Meme that I Stole from Adam's blog who stole it from Janna's blog. We're all Happy Thieves Around Here In Blogland!

Here goes...

Your Cell Phone? Dying
Your Hair? Short
Your Mother? Loony
Your Father? Dork
Your Favorite Food? Food
Your Dream Last Night? Weird
Your Favorite Drink? Pop
Your Dream/Goal? Writer
What Room Are You In? Lab
Your Hobby? Poetry
Your Fear? Everything
Where Do You See Yourself In Six Years? Writing
Where Were You Last Night? Home
Something That You Aren't? Sane
Muffins? Blech
Wish List Item? NetBook
Where Did You Grow Up? Maine
Last Thing You Did? Scolded
What Are You Wearing? Jeans
Your TV? Crappy
Your Pets? Several
Friends? Crazy
Your Life? Better
Your Mood? Psychotic
Missing Someone? Always
Vehicle? Green
Something You Aren't Wearing? Hat
Your Favorite Store? B&N
Your Favorite Color? Black
When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Today
Last Time You Cried? Yesterday
Your Best Friend? Diane
Facebook? Junky
Favorite Place To Eat? Home
Favorite Character you've written about? Adella

That was fun!

~KK~

Going With the Trend...Book Review Time!!!

So I thought that I would follow the trend that I see with a lot of my friends in blogland and write a book review. This book is neither new nor widespread popular, but it caught my eye in passing at the Library and I read it and fell in love with it.

It's called A Dance for Three

It's written by Louise Plummer

This is a young adult book that deals with some really troubling issues. It combines the trauma of first love lost, teenage pregnancy, religion, and mental illness.

Told from three different vantage points, this story is witty and heart wrenching and very well written.

I loved it. The roommate loved it. Therefore, it pretty much rocked.

There were faults. Sometimes the dialogue didn't flow as well as it could have. I could have used a little more insight into the other character's view points. But overall it was a great story with a great message to it.

This is my first book review, like, ever, so tell me how I did, pretty please!!

~KK~

An Encouraging Thought

"In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway."

~Junot Díaz~

From this article that Jade found and shared with the blog world. I needed this kind of encouragment.

Thanks, Jade (Again)!

~KK~

Thank You Miss Jade!

I love my blog friends.

Especially Jade.

I've been struggling with my New Year's goals, not at all succeeding. Jade Pointed me to an article on a blog that I am now officially in love with, which led me to another article that has really kicked me in the rear and got me motivated to work.

I am determined to succeed this year.

Word counts are a good tool for some people. I don't think they are for me. I get too hung up on the word count and lose sight of the words. I'm not going to finish a good piece of work if I continually put out 1k of rubbish every day. I need to focus on the quality of my work. Focusing so har on word counts hinders my ability to communicate with my characters. I can't hear what they're telling me about their lives and the story if my eyes are glues to a word counter.

Quantity and quality go hand in hand for a lot of writers, like Lori and Scarlett and I admire them for that ability.

I don't have it.

I need to spend an hour or two a day to start with and work to produce good quality work, let my characters speak to me. I also need to put aside my poetry for a couple months and really focus on Leanna and her struggles. I need to put her pain on paper. She's had a rough time of it and she deserves it. I know I probably sound crazy, talking to my characters, discussing them as though they are real, but it's my job to make them real and talking to them is the only way that I know how to do that.

So. New New Year's writing goals:

1. Write every day. At least an hour a day. Aim for two. Aim for quality. Let the characters in. It is their story, after all.
2.Finish a MS. At least one. Possibly two. I CAN do it. I know it.
3. Put aside poetry anthology for a few months, then go back to it and work hard on it. There's a lot of good material there. It deserves my time, too, just not right away.

I am determined. I am committed. I am strong. I can do this.

~KK~

Plodding

Well, I'm keeping up with most of my new year's goals, if not all of them. I've written every day (all seven of them) but I've not made it to 500 words even once.

Life just seems to keep getting in the way.

And it doesn't help that I've had to take apart my outline and redo it...twice. Things just didn't flow right. My MC Leanna was in the wrong places at the wrong times of her life and it was driving me nuts. Things just weren't working. But, I think I've got the outline in the correct order now...I just have to finish it so I can start writing Leanna's story.

She's begging me to. It's like a constant distraction at work. I have to stop every 5 minutes to make a note of something that Leanna has told me that I didn't know and is vital to her story. She whispers in my ears at night and during the day and I'm ready to get her story down on paper.

I just need to find the time.

Now I know that's an excuse, and a lame ass one at that. I've been lazy and a slacker, that's all there is to it. I need to get my butt in a chair and my hands on a keyboard and get typing.

I just do.

~KK~

Happy New Year

Well, it's the first day of 2010 and I guess I should follow the blogging trend and lay out my goals for 2010. I don't have much to recap about 2009, so I'll just skip that part.

I have high hopes for 2010. This is the year that I hope to get some serious work done on my writing. I've spent the last two years talking about wanting to write and how I'm going to write and and and...not writing. It's time that I buckled down and got to it or lay the dream to rest for good.

So here's a general outline of what I want to accomplish in 2010:

1. Finish a MS. I know this sounds lame, but I have a habit of getting involved in a project and then just abandoning it. It's a habit that I need to break. Even if what I'm finishing turns out to be crap, I'm gonna see it through.

2. Finish at least 3 short stories that are of publishable quality. I want to have something to start submitting sometime this year.

3. Finish compiling and editing my poetry anthology.

4. Submit poetry anthology for publishing.

5. Write 500,000 words. This can include novel, short stories, and poetry so long as it's words on page.

6. Write every single day no ifs ands or buts. At least 500, but preferably 1,000 words, every day.


And here's a couple of non-writing goals:

1. Visit my family. I can't handle going 2 years without seeing them. It's just not right.

2. Join a gym.

3. Frequent said gym regularly.


Not too ambitious, is it? I tried to go easy on myself for the first year of really working on my goals. Maybe that's not the way to go, but, oh well.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy new year!!

~KK~