Posts Tagged ‘anna’s world’

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I Hear the Craziest Things: Solar Flares, Kenetic Energy, My Dysfunctional Reaction to Stress

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

This should be a Psychic Realm post. Sadly (comically?), instead it’s my life. On the way to being scanned for possible signs of returning cancer (there were NONE, so YAY!), my reality went haywire, as it often does on already-difficult days. “Solar Flares,” some said. “Your kinetic energy misbehaves when you’re stressed,” my alternative friends remind me. “Karma?” others asked. You be the judge.

solar flare

When I’m stressed, I do tend to have an electric/magnetic effect on the world around me. And I was stressed last Thursday. This was the final ultrasound/biopsy that would tell me (hopefully) that I could stop seeing this particular specialist except for future once-a-year, no-big-deal, you’re-all-clear-but-let’s-just-check followups.

This is the specialist, after a long string of doctors, who 2 1/2 years ago blew my world apart and said, “Your chances of this being cancer are too high NOT to have the surgery.” End my thriving publishing career. End every part of my life since (until recently) that wasn’t about getting healthy again, after surgery destroyed what was until that point my “disgustingly healthy” endocrine system.

stress bang head

So, no, my state of mind each time I visit this particular medical office isn’t at its zen best. (more…)

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Posted in I Hear The Craziest Things, The Psychic Realm | 6 Comments »

How We Write: The Soul of the Matter

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

My Soul of the Matter posts are usually about my life and the life I see going on around me, and how I try to change daily the things I let prevent me from actually living. Because surviving isn’t enough. Thriving should be the goal. How We Write is usually a motivational rant about finding the soul of your writing, and not just worshiping craft rules. Today, I hope to accomplish both.

keep_it_simple

How we write isn’t always about process and technique. Because we’re creating story. And story is a powerful mechanism for changing minds, and through them our world. Always has been. We write because something drives us to touch readers’ imaginations and hearts and emotions. Their souls. That’s a powerful motivation that should never be completely obscured by our how.

My point?

Every story has a beginning. No matter how beautifully you’re capable of stringing words together, your story begins and ends with your character and your reader’s experience of that character’s journey. Your story must resonate with the heart. It helps if you connect with a theme (even in comedy) that reaches deep inside for a universal truth that can’t be denied. Then, if your gift is writing and you can master the toolbox of techniques that we must learn to bring that vision to life, your reader’s world will most definitely be touched by whatever inspired you to reach them.

How do we write ?

We focus first on the story, for as long as it takes to discover what we most want to say. And only then do we sit down to write.

thunk

For me, I’m an angsty writer who wishes my gift was making folks laugh until they cry. My work is cathartic at more of the other end of the spectrum. Darker-themed, challenging emotional journeys come to me. Always have. Like this morning, when it only took the first five minutes of my news program for my entire day (my life) to shift as I listened to this. (more…)

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I Hear The Craziest Things: See Tate City and Hidden Waterfalls

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Waterfalls are my zen. They’re my destination every time I flee my every day and the weather permits interior driving/walking. My Waterfall Challenges are off-road, in the middle of nowhere stuff, which makes seeing this on one of those dirt-road trips a bit of a surprise:

See Tate City

Get it?

There I was in the middle of some of the most beautiful and rugged country a car can drive to in the North Georgia mountains, just shy of the state border with North Carolina, when off to the side of the road someone had painted a big red barn with a spoof on the tourist trap signs all around the more popular Rock City.

In the middle of a field.

Next to a mushy dirt road that resembled a mud puddle that morning because it had been raining for days.

“Cute,” I thought to myself. “The locals have a quirky sense of humor. I like that.” And off I went to find the obscure turn off where I could park Bessie and hike into the woods in search of interior falls several miles away.

Then, I saw this.

Tate City Pop 32

“Seriously?” I pulled out my local map. (more…)

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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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Posted in Publishing Isn't for Sissies | 7 Comments »

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