My Dreams Are Coming True!!

Yes, you read the title correctly.

MY DREAMS ARE COMING TRUE!!!

As I write this, I am waiting (and not very patiently) for the book cover of Ravens Hollow to arrive in my email. Complete with my name as the author. Gosh, I am so excited, I can barely stand it.

Yes, I know, my previous post talked about my zombie novels. Don't worry, they are still in the works. Along with another series. But, I have been working on Ravens Hollow for years, and felt that it really should be the first book to be published.

What's Ravens Hollow about??

Well, how does witches, curses, and a hot guy that turns into a raven sound?? Yes, please go and get yourself a nice, cold drink and a cold wet washcloth, I'll wait....


Ivy Rose Hamilton was a typical teenage girl. Student by day, cheerleader by night. The only odd thing about her was her love of myths and legends, and that her favorite color happened to be black. That is, until the nightmares started.

Ivy grew up hearing about the legend of Ravens Hollow, but never believed it was true. Weeks before her eighteenth birthday, Ivy found out that there was more to the curse...and it involved her.

For over three hundred years, Daniel Beckett has had to live a life of seclusion. Unable to be seen in human form, except by his blood relatives, Daniel was shocked the day that Ivy showed up in the forest he had lived in since 1657. A forest of evil.

Will Ivy be able to break the curse, before Daniel becomes consumed by the evil he has lived with for so long? Or, will the curse destroy them both?


Well, have you cooled down yet??

Well, get ready for more...


 "My problem? Well, let’s see," he said, his voice heavy with cynicism, as he slowly moved toward me, "maybe it could be because of a curse placed on me that has left me stuck as an eighteen year old for over three hundred years. Or," he continued, as I started to slowly back away from his advancing form, "maybe it’s because I can only be human while I’m on this vile piece of property, with its evilness slowly seeping into my soul, making me wonder how many more years it will be before I am completely overtaken by it."

I had continued to back away from him, and it wasn’t long before I felt my back hit the side of the cottage, where I was held motionless by the power of his dark eyes.

"Or, maybe," he said, while pinning me in place with his hands, as his face came closer to mine, "maybe it could be that for the first time in three hundred and sixty four years, someone other than my family can see me."

Mesmerized, I watched a mixture of anger and passion explode in the blackness of his eyes, making the silver flecks in them grow and shimmer as he continued to torment me.

"And maybe," he said, as his body started to press into mine, "for the first time in those three centuries, I have found someone that I can do this to."

I closed my eyes as his lips...(sorry, you will have to buy the book to find out what happens)


******


Well, guess what!!! My book cover arrived, as I wrote this. So, are you ready??

BOOM!!! HERE IT IS!!!

Coming in March, 2016...

 



What do you think?? I love it!

I guess I should get back to writing now, otherwise what good is just a book cover.



Love and hugs,

Denise



 

Promises Not Made, Can't Be Broken

I am not going to promise myself or anyone else that I am going to blog everyday, or even every week. What I am going to say is that I am going to try and blog a little more often.

There...that's done. Now, on to other things.

Life is still hectic. Taking care of family will always be a priority, but I am trying to live my dreams in between those moments of priority.

I will be in my first craft show this year. YAY!! I have been crafting for over 20 years, and have always wanted to be in a craft show. So, that means one dream will now be accomplished. Go me!!

But, my biggest thing is my writing. I am now working on a new zombie series (I love zombies, don't you?).

The "Until The End" series will be comprised of three books: "Outlive", "Outlast", and "Outlove". I am currently about a third of the way through "Outlive", and am hoping to be finished with it by November. I am super excited about this book series, and am finding it one of the easiest things that I have ever written...and here's why.

I have always read writers tips by famous authors, and tried to apply those tips to my writing. Well, I'm here to tell ya that that is not the thing to do!! It left me in a constant state of chaos.

If so-and-so said that you needed to plot your book ahead of time, well then I tried to do that. If another one said that you can't write until you find your voice, and this was how to do it...then that's what I did. If an author that I admired was to say that they key to writing was to whistle Dixie, while standing on your head in the middle of the train tracks, then I would have tried it.

Well, guess what folks?? It ain't like that!!!

The one that made the most sense, but stumped me the most, was "write what you know". Heck, I don't know 'nuthin' 'bout 'nuthin', so what the heck was I gonna write about?? I stumbled over this one for years. Then it came to me - I knew ME!!

One evening, I was sitting in my chair watching some show on tv, when an idea hit me out of the blue. It was about a farm girl in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. That farm girl was ME! I had grown up on a large dairy farm in the Missouri Ozarks, and I knew exactly how my character would behave. I knew the things she would know. And, I knew the things she could do.

Also, for the first time, I did not spend weeks and months plotting out this book. I took it from day one, with a handful of characters, and just started writing. And, ended up completely blown away by the ease of how my story was flowing, how my characters just knew what to do next, and how much I was enjoying writing it.

It dawned on me then, that for me, plotting out the entire book was like already telling the story. Once the story was told, I had no need to write it. With this book, the zombie apocalypse WAS the plot. I was not being held back by anything, and I could let my story go anywhere it needed to go.

Hmmm, kind of like reading a book.

So, here I am, in all my writing glory and ready to shout to the world that I am finally going to have a book ready to publish by the end of the year. Woo Hoo!!

One day soon, I will start posting a little about the book (no promises made on exactly when..he he). And, when the time is right, I will start on a promotional campaign to start reaching readers.

Until then...

Love and Hugs,

Denise

I'M BACK!!!!

Has it really been more than two years since I last wrote on my blog??

Seriously??

Wowzers!!!

Well, okay then. Here is the scoop on the last two years.

Many changes have occurred since I last wrote on this blog and I hardly know where to begin.

But, I guess the main thing is my illness that started a year and a half ago.

I really don't want to go into details, but I would like to review some things that I have learned.

1. Live your DREAM!!! No matter what happens in your life...LIVE YOUR DREAM!!!

2. If you can't live your dream, at that particular time in your life, then PLAN FOR YOUR DREAM. Eat, live, breathe, and dream about your DREAM!!

3. You can have more than one dream. Just make one of them a priority. One for now, and the other for later. Or, pick the one that you are the most passionate about. OR, evaluate both of them and see which one fits your current life status. (I have two, but one of them is currently unattainable due to health reasons.)

4. NO DREAM IS UNACHIEVABLE!!! If you want to climb a mountain, but are afraid of heights, you can teach yourself to overcome that fear. Point being...YOU CAN, AND WILL, CLIMB THAT MOUNTAIN!!!

5. Learn that FEAR is just an emotion, just like happiness is, and emotions can be either crippling or motivating. Just learn that your fear-frown can be turned upside down!!! :)

6. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON OF ALL IS:

YOU ARE WORTH IT!!

YOU ARE WORTH TAKING A CHANCE ON!!

YOU ARE WORTH ACHIEVING YOUR DREAMS!!

Well, I seriously hope my point has been obvious. LOL!!

I have let fear keep me its B**ch for way too long.

I AM going to live my dream. Fear will not win anymore!!

I AM going to write and publish my books. If you don't like them, then don't read them.

I think that non-writers do not understand that writers have stories and characters running through their heads, living in their lives, whispering plots in their ears, and bug the living crap out of them, until they put them on paper and tell their stories.

Hey, the stories may not be great, but that doesn't mean the writer is a bad writer. They just need to listen harder to their characters, and keep writing until they learn how to get their stories out in a better way. Practice makes perfect!! :)

Because, being ill will teach you one thing..., you only have one life to live...so, you had better get busy living it!!! THERE ARE NO JUSTIFIABLE EXCUSES!!! (see previous post)

Hugs,

Denise

JUSTIFIABLE EXCUSES!!

Yeah, I know it's been six months since my last blog posting and not a single one of my promises has been kept. And, I can give a whole list of excuses like being extremely unwell and finally having major surgery in June to justify my absence. But, that isn't all that I want to write about today.

Michelle Muto (a fabulous author, so please check out her work) recently posted a cartoon on her Facebook page that said "Writing is 90% procrastination, and 30% panic". Wow, that is probably the most true statement I have seen in a long time, and pretty much sums up my entire writing life.

For most writers, excuses are the justifiable pieces of our procrastination process. As for me, I will dig for those type of excuses, because "hey, then it's not my fault that I couldn't write". Well, heaven forbid that not writing is my fault!!!

So, today's blog is about "excuses", justifiable or not. (And, by the way, these are my excuses and I take full responsibility for them) :)

1. No support - I know that there have been many authors out there that became successful solely on their own, with no help from anybody. But, I have a feeling that they are a rare breed, with an abundance of self-confidence that they could sell on Ebay for a butt load of money. Because, most of the authors I read put a little blurb in the front or back of the book thanking people who helped them along the way (and, I don't mean help with research). Most authors talk about how their spouses supported them by bringing them latte's, or keeping the kids quiet, cooking supper, etc... I'm sure you get my drift.
Sadly, I don't quite have one of those. Oh, I have a spouse, but he's not the supper cooking, latte bringing kind. Does he support me in my writing? Yeah, but only as far as saying "I think you should do it", while he proceeds to eat the supper that I cooked. But, seriously, he's not all that bad. It's just that he and I are two totally different people that like totally different things. He doesn't read books (unless they are about fixing engines), so he doesn't get the concept of what it takes to write one. He doesn't get that a writer has to shut out the living world while they are creating a world of fiction. And, I think that if I say something about it, all he will hear is "you don't want to live in the real world with me".

Support from friends or other family members is a totally different story than from a spouse. In my world, the upside is that my best friend supports me completely. The downside is that she is also my total opposite. She loves to read, but not the kind of books that I read and write. So, that kind of leaves me without someone to bounce ideas off of. But, I love her anyway. Now, my daughter does read most of the same books that I do, and we have gotten together a few times for "idea bouncing sessions", but she is also very busy with her own life, and that makes it difficult for us to find the time.

Okay, enough with the "no support" theory. I would call this one at least 30% justifiable, because if I had enough self-confidence I would look for other ways to get the support I need. You know, like from other authors or joining some type of writing group, or...wait a minute, did I say self-confidence??? By golly, I think I just found excuse number two.

2. Self-confidence - Oh yeah, this one is a biggy!!! You know why?? Because, I was born without the self-confidence gene. I know, it's sad isn't it? Whatever!!!
The depressing part is that the gene only kicks in at certain times. I worked in the medical billing/coding field for twelve years, and every one of those years I received excellent reviews and was given more challenging work assignments. But, when it comes to writing, that stupid self-confidence gene cowers in the corner of my DNA and refuses to help. What's up with that??? My thought, is that the work I did in the medical field had a formula to it. There were guidelines I had to follow to complete my work in a timely and professional manner. With writing, there are no guidelines for creativity. I think that sometimes, my creativity is hiding in the same corner as my self-confidence and it is going to take a massive amount of coddling to lure them out. And sadly, chocolate doesn't work as bait.

So, I would say that this one is about 40% justifiable, because if I could avoid the anxiety my self-confidence causes, then I could...oh, oh, oh!!! Wait a minute!!! Did I say anxiety??? I do believe, that I have stumbled upon excuse number three.

(little side note here, I have received 4 phone calls since I started writing this and the phone is about to be thrown out the window)

3. Anxiety - Also known as panic or fear. This excuse easily goes along with the self-confidence issue, and some would say that they are the same thing. But, I say that they are two separate entities that thrive on different levels of our psyche. A person can be completely self-confidant, but have anxiety about getting a promotion, or receiving an award. Now, on the flip side of this, a person with no self-confidence will always have anxiety. Yeah, it sucks.
For me, my anxiety rules my writing life. In my professional world, I had self-confidence and very little anxiety. In my creative world, anxiety wins out every time and my self-confidence is nonexistant. My creative world has also enhanced my social anxiety (read previous blog postings for more info) and just thinking about trying to make connections with other people makes me nervous. I follow many authors on Twitter and I have actually pushed myself to interact with them on occasion. Now, here's the funny thing. When I really put myself out there and interact with other authors, I feel my self-confidence begin to grow, and my anxiety levels go down. And so, my writing improves and I find fewer excuses to write.

Now, when I started having some health problems and I physically didn't feel like writing, I completely stayed away from Twitter. I just could not make myself get on there and read what was going on with other authors. Hmm, still can't quite figure out why. Unless, it was because I felt guilty for not writing and therefore no longer felt I should be a part of their world. If that is truly the case, then social anxiety wins again.

I also have to think that most of the anxiety a writer goes through is fear of the end result. You know...my manuscript is finished and is now published for all the world to read. So, what usely happens next? Yep, review time. Words of praise or criticism. Of course, we all want the praise. Praise is the validation that our self-confidence needs to avoid the anxiety of writing our next book. But, criticism? Oh boy, that is the one thing that can completely push our self-confidence below the earth and boost our anxiety levels to the moon. And, some people out there can find fault with every single part of your book, whether it is deserved or not. (BTW, if I read one more "It's a rip-off of Twilight" I think that I am going to scream. I have even seen this happen with non-vampire book reviews. Huh???)

In any case, anxiety could be considered about 60% justifiable, because sometimes there just isn't enough Xanax in the world to treat the levels I go through when it comes to writing.
　
Well, I think that I will stop with these three "justifiable" excuses and leave you with this one thought:

If you add up all of the "justifiable excuses" in the world, the only answer you are going to get is--procrastination. And, I am the Queen!!!

WHAT A WEEK!!

Wow, this past week and a half has been a wild one. A couple of weeks ago I began going through the little snippets of book ideas that I have been writing down for years, and found one that hit me like a herd of elephants. My mind, unable to shut down, took this idea and flew with it. Well, after three days, a plot for all three books of a trilogy, 6000 words of the first book written, stiff hands, one sore shoulder (from typing), and a playlist of songs, my exhausted mind finally crashed back to earth.

After taking a short breather, that included ice packs for my shoulder and Ibuprofen for my hands, I looked over what I had written. My first thought was, Holy smokes, I wrote that?, and then I realized that my passion for this book was evident in the words I was reading. I have never had an idea hit me this hard, as you would be able to tell by all of the books I stopped writing after the first chapter. And so, with my excitement still unabated, I have continued on with this book. I am so thrilled that I will one day get to share it with world (or at least anyone who wants to read it).

And, now, comes the honesty part. My 'social anxiety' is hitting an all time high. Yep, that dreaded self doubt in is trying to pull my ship of happiness back to its shores. But, I will say that Daniel and Ivy (my hero and heroine in Ravens Hollow) are helping me to fight the 'Dastardly Doubt.' And, I have made a promise to myself, and Daniel and Ivy, that I WILL NOT give up on this story.

So, in the weeks to come, I promise that I will get a synopsis posted, and a link to the song and video that has helped to keep me going through all of this.

P.S. One more thing I want to do, is to give a little shout out to author Jennifer Snyder. Jennifer, you will never know what you have done for me this week. But, if you ever read the previous postings on my blog, you might be able to guess. Thanks so much for being my friend on Twitter.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

I know that we are already 20 days into the new year, but I just had to get my new year's resolution put out here into cyber space. Maybe seeing it in print will help me keep it this year.

If you read my blog from yesterday, you will know that I have a very hard time in social situations. People may think that Twitter, Facebook, and blogging would be easier for a person like me since we aren't in the same room. But, it is just as difficult, since I am putting myself out there to be scrutinized. I have seen so many things on Twitter and Facebook that I have wanted to respond to and didn't, because I thought "why would anyone care what I have to say." Well, I care about what I have to say, and now I am going to say it. So, if you see me responding to something you have written, it is because I care about both what you and how I feel about it.

Okay, so back to the resolution part. I actually have three this year. The first is to work through my social anxiety and really put myself out there. The second is to finish my book. And, the third is to publish my book independently.

I am happy to say, that after only 20 days, I am still on track with all three. I actually posted some things on Twitter yesterday and responded to someone else's post. I finished the prologue and started chapter one of my book. And, I contacted someone about cover art, checked on ISBN numbers and did some research on ebook publishing. So, not bad for a chick like me.

The only drawback to any of my plans, are the physical limitations I go through on a daily basis. I guess I forgot to mention that even though I am young, I have severe arthritis in both of my thumbs. The pain involves the entire thumb and down into my wrist, and this is on BOTH of my hands. I have had two surgeries already and will need at least two more. This type of arthritis is not caused by age, but by the fact that I am double jointed and have always been able to do freaky things with my thumbs, so I wore them out faster than normal. Cool, huh?

So, from this day forward, my blogs are going to be about the progress I am making on my book, books I have read and the authors that wrote them, tidbits of my life, music, and any other fun things I can think of.

By the way, this is the little face that greets me every morning, begs to be in my lap all day, and makes me smile through all the tough times. Her name is Shelby.

TIME TO LET MY HAIR DOWN!!!

One of the reasons I started this blog was to try and pull myself out of the hole I dug for myself a long time ago. It is not easy for my to put myself out in to the world socially. Unless, there is liquor involved, and then I'm quite the social butterfly. =D

But, after reading what little I have wrote, I realized I am still living in my hidey-hole. I have always been the type of person who does for others, and never myself. My happiness comes from those around me who are happy. I celebrate their joys, and never my own. I don't enjoy going to parties, weddings, or any other social gatherings. So, I don't live, I just exist. I'm the wallflower in this party called life.

Well, have you figured it out yet?? Yep, it's called social anxiety. So, now that you know my little secret, it's time to make a change. Time to let my hair down and open myself up to the world and let them know I am here.

It's sad to say that this thing has kept me from doing so many things over the years, and writing is one of them. Oh, I have written many things. But, they were always reserved and diffident. The sad part is that the few times I actually put myself into something, the feedback was phenomenal. I have been told by a few teachers and professors that I needed to be a writer. Can't get much better than that, right? Well, the draw back to acting on such a thing would be the rejections I would receive from publishers. I just could not even think about putting myself through that. (did you catch that? I never even thought about acceptance, only rejection) But, the world has opened up for indie authors and I am going to live in that world.

Okay, there is so much more I could tell you, but enough of the sad junk. Time to tip my world on its axis and let the storm in.

So, if you are reading this I just want to say "WELCOME TO MY NEW WORLD AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE RIDE."

It's time to kick the tires, and light the fires!! Woo Hoo!! I'm...I'm...I'm...crap I forgot to put the gas in. Oh, well, I guess I'll walk instead of fly.

P.S. The people that I have actually let in to know the real me would tell you that that last line is really me. I love to "try" and be funny, and sometimes I succeed.