Monday, April 20, 2015

Captain Quasar Blasts Off!

I'm thrilled to announce the publication of a novel jam packed with adventure and humor: Captain Bartholomew Quasar and the Space-Time Displacement Conundrum.
 
It was a privilege to read the first draft back in the summer of 2012. The story hooked me from the start, and I couldn't put it down. Now, I can't wait for readers everywhere to take a ride on the Effervescent Magnitude and get to know the cast of hilarious characters. 

Full disclosure: it's written by my hubby, so I might be slightly biased. Nah, I don't think so. Even if the author had been anonymous to me, I would have enjoyed it. But don't take my word for it. Check it out yourself! Read the teaser and first five chapters for free. Then, sign up for a subscription. For only five buckaroos, you'll receive 80 episodes via email over the next 16 weeks. Such a bargain for a daily dose of time traveling fun!
 

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Call it a Comeback

How do you measure a year? 525,600 Minutes
It's been a year since I wrote a blog post.
Where did the time go?
I'm not going to measure 3/31/14 to 3/31/15 according to word count, number of submissions, publications (or lack thereof).
Maybe I'll do that next year!
 
Last week the 2014-2015 figure skating season wrapped up with the World Championships in Shanghai, China. The result in the ladies competition was so inspiring it's forcing me back into the blogosphere.

The winner of the gold medal was Elizaveta Tuktamisheva. Try saying that five times fast! Exactly the point. She's not a household name. In fact, she didn't even make it to the 2014 Olympics in her home country of Russia last February. But this year she is the World Champion! She turned things around and didn't let the disappointment of missing the Olympics stop her. Instead, it pushed her to work harder and get better. In her short program, she even landed a clean triple Axel (the most difficult jump the ladies perform). That's the way to make a comeback!

Monday, March 31, 2014

Morning Glory Monday: When Less is More

Today I'm pondering the idea that sometimes less is more. There are periods of time when I need to take a step back, get quiet, and reflect before I'm able to write. One of those times was during February and March this year. When February began, I had a grandiose plan to blog everyday about the Olympics with a series of "Olympic Observation" posts. But after watching the opening ceremonies, I decided to scrap the idea. I wanted to watch the Olympics - period. I didn't want to watch the Olympics in order to come up with a pithy blog post or tweet.

But it has been over a month since the torch was extinguished and the Olympics ended. That is plenty of time to reflect. In fact, now it might be called procrastination. So here is one of my “Olympic Observations.” Meryl Davis and Charlie White are the perfect ambassadors for the sport of Ice Dancing. They lived up to all the expectations and won gold!  Now they are capitalizing on their success by competing on Dancing with the Stars. It is fascinating to watch them transfer their talent from the ice to the dance floor with different partners. They are both front runners to win the coveted mirror ball trophy, but participating on the show is the real reward. Attention spans are short these days, and being showcased on a hit TV show keeps them and the sport of Ice Dance in the public eye beyond the Olympics.


What do you think? Is time for reflection disappearing? With social media, the whole idea is to give real time updates and reactions. But with the continuous stream of new information flying at us, is there time to process any of it?


As a side note, the annual A to Z Blog Challenge begins tomorrow. I participated in 2011, 2012, and 2013 blogging about: Figure Skating, Nostalgia, and San Diego. But this year I’ve decided to sit it out. If you’ve never tried A to Z, I recommend it as a way to discipline yourself to blog each day, and it's a great way to discover new bloggers. During April I plan to focus on submitting stories that have been languishing in the rough draft stage and creating more Morning Glory Monday posts. I hope you’ll join me!   


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

For Your Consideration: Sticky Situation

http://www.write1sub1.com/2014/02/week-5-check-in-january-juggernaut-award.html

Thrilled to report that I completed the monthly Write 1 Sub 1 challenge in January and submitted my short story "Sticky Situation" to Spider. Although it might have technically been February 1st on the east coast, according to pacific time it was still January 31st when I uploaded my story to Submittable.
 
At first I was hesitant about online submissions. I enjoy the old school process of printing out my final draft and cover letter and putting my SASE in the envelope. For me, going to the post office and mailing out a story feels like an accomplishment. But the ease of sitting on the couch with a laptop and submitting a story at 11:45pm on at Friday night might have just pushed me into the 21st century. It was so easy!

The short story is about a student who brings a sticky hand to school and the shenanigans that ensue. The idea has been percolating since I was in the 5th grade and something like this actually happened. One day last year while flipping through an Oriental Trading Company gift catalog I saw a picture of the sticky hands, and it triggered my memory. I cut out the picture, and put it into my writing journal. Now the experience has been reimagined as a full fledged fictional story. Hopefully, it will find a home in Spider or another children's magazine and give readers a laugh or two.

Do you prefer to mail your story submissions or submit them online? Where do you get your story ideas? Do you keep a writing journal? You never know when inspiration will strike!

Monday, January 27, 2014

Morning Glory Monday: Pools of Inspiration

While growing up my family took a summer road trip each year "Out West." For us this meant driving from Michigan to Colorado and exploring the country along the way. There are enough memories from these annual trips to fill a book, and I hope to write one about them one day.

From a young age these trips taught me the value of travel and noticing things which is a good habit for an aspiring writer. They also exposed me to the beauty and variety of landscapes in the United States. Yellowstone National Park was a place that stood out and captured my imagination.

https://www.google.com/search?q=morning+glory+pool&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=iqzmUuexAcL9oATzmIHoAg&ved=0CCgQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=613
Yellowstone is known for the geyser "Old Faithful," but beyond that is an entire geyser basin full of thermal pools. When I first saw Morning Glory Pool, I was amazed by its brilliant colors and natural beauty. I took picture after picture, and after returning home I tried to capture it in a painting. Despite some of the obvious technical flaws, my parents were kind enough to hang it on the wall. It's still there today. The value isn't the technical quality of the art, but the memories the painting brings back.
 
Have you ever been to Yellowstone National Park? Does traveling inspire you to write, paint, or compose music? Take some time to think about your favorite travel memories and jot them down. You never know what gems of inspiration might bubble to the surface!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Morning Glory Monday: Timeless Dreams

Do dreams have a time limit?

The U.S. Figure Skating Championships took place over the weekend, and as I watched the skaters compete for spots on the Olympic team the answer was: YES!

Athletes that dream of competing in the Olympics train for many years hoping to make the team for an event that only happens every four years. There is a small window of opportunity, and this weekend it was exhilarating and heartbreaking to watch dreams fulfilled and dashed. Gracie Gold lived up to her name and won the U. S. Ladies title. She will go into the Olympics as a favorite. Meanwhile Alissa Czisny is out with an injury, and didn't even get to compete at Nationals this year. She was the U.S. Champion in 2011. Ashley Wagner went into Nationals as the two-time and reigning champion. The huge expectation to win again seemed to overwhelm her, and she ended up in fourth place. She is going to the Olympics thanks to her international placements over the last couple of years, so she will still have a chance to perform a flawless routine in Sochi, Russia. This year Nationals was just a stepping stone toward the bigger dream of competing at the Olympics and winning gold. Go USA!

http://www.olympic.org/sochi-2014-winter-olympics
In comparison, writing and publication is a timeless dream. I see writing as a daily challenge, and I'm competing against myself. I'll never get too old to try. That is comforting to me. Creating a masterpiece still takes the discipline, focus, and perseverance of an Olympic athlete. You have to write consistently, learn the craft, push through distractions, maintain motivation, and keep sending out your manuscript until it is accepted. But you don't have to wait four years to compete. So seize the day and write!

Did you watch the U. S. Figure Skating Championships this weekend? What Olympic sport are you looking forward to watching? I'm curious about the new Figure Skating team event. Do you have a timeless dream that you are pursuing or that came true later in life?

Monday, January 6, 2014

Morning Glory Monday: The Blank Page

Happy New Year! When the calendar turns over to January, I feel freedom and anticipation as I imagine the year ahead. It is similar to facing the blank page before beginning to write a new story. There are unlimited possibilities and no typos yet. It's a time for setting goals and looking forward.
In 2014 I'm hoping to build on the writing momentum from 2013. The acceptance of my short story The Guessing Game at Youth Imagination was a highlight and encourages me to continue writing and submitting. I'm planning to participate in Write 1 Sub 1 again. Hopefully, I'll complete the monthly challenge and write 12 new stories this year. Writing the Morning Glory Monday posts was so much fun that I'm going to continue them this year as well.


In addition to writing, I plan on trying new experiments in the kitchen. Last night I made homemade croutons for the first time, and it was a success! It all started when I decided to make soup and salad. But the cupboard was bare. No oyster crackers or croutons to be found. However, I did have some bread. A quick search online produced a number of easy homemade crouton recipes. Just cut up 5 or 6 slices of bread into cubes, add some melted butter, garlic powder, and salt. Then, bake them in the oven at 300 degrees for half an hour. The place smelled amazing, and they tasted delicious. No wonder blog after blog said you'll never go back to store bought croutons once you try homemade. I highly recommend making them!
 
Finally, I'm looking forward to the 2014 Winter Olympics. If you take a gander at my blog topics, you'll see that I'm a huge figure skating fan. For me, Christmas will come again in February when the skaters descend on Sochi, Russia to make history. It is always difficult to predict who will take home the gold, but this year the only American team that is a lock for a medal is the ice dance team Davis and White. Nationals are this week, and I'll be holding my breath to see who makes the Olympic team. Toe pick!

Have you made a list of resolutions for 2014? What are you looking forward to this year?