The Resolution Paradox

Do you make resolutions? I feel like I go through this every year. I probably change my mind about how I feel about them every year too. Yes, I make resolutions! No, no way. Resolutions never pan out, why make them? Maybe.... I could try to make a few....


I never stick to resolutions. There, I said it. I just don't. RESOLUTION sounds so... definite. Which I guess is the point, but to avoid setting myself up for disappointment, I think I'll just make note of a few writerly things that would be pretty cool if they happened in 2012.

• Finish a first draft of my current WIP - I'm coming up on 60k words TODAY (1,645 words to go), so that next 10k or so to wrap everything up should be a January BREEZE. But you know, I thought I'd have the whole thing done last July, so, I'm hoping this is more than wishful thinking.
• Revise revise revise and query said WIP - *bites nails prematurely* 
• Get an agent - I got a B&N gift card for Christmas (Several) and one of the things I bought with them is the 2012 Guide to Literary Agents. I've thumbed through it and it seems useful. But first my plan is to research the agents of authors that I've heard of and love, because, well, obviously their agent gets it. LOL. 
• Finish a first draft of the WIP I started in, what, 2010?? The one who's characters keep nudging at me saying, please tell our story. It's good. We promise. I'm actually really itching to get back to that one. But my Italy story is rolling right along right now, so I'm not stopping until it's done and in my Beta's hands.

Then of course, more personally, there's the old standby to lose weight. But, as DL points out in this fantastic BLOG POST, we're insane if we keep making the same resolutions without changing up our method. We set ourselves up to fail them every year because doing the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes is INSANE. I took the bull by the horns BEFORE the New Year, and started my workout reboot a month ago. No resolution there. Just a lifestyle change. Now to just stick with it....  

Any writerly aspirations for 2012? I'm still just SO pumped about what this year has in store, I can't explain why. Does it feel like you're just standing on the edge of something really exciting?? 

However you ring in the New Year, please be safe out on the roads especially! Not everyone is as smart as you are. ;)

2012 New Year Giveaway Hop!

I am number 171 on this gigantic giveaway hop! Special thanks to I am a Reader, Not a Writer and Babs Book Bistro for hosting!

2012! I don't know about y'all, but I'm pumped about this year. There's something about the even number that has such a nice ring to it! This is OUR YEAR, y'all.

Let's start the year off right, with a GIVEAWAY! I'm giving away my hardback copy of Julie Halpern's Don't Stop Now! I thoroughly enjoyed this fun story, and hope you will too!

From Goodreads:

On the first day of Lillian’s summer-before-college, she gets a message on her cell from her sort-of friend, Penny. Not only has Penny faked her own kidnapping, but Lil is the only one who figures it out. She knows that Penny’s home life has been rough, and that her boyfriend may be abusive. Soon, Penny’s family, the local police, and even the FBI are grilling Lil, and she decides to head out to Oregon, where Penny has mentioned an acquaintance. And who better to road-trip across the country with than Lil’s BFF, Josh. But here’s the thing: Lil loves Josh. And Josh doesn’t want to “ruin” their amazing friendship.Josh has a car and his dad’s credit card. Lil has her cellphone and a hunch about where Penny is hiding. There’s something else she needs to find: Are she and Josh meant to be together?

To Enter: *US only

Adapt

Is change hard for anyone else? Especially change you didn't see coming?

I want to thank all of you for your kind words and encouragement after my news yesterday. I know this change was meant to happen, it just blindsided me and I was angry. I need time to adapt. Just like I had to adapt when I started back in July. What did I go and do? I got attached. Not just to the money (not that it was a ton, but it was something on top of photography), but to the girls I worked with. I will miss a couple of them in particular, and it will be an adjustment not to have them in my daily life anymore.

This little blip in employment now joins the list of jobs I had in my twenties that I'll look back on one day and say, OH YEAH! I forgot I did that!

I'm pouring my extra time into my workouts, house cleaning, meal preparing, and most importantly, my WIP!

Better things are around the corner, but it's up to me to make that turn.

2012 is my year. Is it yours too??

Best part of waking up... is getting fired

My mom tells me my blog's getting boring, sorry! haha I know I've been absent, we're all busy this time of year. October through November were pretty busy for me with photography, throw in a part time job three days a week and I didn't have much extra time for writing, forget blogging!

I've actually been composing a difficult post for a couple weeks now, and it's still not ready to share. It's nothing personally serious, don't get nervous! Just something I discovered doing research on my WIP and wanted to share. I'll try to have it done later this week.

Last week was really hard for me. My good friend and manager at my part time job (the reason I worked there in the first place) was suddenly let go. This just a month after the other office girl was randomly let go. I started working there in July, and then BAM, last week I was the one with seniority in the front office. I was still learning! Still passing on phone calls to my manager, then suddenly I'm the one getting calls passed to me!

Well, Tuesday after they let her go, I got the big long speech from the practice manager how they were happy with my work and they didn't want me to worry. I had to work my REAR off last week being the one in the office that had any idea what I was doing, staying almost two hours late every day to finish up and try to do damage control. I was STRESSED.

I go in this morning, the day after Christmas (and Mom's birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!), and they LET ME GO TOO! For, get this, NO REASON. Who does that? They're happy with my work, don't want me to worry, I have ZERO write ups, no warning, just BAM you're fired. My guess is they want my position to be full time (and to pay less than they payed me), and I wasn't able to do that since I run my photography biz too. Mom thinks something more sinister is going on, which sounds exciting, but if there was something I may have caught wind of, I'm too blonde to have noticed.

Now I can finally stop complaining and finish that symphony... err, WIP ;)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, from my family to yours!

2012 Multi-Cultural YA Book Challenge!!

One Page at a Time and Truly Bookish have put together a ROCKIN book challenge for next year!

These awesome ladies are highlighting YA books written by multi-cultural/ethnic minorities OR featuring multi-cultural/ethnic minorities as main characters. The goal is to read 12 minority YA books for the year, newly published or not. And every month, they'll feature a book or author that meets the criteria and do a book giveaway for the challenge participants!

Seriously, this is a super awesome book challenge, and I encourage everyone to click the pretty button below to learn more about it and to sign up.

I had fun working on a shiny new button too! Isn't it cute?! Don't you want to put it on your blog? 

WINK WINK

I already have some books in mind for this challenge:

Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Tiger's Quest and Tiger's Voyage by Colleen Houck

Perfect Chemistry, Rules of Attraction, and Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles

Sea by Heidi R. Kling

The Revenant by Sonia Gensler

Shifting by Bethany Wiggins

Look, that's nearly the challenge right there! 

MacBook Pro vs MacBook Air

I'm in the market for a laptop! This week I discovered something new about myself. I focus better on writing in public. I don't know what it is. You'd think I'd be MORE distracted, but when I try to write at home, I see too many other things being neglected and I run off to do those things instead. That's why it's December and my WIP is still in shambles.

So, that being said, I need a new laptop. The one I'm using weighs like 20 pounds, it's nearly 5 years old (which makes it a dinosaur in technology years), and I had to do surgery on it for an entire day just to get it to run. I pretty much stripped it of everything but MS Word. Did I mention the battery life is about 45 minutes TOPS? So if I don't get the seat close to the plug, my writing (typing) time is short. I'd also like to be able to listen to music while I write, and this computer is too much of a sissy to handle that anymore.

I'm a converted Mac user now (since getting my iMac last year that I'm STILL in LURVE with), so I was curious how many of you have MacBooks. My husband has the 13" MacBook Pro, so I pretty much know how adorable it is, but what's the deal with the MacBook Air? Anyone have one? It doesn't have a disc drive, does it? I think that could be a problem. What's the word?

Two Year Blogiversary!

Can you believe it?!?! Tomorrow marks two years of blogging for me!!

*throws confetti on all your heads*

I've made so many friends, found a few indispensable critique partners, and I've learned so so so much. Thank you to all my lovely 373 followers, I appreciate each and every one of you!

So how should I celebrate this anniversary of blogging? What would you like to see from me? A giveaway? A contest? Giftcards? Specific books? Let me know what rocks your blogiversary world!

And since today is Friday, here are five random things on my mind today:

1. Food journaling is hard.

2. My lemon tree is inside most of this week, since it's been freezing at night. I think it likes the toasty temperature because a lot of the little flower buds have opened up and they smell HEAVENLY!

3. I keep forgetting Christmas is so close, and there are still a couple people I have NO CLUE what to gift them with.

4. Santa has elves, we have Target. So true. So. True.

5. Every year I let myself buy a new Christmas album, and this year I bought Michael Buble's newest called "Christmas," if you can believe it. Now I usually enjoy his songs on the radio. I love his throw-back voice and a little part of me tingles at the thought that he can sell out our largest stadium in town in the matter of an hour (isn't it awesome that the general population can still appreciate this style of music?! I love it.) This album is loaded with classics sung only the way he can sing them, and it's a welcome addition to my Christmas playlist.

I don't think I'm gonna make the goal...

I was supposed to read 50 books this year for my Goodreads challenge. Apparently I've only read 38 as of right now, and I'm "8 books behind". I don't think I can read 8 books in less than a month. This was a goal I really thought I could hit. Once Autumn rolled in and photography picked up, everything else fell behind.

My WIP has been on the backburner too, which makes me sad. I was so sure I was going to finish it in June! Then July! Okay, maybe August... October? End of the year...? To my critique girls, I really do appreciate the pestering for more pages. Even though I'm slow getting them to you, knowing that you are that engaged in my story that you keep asking for more, inspires me to work even harder to finish this sucker for you! I'm taking at least January off of photography and I'm buckling down to get my story finished and edited.

How have your 2011 goals been for you this year? It's so funny how fired up we are every January, only to let ourselves down by June. By October we've probably completely forgotten everything we set out to do. Does that happen to you too, or is it just me? (Please say it's not just me! ;)

I'm not waiting until January 2012 to get my act back together. I'm taking control again right now! Or... maybe Monday.

KIDDING! RIGHT NOW!! I pledge to myself to at least write one chapter in my WIP by the time the weekend is up!! Wow that felt good.

LET'S DO THIS