Do I Have To Do This?

Tim Donaghy & Michael Vick

2007-08-22T15:46:00.002-07:00

For those of you who don't already know this, I am a HUGE basketball fan. HUGE. I am a Phoenix Suns fan through and through all the way down to my license plate. (Shawn Marion is the man!)

Having said that, I was very surprised when I ran across an article in the Arizona Republic . The article basically said that a Maricopa County attorney is interested in finding out if Tim Donaghy gambled on the two playoff games that he reffed in Phoenix. (Lakers vs. Suns/Spurs vs. Suns) They said they were thinking about pressing charges. (Gotta love Suns fans) While I am all about punishing this guy for screwing up my team's chance at the NBA Finals, I guess it never dawned on me that the state had that "long" of an arm. I'll be interested to see how it all plays out. On the FBI's end, Mr. Donaghy could be looking at a maximum of 25 years and a fine somewhere in the range of $500,000.

On the NFL front Michael Vick has agreed to a plea bargain for his part in dogfighting. His role as financial backer and, from more recent reports, executioner for at least eight dogs by trying to first hang them and then when that didn't work he held their heads in a bucket of water until they drowned. Most of the comments that I have read and heard think that this is disgusting and he shouldn't be allowed back into society, little alone the NFL, however, the NFL has a history of signing a convicted sex offender and another player who served time for killing someone while driving under the influence. Stephon Marbury who thinks that dogfighting is a sport, bless his tiny little heart, thinks that all should be forgiven since we don't give hunters a hard time. *sigh* The max that Vick is looking at is five years and $250,000 in fines.

Am I the only one who thinks what Michael Vick did is ten times worse than what Tim Donaghy did? If not, why? I think the punishment for what Michael Vick did to those dogs does not fit the crime.

I'm a bad blogger

2007-04-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

In all reality it probably doesn't matter that I'm a terrible blogger. I'm pretty sure that no one reads this other than me anyway. But just in case . . .

My book is at a stand still. I'm still pushing things around in my head and recording them on my groovy cool little digital recorder thing, but I can't remember the last time I put anything on paper. The closest I've come to writing has been commenting on Jennifer Apodaca's blog. (If you haven't checked her out you should.) Between my two jobs, my two kids, my two dogs and the fact that I require approximately 6-8 hours of sleep per night, I don't get a lot done. I'm a slacker and I know one day I'm going to be sorry that I didn't get my very first book written. Maybe when my kids move out . . .

In the meantime, I'm still plotting and coming up with brand new complicated story lines that I'm not sure I could ever pull together into a cohesive story, but I'm willing to spend my entire commute working on it.

Research . . . Ugh!

2006-12-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

I have this really great idea for a new book. I'd go into details but right now it's all still in my head, except for what I've recorded with my handy dandy micro recorder thingy that my husband bought me for my birthday last year, but basically it's not on paper. The plot for this book is a little more involved than my other stuff so it's going to take a lot more research to get it right.

I hate research. I am not a people person and sometimes doing research requires talking to actual people. I may need a doctor for this one (the research, not my health). I can probably get a lot of information online, but I just know I'm going to have questions, so I'm going to have to find a doctor to help me out on this one. I have no clue how to go about doing that. Do I just look somebody up in the yellow pages and say "Hey, I have some questions, can you help me out?" (I'm open to suggestions or referrals.)

Calling All Basketball Fans!

2006-11-03T16:17:00.000-07:00

Basketball season is finally upon us!!!! I could be more excited if I had season tickets, but since that's not going to happen I AM SUPER READY!

I am a Phoenix Suns fan through and through. Shawn Marion (my personal favorite and the most unappreciated player in the NBA) is going to have a stellar year, but then again, that shouldn't surprise anyone. Amare Stoudemire is back on the court (woo hoo) and eventually he'll be the player we all know him to be. Raja Bell, what can I say? My favorite Raja moment was in the playoffs when he clotheslined Kobe Bryant. Does that make me a bad person?

I will admit, while I am a huge Suns fan I don't follow other teams so my opinions are extremely biased. Having said that, Sports Illustrated predicted the Phoenix Suns to win it all this year. Keep your fingers crossed!

For those of you who are saying, yeah right, they started out the season with a bang going 1-1 against the LA teams, it's a long year baby.

I am not familiar with Marcus Banks or Jalen Rose, our newest pick up, but I plan to spend some time getting to know them on the screen.

As I wrote this blog over a month ago and never published it, let's just say the Phoenix Suns started off a little slow this year with a 1-5 record, however, as of yesterday's win against the Bobcats, we are now on a 10 game win streak!!! I LOVE THIS GAME!

My problem . . . well, one of the many

2006-09-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to figure out if my story has enough conflict in it and I'm not sure it does. My characters want to be together and there isn't anything really keeping them apart except for themselves. She's not very trusting with a long history of making extremely bad choices in men and he's made a promise to keep up the pretends with his soon to be cheating ex-wife for the sake of the woman that they both love (her mother) who is dying from cancer.

Initially I thought that this would be enough of a "problem" for them but I don't think it is. The story has stopped dead in it's tracks. I'm not giving up though, I will think of something. If nothing else maybe my characters can help me to create a deeper conflict. Lord knows that they have helped me stray completely away from my initial timeline.

Posting my Progress

2006-08-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

I originally said I was going to use this blog to track my writing progress for my first novel. I have been a bad blogger, I know I haven't been doing this, but in all fairness (my first excuse) there hasn't been a whole lot to tell. I'm currently stumped at 11,000+ words.

I sat down on Sunday and looked over my (incomplete) time line and have discovered that I have already strayed. My current goal is to go back over my time line and rewrite it to reflect the changes that I have already made. Then, hopefully, I'll be able to move forward and get back on the writing track.

I feel like my book is missing something. A secondary plot maybe? Is this a requirement? I've been reading a few agent blogs and I think a secondary plot might be very important. I'll have to think about it. I also think that I might need to stop reading so many blogs and concentrate on what the heck I'm doing.

SO, here's to getting back on track. I'm going to try to be better about actually blogging my process. Really.

Things I have learned . . .

2006-06-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

In my grand quest to become a published author these are the things that I have learned so far:

1. I have learned that I could use about 5 more hours in the day to get everything accomplished that I think I need to.

2. I have learned that I need a bigger house, (or at least another bedroom) so that I can have a quiet place to sit and think and oh, what a concept maybe even write. This way I wouldn't have to escape from my house to get anything done.

3. I have learned that if I spent as much time reading as I do writing I could probably be done by now. (Okay, maybe not.)

4. I have learned that most authors are very supportive of struggling authors. I have read some rants from authors that will remain nameless on how "everyone thinks that because they can read they can write." Okay.

5. I have learned that writing is hard work and there are some days that I'm not sure I should be doing this. But the days that I think I can are what keep me going.

I'm sure I've actually learned more than that, but at this point in the morning I'm not sure I've had enough coffee to remember everything. Maybe I should start writing it down as I go. See, the ideas just never stop!

Friendly Reviewers

2006-05-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

I thought I was being really smart. I gave my first 50(ish) pages of my book to 3 of my closest friends asking them for honest feedback (and actually meaning it) to figure out if I needed to scrap the whole idea or maybe just make some serious revisions. NOW, they're all telling me to get up off my behind and get it finished. I think I may have made a mistake . . .

Probably not though. I have great friends who, I think, gave me some honest feedback. One of them is even going to give it to a girlfriend of hers to read. I'm really interested to hear what she has to say, because I don't even know her. She has no reason at all to be nice or to lie to me.

I think I might have started off all wrong with this book though. I had the beginning of this story in my head for months before I decided to put it all onto paper, when I finally did the first 30 pages just rushed out of me. Now, I sit and struggle almost every single time to get a scene onto paper. I read it and reread it and think it's crap, so I toss it and start all over again. The other dilemma I have is that I didn't create any character profiles. I just had the characters in my head and put it all into the story. Now I can't remember what color somebody's eyes were or if they had red hair or brown hair. So I'm having to go back and reread what I've already written and create character profiles so the next time I have this problem I can just look at my notes. I like to think that normally I'm much more organized than this. It's probably not true, but I like to think it anyway.

On an entirely separate subject, I e-mailed Kathleen Long to find out where to get her book When A Stranger Calls (because I'm a super big dork and didn't read the home page and went straight to the book page) and she e-mailed me back. Aside from feeling incredibly stupid for not reading the information that she so obviously put on her home page, I was really grateful for the information. I'm always surprised when an author responds to either a comment on their blog or an e-mail I send out. I guess I figure they are very busy being brilliant and have little time to respond to the general population. While this may be true with some authors, it is not the case with the ones that I read. How cool is that? Apparently the Harlequin Intrigue books are only in stores for the month that they are released. I did not know this so I thought I would share the information. But if you read the excerpt and you are interested, amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com have it available.

Reviews

2006-04-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

So here's the thing, I was reading the reviews for Nicholas Evan's latest book The Divide, and I don't know how I would handle the reviews that he has received so far. They basically say, it's a great book until you get the middle and then it becomes boring and long winded with some marshmallow fluff to follow. They all praise his book The Horse Whisperer (one of my personal favorites) so I guess that's something, but here is what concerns me as a wannabe writer. He (Nicholas Evans) says on his website that he thinks this is the best book he's written so far. In all fairness I haven't read this book yet, but after checking out the reviews I'm not sure I want to. I probably will because curiosity will get the better of me, but I guess I'm just wondering, as a writer are we tone deaf to our own writing?

Then I check out Jennifer Crusie/Bob Mayer's blog and Jennifer Crusie says that Amazon reviews are not to be taken seriously. I think it takes an established successful writer to be able to blow bad reviews off, or maybe I'm just really thin skinned. I haven't decided yet.

All About Me

2006-04-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

One day, when I grow up, I want to be a published author. At present I am working on my first book and doing a lot of research on what the market requires to get published. I'm reading everything I can get my hands on, author blogs, author advice, how to books, you name it I've probably read it or have it in my to be read pile. It's a large pile that continues to grow. I am also struggling with writer's block the closer I get to the middle of the story. I've definitely got the beginning and the ending all figured out, now if the middle could just write itself as easily I could be done by now. I don't feel too bad about it though, from what I've read so far, a lot of writer's struggle with middles. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm a mother of two kids and two dogs. Max is our newest addition and if we can all survive the next couple of months I'm sure he's going to fit in just fine. Our first dog (he's easily offended if we call him the 'old' dog) Feliz, is insanely jealous of any attention that Max gets, but is just happy to have somebody to play with while everybody else is at work and school.

In my "spare time" I read. I read a lot. I am currently reading Dark Lover by J.R. Ward, recommended by Jennifer Apodaca and Thrilled to Death written by Jennifer Apodaca. (She probably recommends reading that book too!)

I think I'm going to use this blog to chart my progress through this incredible writing process. One of my very best friends is developing a fantasy book. She's in the process of outlining her story (a trilogy, she's very ambitious) and creating her fantasy world. I'm very impressed. I have enough problems creating the fictitious world that I write about, I can't image having to create it from scratch. But the two of us are helping each other out. One day, if everything goes as planned (fingers still crossed) we'll figure out how to collaborate together on a book. Could be interesting.