for what it is, expecting nothing more. He knows that. He loves the journey and the release and the silence.

He loves me, so I am more as I create and experience the stories the road brings me. I am exactly what I need to be, with all that I need next to me

Where do you go when you get lost, and who do you take along for the ride?

Teach your skeletons to dance…

Wednesday, June 25th, 2014

If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you best take it out and teach it to dance.” ~ George Benard Shaw

skeleton George Benard Shaw

Don’t hide the scars and the mistakes and the embarrassing things that make you uniquely you. Celebrate the chance to dance, to grow and change and be more. And to inspire others who need to dance as much as you do.

Be free, and be aware of how lucky you are to have the chance to make right another day and another choice and another beginning.