Posts Tagged ‘anna’s world’

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I Hear the Craziest Things: Anyone Got a Tissue?

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Every time I pull a tissue from a tissue box in my house (once or twice a week), it’s always the LAST one in the box–even the box beneath my beside table reserved solely for my personal consumption. What does this say about our family dynamic?

 

dude-wtf

  • Do others’ allergies outpace mine so dramatically?
  • Am I unknowingly using tissue in some fugue state, after which I suffer PTSD symptoms due to the trauma of blowing my nose and promptly forget I’ve indulged?
  • Are my men scurrying about, from one box to the next, looking for ways to score their next tissue hit while avoiding the horror of reaching into the linen closet for a new box?
  • Do they have a covert scanning method I’m not privy to, where infrared sensors alert to the immanent arrival of the final tissue, so they can be certain not to remove it from the box???

My entire morning will be consumed, pondering said mysteries…

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How We Write: The Soul of the Matter…

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

If you want to write, write. If you want to publish, prepare to work your ass off getting very, very good at your writing. This business is all about soul. And I’m not just talking about your unique, creative voice–though that’s incredibly important, too. Today, I’m talking about grit. Stick it out, find your own way, stop waiting for everyone else to make this crazy business sensible and welcoming and easy, G-R-I-T.

grit

I write my books; I edit for other authors. I’m close to offering my first two book contracts for Entangled Publishing. After publishing 16 novels of my own and reading countless propsals others have written over the years, all I know for sure is, this is all about soul.

  • Have you been rejected (like me)? Figure out if you have what it takes to get up the next morning and start over from nothing–because every published author must do that each and every time they meet a deadline.
  • Do you have a day job (like me)? Buckle down and accept that your personal life off the clock belongs first to the book you need to finish, not your hobbies and social (media) life–because the majority of published authors don’t make enough off their writing to support their families, so we’re all hoofing it to make ends meet while trying to stay creative in the dark hours of early morning.
  • Do you have a busy family (like me)? Love them and care for them, the tell them your entire life doesn’t revolve around them and they’re going to have to take care of themselves the 1,2,3 hours a day that you devote to your writing. Otherwise, they’ll consume you (and maybe that’s what you want, if family is the excuse you’re making daily for not creating new words).
  • Have you been dealing with an illness (like me)? Deal with it, by all means, your health is everything. But for Dog’s sake, knock off saying your illness is responsible for you not moving forward in your writing. I don’t mean to be insensitive or unkind, but whatever your condition is, I assure you I can find others who’ve managed to succeed battling far worse circumstances–because they refused to quit.

Soul is the thing that lives and breathes inside us, regardless of the piles of s**t raining down on our worst days. (more…)

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Shoes Are My Heroin: Seasonal Insanity…

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Lots of Facebook chatter lately about shoes you need and those you lust for. I’ve scored both in the last few weeks. Neither are completely practical. But what’s the fun in practical? They fit like a dream and will feel great on my feet for hours. And there were bought at killer sale prices. PERFECT! Whatcha think?

These are my early-spring, neutral, sensible business pumps.

shoe pump wedge

Okay, they’re wedges, too, and will look great with summer pants and cotton skirts and even shorts. But also the trousers and spring dresses/suits I’ll wear when I teach. No, really, that’s why I bought them. That, and they have rounded toes (thank Dog, the pointy ones are out again)…

And since this time of year’s all about transition, I also needed something not-so-black to mix with the lighter things we wear under our coats in the south the next few months, (more…)

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I Hear the Craziest Things: Horizon View…

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

My husband and I recently snuck a weekend away from every day life. The hotel on the beach we stayed in, when asked about an upgrade to a ocean view room, said none were available, but we could pay for a “Horizon View.”

sky

Huh?

I have to upgrade to look at the sky from this place?

Where is this amazing room? Are we talking the penthouse? ‘Cause that would be worth throwing some extra dollars at.

Nope. This would be an ocean-facing room that you can’t quite see the water from. But the beautiful clouds and such that hang over the ocean could be ours to stare at for just a little more per night. Then, I suppose, we could use our imagination to conjure all that watery stuff that would be swirling about just beneath our visage.

So, we’d be paying for a top-floor room, only the angle wouldn’t be quite right to see the water?

Nope. This would be a ground floor room. And we’d have to settle for two double beds (did I mention this was a getaway for my HUSBAND and me, you know, sans intrusive teenager forever breaking up our cuddle time with one demanding need after another, like food and transpo and clean clothes and all that nonsense!).

So, there we were, expected to be excited about about paying more for a ground floor, tree-obstructed, water-facing (sort of) room, from which if you looked out at just the right angel from the corner of the window, you might be able to catch a glimpse of the blue, blue ocean sky above the sea we’d never see. (more…)

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The Soul of the Matter: Change Me, Change You

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

Change is an exciting thing. Some days. When you’re embracing the new. Other days, it can bite. BUT–change is always better, once you’ve found your place in it. I’ve found mine in publishing.After taking over a year off for personal reasons, I’m writing again. I’m submitting to excited publishers (none of whom who have said YES, yet, but the excitement is wonderful for me, as they welcome me back into the flow). And I’m making the freelance editing and teaching and travel to present workshops I’ve been doing for years official–I LOVE working with writers, I love exercising the more technical skills of editing that were once my whole job as a senior tech writer, and I love romantic suspense. Now I’m a romantic suspense editor.

What a way to spin into a new year!

excited face

It wasn’t long ago that 2010 was, for me, about fear (health scares and such) and the publishing industry crumbling around all of us. 2011 was rebuilding and fulfilling the last of my ‘10 obligations and nervously promoting an exciting novel in a new digital media world I really didn’t understand when I first started. And now, 2012. More change. For all of us.

For me, I’ll be embracing it. I’m putting all I have into these new opportunities and finding my place in them.  New novels I will find publishers and an audience for, however that makes sense now, rather than how it worked a few years ago. Teaching six different groups (by today’s count), after having to spend most of ‘11 off the road, and I can’t wait to connect with other creatives who love to do what I do, and maybe help them on their own journeys just a little bit. And now I’m part of an exciting team of women, writers all of us, who are taking our passion for storytelling and working with authors and turning it into something really amazing at Dead Sexy Books.

How many writers will I get to help at Entangled? How many books will find excited readers, because of what we’ll do in 2012.

excited girl

It makes my soul smile, in all parts of my life, to be so optimistic about what’s ahead. It’s taken me a few years to get healthy and caught up and ready for this new plunge. But it’s a very good day. No matter whatever stumbling blocks come my way, and there will be more than a few if I have my guess, it’s going to be a VERY good year!

How will 2012 change your life? How will you partner with the stream of “new” flowing through your life, and make this year everything you’ve dreamed it could be?

Make this year your home. Find your place, your soul, in the decisions you make!

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Things My Teenager Says: The Other Day…

Monday, January 9th, 2012

“When my dad says ‘The other day…’ he could be talking about last night or when I was five,” my son snickers to his friend, both of them riding like kings in the back seat while I chauffeur them home from school.

“I know,” friend snides back, “adults have no sense of time. They can’t let ANYTHING go.”

“Mostly because their teens are so sarcastic,” I toss into their parent shredding, ”adults suffer brain bleeds that impede our memory.”

I get away with talking to my son’s friends, more than just him, these days. I’ve become part of the daily entertainment during their taxi rides. Whatever it takes to stay part of the dialogue, I always say.

momtattoo

“MOM, he was talking about cleaning my room, saying he’d told me to clean out my bookcase the other day. It was last year when he said that!”

“Did you do it?”

Pause for impact.

“No. But it’s all he cares about one minute. Then he’s forgotten it the next. Then he brings it up again, like a YEAR later.”

I don’t point out that a year to a teen is more like a month to the rest of us mortals. Actually, I think the books were a bone of contention only last week. Then again last night.

“My dad bought me a TV for my room because I made straight As last year,” his friend chimes in. “Now he yells at me every time I turn it on.”

“Parents are nuts,” my teenager agrees, laughing in that best way he has of pulling your smile up from your tones and making you glad you’re there to see him embrace life so completely.

“Multiple personalities are hereditary,” I caution. “You should probably book a good therapist now.” (more…)

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Where Will 2012 Take Me in Publishing?

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Yes, I have five different book proposals in the works (four of them with my agent or with publishers, waiting for acquisition, finger’s crossed), but I’m also stretching my more technical/editorial muscles in new, exciting directions–I’ve been hired as an Acquiring Editor for the NEW Dead Sexy romantic suspense line at Entangled Publishing.

excitement

Officially, the new imprint is: 

Dead Sexy: The Nina Bruhns Collection.

And today’s the launch/announcement of our new baby!

launch

If you know Nina, as I do, you’ll be as excited as I am by this announcement. She and I and our other newly hired editor Susan Meier are already working with authors and thrilling stories you’re going to love, come the May launch of Dead Sexy. What a great team, including our managing editor, Vicki Wilkerson!

The Dead Sexy editors were successful, award-winning, best selling authors first. All of us. Now we’re following our passion for teaching and nurturing and helping other writers fulfill their publishing dreams.

We at Dead Sexy strive to be the exciting home every successful romantic suspense author is dying to have. And Entangled is a digital-first publisher that puts authors first.   An amazing partnership from the get-go!

Check back often in 2012 for weekly Publishing Isn’t for Sissies and How We Write posts that are taking on even greater meaning and purpose for me, as well as more updates from my popular Dream Theories and Psychic Realm and Soul of the Matter and Things my Teenager Says series.

Now that you know what’s kept me away from regular blog posts these last few months, let me say it’s great to be back. I couldn’t be happier about the horizon before me ;o)

Join me.

It’s going to be an exciting ride!

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The Soul of the Matter: Why do we?

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

Why do we work, love, write, care? Why don’t we enjoy who and what we are more this year, than ever before? Inspiration is the soul of the matter, as is running with that mission, that message, that kernal of us we protect too carefully and too seldom follow with abandon.

inspire

Why don’t we follow our inspiration more?

  • Are we afraid of all that we want? Nothing should be that simple.
  • Are we too tired to take our heart’s desires into our own hands and fight for that promise? That’s more likely.
  • Are we programmed to only see the work, never the gain? Why, I think we’ve arrived.

We are that quiet place inside that speaks when the rest falls away.

Heart's Desire

We are our dreams, and those inspirations are the hope that carries us through so much.This is the symbolism, the recurring metaphor that speaks to my work and my life. I think it speaks to all of us.

Whether you see yourself as creative or not, there’s a voice inside you (your soul, if you will), promising that you’re more than the sum of your parts.

This year, listen to that voice and celebrate the “why” of all that you are:

  • Each day, make a note in your journal, naming the part of you singing loudest that morning.
  • Jot down the tune that yearns to fill your day with magic.
  • Circle back before bed, and see what your voice has shown you, now that the rest is sleeping.

Be inspired in your writing and your family and your work and your dreams. That’s my 2012 wish for you!

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How We Write in 2012: The Soul of the Matter…

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

I wanted this Wednesdays writing blog is your one-stop INSPIRATION destination for your 2012 creativity and publishing dreams. How will you excel? How will you write every day, even amidst conflict, chaos and adversity? How will you create that which you alone were put on this earth to bring to life through story? After all, isn’t 2012 supposed to be the end of the world… In that case, we better get a move on. We’re running out of time ;o)

2012 planets

Despite 2011’s challenges (on top of 2010’s ;o), both with my personal health and the industry upheaval happening around all of us, I find myself giddy at the thought of what this newest year in our lives will bring. More ownership of our destinies and the fruits of our writing labors. More opportunity than ever before to reach readers clamoring for the escape that you bring them. More ways to engage your soul in your work, and take every chance that could lead you forward.

Move. That’s my overall goal, my “How” for 2012.

2012 goals

  • I will move forward.
  • I will take initiative and take chances and take opportunity and run with them all.
  • I will ask the right questions and listen to those I trust to share their insight and choose, without fear, what my next course of action will be. Then the next.
  • I will role with the punches and move forward despite obstacles and setbacks.
  • I will believe that there is success awaiting me around every corner, and I will work my ass off to claim those victories.

What are yours?

2012 is shaping up as a year where we can very much shape our reality simply by the viewpoint and perspective in which we choose to see our world.

  • Do you see exciting opportunity or scary change?
  • Are you ready to dive in and work hard, or too tired to start over yet again?
  • Do you learn from past mistakes and roads not taken, or do you use failure as an excuse to stop trying?

    • (more…)

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Surprise Digital Bonus!!!

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

I peaked online after the holiday to find that my publisher’s made my ENTIRE award-winning, best selling Atlanta Heroes series available in digital format for $3.99 or less per title (through Amazon Kindle)!

Because Of A Boy: 

Nurse Kate Rhodes is duty bound to report the abusive father of one of her charges–despite the lawyer who proclaims the man’s innocence.

 9780373714490.indd

Stephen Creighton isn’t in the habit of getting involved in his cases. For him, it’s get in, fight like hell, get out. But he has to invest more when he finds out Kate’s actions have put his clients’ lives in jeopardy. And now the father and son have gone into hiding.

With the father being sought by the authorities and the son in desperate need of medical treatment, it’s a race against time. One Stephen and Kate can win only if they work together… Something that’s even harder to do when the tension between them becomes white-hot passion.

To Protect The Child (RT Book Reviews Best Book Award):

FBI agent Alexa Vega wakes in an Atlanta hospital with no memory of how she got there. Except for brief flashes of a little girl’s image, she can’t remember anything, including the assignment that led to her brutal attack. The only person she feels she can trust is the man who saved her–Dr. Robert Livingston.

TP

In his care she begins to recover…and to fall for him. Those feelings are returned, because Robert hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Alexa. But as her memory returns, Alexa knows she has to finish what she started. She has to track down her attackers. It’s the only way she can save a child she’s sworn to protect.

She’s determined to succeed, even if it means losing everything else–including Robert’s love. (more…)

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