Be Jolly By Golly!

Yay for Christmas week! I’m taking part in Jen and Melissa’s Be Jolly By Golly blogfest (for details and other people participating, CLICK HERE). We post pictures of our decorations and include a recipe for a favorite treat and favorite drink. I don’t have any decorations up in my apartment this year (I know, I know, the shame), so I stole pictures of my parents’ decorations :)

Here's one of my favorite decorations: Snow White Christmas! Since I wrote my first real manuscript about Snow White, this decoration holds a super special place in my heart.

And, of course, the stunning Christmas tree! I love walking by it and catching the whiff of pine in the air.

My absolute favorite Christmas treat are my aunt’s spritz cookies, but I don’t the recipe, so here’s another: gingerbread biscotti!

I stole my recipe from allrecipes.com (CLICK HERE to see it). They’re just the perfect treat with my favorite drink: hot chocolate! Ok, ok, it’s not that inventive as a favorite holiday drink, but I have to be true to my favorites, right? I heat up milk in the microwave or on the stove and dump in way too much Godiva Double Chocolate hot chocolate mix. You can add in peppermint schnapps or a little cayenne (a very little—it goes a long way!) if you want to give it a kick.

Hope everyone has a beautiful Christmas week!

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. It’s almost college football bowl time! My family and I pick all the teams we think are going to win and compete for bragging rights, and I’m so going to win this year! I can feel it.

2. I’ve spent the entire week lost in the Vampire Academy series, and I just finished The Last Sacrifice last night. Wow—I’m suffering some serious withdrawal right now. I have to find another kickbutt book or I might go in a reading slump.

3. Can I just say, I love Houston winter. It’s been in the sixties and sunny here, and though I sometimes miss the snow, I’m loving being able to still wear my flipflops.

4. I saw Black Swan this week, which I was totally not prepared for. It’s a beautiful and powerful movie, but way, waaaayy too much blood and craziness for me to handle. I had to close my eyes for a good third of the movie, and there were points where I was very close to walking out because I just couldn’t take it anymore. It definitely deserves all the nominations it’s getting, but I never want to see that movie ever again.

5. I’m hoping to have a Love Actually viewing party this week, because that is my all-time favorite Christmas movies. One of my all-time favorite movies, actually. How can I resist Billy Mack and the cute little drummer boy kid? And Hugh Grant dancing like a spaz? And that guy who’s in love with Keira Knightley and declares his unrequited love in the sweetest way possible? I can’t wait!

Have a great weekend, everyone! Anyone else going to join me in watching Love Actually?

Hitting the Refresh Button

Ever since I finished the first draft my Birdie WiP at the beginning of this month, I’ve been taking a break. I’ve been haphazardly working on a shiny new idea, which I’m very excited about (because how can you not be excited about a shiny new idea?), but I’ve also been letting my mind focus on other things. I’ve taken a few short road trips around Texas to see new places and to visit some of my favorite places from childhood. I’ve spent more time with family and friends. I’ve read a ton of books—thank goodness for my library card!—and let myself get lost in all these different worlds. I’ve actually read the news instead of browsing the headlines. I’ve gone to museums to soak in art and history. I’ve let myself people-watch everywhere I go.

I didn’t realize until I let myself have some time off from writing how much I needed it. I needed to open up to the world around me and start observing it again. When I come back to start revising the Birdie WiP at the beginning of January, I’m going to have a different perspective. I’m going to be refreshed and excited about getting back to this whole writing business, I know it. But for now, I’m going to gather new ideas and new experiences and take Birdie off my mind.

Has anyone else tried taking a break like this? Do you have any advice?

Crazy Holiday Blogfest!

Christine at Christine's Journey is hosting the Crazy Holiday Blogfest, where we write snippets set at any holiday of the year. CLICK HERE to see the official description and to find out who's participating.

In my yet-to-be-edited Birdie WiP, there is a 4th of July party on a North Carolina beach:

“We have to go. It’s the biggest party of the season!”

I tried not to roll my eyes.

“It’s always fun,” Adam agreed, toweling off his head and making his hair to stick up at the most random angles. “Everyone gets together, gossips about everyone else, and then there are fireworks.”

“See? Epic fun.” Hadley crossed her arms and leveled her most serious face at me. “You have to come, Birdie.”

“You can’t miss the epic fun,” Adam added, hardly looking at me.

I sighed. “Sure. Whatever.”

I picked out a sundress to wear, but Hadley insisted everyone was going to be in bikinis. Well, that was not going to happen. I appeased her by wearing my cutest bikini and covering it with jean shorts and a white tank. Partying in my underwear was not really my style.

I had to admit, when we first got to the beach, it looked like actual fun. The bonfire was huge, its sparks flitting off into the sky. A full moon hung low over the black water. People screamed and danced in the firelight, and a DJ blasted all the latest hits at just the right volume.

Hadley pulled us through the crowd until she found the friends who had invited her, and we all stood around in a group. I tried to edge away from Adam, but there wasn’t that much room to move, and my arm pressed against his as he made jokes and instantly became the life of the party.

Ah, poor Birdie. Happy Monday, everyone!

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. The protagonist for my new WiP is completely different from all of my other protagonists, and it’s making me nervous. I guess the truth is, this girl (who has yet to be named because I haven’t yet found that perfect, could-only-be-her name) is nothing like me. At all. Which makes it both amazing and terrifying to write in her perspective. Has anyone else experienced this?

2. It’s turning into robe and slippers time here with cold mornings, and I love it! I’m sure in a few months I’ll miss the kind of sunshine that warms the top of your head, but for now, I’m very happy that winter is coming.

3. I just read the first Vampire Academy book, and I’m so hooked! I want to snap all the rest and figure out what happens with Rose and Lissa and (swoon!) Dimitri.

4. I have to make my college bowl season picks! Every year, my family and I compete for bragging rights to see who can pick the most winners. One year, I started out at 2 for 14. As in a monkey could have picked better than I could have. I’m determined to redeem myself this year.

5. I’ve lost a lot of time this week on this site: Dear Blank, Please Blank (CLICK HERE to see it). Almost, almost as good as mylifeisaverage.com.

Happy weekend, everyone! Any fun weekend plans?

Trying to find that sense of anticipation

I’m still in the planning stages of my shiny new idea, but I’m so very tempted to become a pantser for this one. For my first WiP, I was a pantser: I didn’t plan anything, didn’t do any character studies, etc. I just wrote. I had a vague idea in my head, and I scribbled a story (yes, by hand) in a journal I had. Which meant I had A TON to revise once the time came, but that first draft came out so easily.

For every WiP since, I’ve been a plotter. Before I write one word of the first draft, I make a detailed outline. I create character sketches, figuring out each of my characters voices, personalities, backgrounds, everything. But I’ve found that while writing my first draft, I get sort of…bored. I know where things are headed, and I just have to write it there. My characters change things on me, of course, but the structure of the story doesn’t change all that much. And I lose that sense of anticipation: wondering where this new decision by my protagonist is going to take me, for example. Trying to figure out what this new character who came out of nowhere will mean for the story. I want to find that excitement again.

So for this WiP, I’m going to try a combination of the two. I’m going to set up some of the basics: what my characters want, what kind of world/environment they live in, the basic direction I want my plot to go. But then I’m going to just start writing and see where it takes me. It’s going to mean a lot of revising, I know, but I want to feel that sense of anticipation again.

Are you a pantser or a plotter? Have you found any methods for keeping that sense of excitement and anticipation as you write the first draft?

Washington-on-the-Brazos and Christmas Cards

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park. It's where the Texas Declaration of Independence (from Mexico) was signed. I’ve been going there since I was a little girl, and it’s just the most beautiful, peaceful place.



2. The idea of gardening. I’ve never been any good at growing things, but it seems like such a great hobby to have.

3. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Seriously, you guys. Seriously. You have to read it RIGHT NOW. You will fall in love with Anna and Paris and film and an English-French-American boy names Etienne. Please read this book. I got absolutely lost in it.

4. Browsing slowly through an art museum, just soaking it all in.

5. Writing actual Christmas cards to friends, like I’m a real adult.

Happy Monday, everyone! Anything making you happy this week?

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. I finished! I finished the first draft of my WiP. And now I’m exhausted. But I plan on reading the pile of books I’ve been waiting to read and then jumping into my shiny new idea. I’ll let my WiP sit for a few weeks until I can come back with fresh eyes, and then comes the fun process of revision!

2. I haven’t gone shoe shopping in forever, and I desperately need new shoes! I guess it wouldn’t hurt to hit the mall in celebration of finishing my first draft, right? :)

3. In less than two months, I’ll be running in a half-marathon, and I haven’t begun training for it at all. I haven’t ever run thirteen miles in a row, even when I was in my best shape in high school, so this is going to be an interesting two months!

4. I’m absolutely in love with my Spiced Pumpkin Yankee candle! It makes my apartment smell just like fall, and I can’t help but smile whenever I light it.

5. It’s almost Nutcracker time! Actually, the Houston Ballet has already begun performing it, but I won’t be going for a few weeks, I think. I don’t know much about ballet, but I love going, and combining ballet with Christmas is just the best thing ever.

Happy weekend, everyone! Any fun plans? How’s the writing going? Any amazing books I need to read right now?

Nearing the End

Ahh, I’m so close! I think I probably have about 5,000 words left, and then I’m done with the first draft of my Birdie WiP. And I’ve filled in almost all of the holes, so I just have to write the ending, which has already been mapped out. I know where to go: I just have to get there.

There’s such an adrenaline rush that comes with the moment you realize you can actually finish this book. It will actually be completed if you just put your butt in that chair and your hands on the keyboard and write. If you ignore all of your friends and family for just a little while longer. If you commit to living on chips and other easy-to-reach foods for the day. I know tonight I’m going to be staying up until the wee hours, just wanting to get it done, and I’m actually excited about that.

Does anyone else go this crazy as they near the end?