A blog about the amazing things teenagers do, about writing for teens, books for teens, and occasional forays into my world and the world of publishing.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Back to Life

I'm ba-ack!

First I would like to announce the randomly chosen winners of my cover reveal contest. (I asked two of my children to give me numbers between 1-47, the number of comments I received, and those numbers they chose were the winners. Random, if not scientific)

Drum roll please...

The winner of the 11 x 14 print from my husband's website is KIKI HAMILTON!

The winner of the Barnes and Noble gift card is ZORAIDA CORDOVA!

I will be in contact with the winners so they can receive their prize.

Now back to reality...

I had a fantastic vacation home to Idaho. We went camping in Teton National Forest, drove through Yellowstone National Park, attended a hometown Fourth of July parade, and watched the rodeo and fireworks in Jackson. (In a past life I was somewhat of a cowgirl.)

As I put in my last post, it was a good time for mining memories and for resting my brain. I came home with a head full of new story ideas, characters, and settings that I can't wait to get written down. (As soon as I finish my WIP. No new projects that one's done, I promise.)

As usual, my precious, (my laptop) made the journey with me. Some of the places I wrote on my trip included a tent, a hotel room, while we were driving, and the bathroom at the campground. It was the only place that had an outlet and I needed to recharge my batteries. (Yes, I got some strange looks.)

I had planned to get a lot of writing done, but I didn't. Most of the time, my laptop was put away so I could look, listen, interact, and ENJOY my family and the places we went. I thought about feeling guilty about it, or sneaking away to get some writing done, but I decided what I was doing was more important.

I love to write. It's easy to get caught up in my own stories and forget about the rest of the world and just write. But that's not really conducive to being a good mom and I don't think it's conducive to being a good writer either. If the first rule of being a writer is "Write always" maybe the second rule should be "look, listen, observe, and live." If you're living in your head all the time, it's hard to write a character or story that's relateable to anyone but yourself.

I had a great vacation, I wrote, I observed, I mined my memories, but mostly I just enjoyed the people I was with and the places we went. Writing is an adventure, but it's important to take time out for real adventures too. You can always write about them later!

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