N is for Not a yellow brick road

Ever feel like your traveling through life at the speed of light? You can't catch up on anything?

Writing. Work. Family. Blogging.

How does one balance it all out? Is there an order in which you are to best level each section of your life out? It's so much easier on paper isn't it?

Well I'm not an expert and since every life is different there is no one answer as to how to make your life easier. After all this is not a yellow brick road to your freedom. I separate how I see fit.

This is normally how it works.

Work. Happens every day. As much as I'd love to let go it pays my bills. So 40 hours is dedicated to that. Not changing unless I win the lottery (for right now).

Family. This one is a little easier to maintain. With my husband in school I get extra time to myself and we dedicate the weekends to the fun zone!

Writing. I write every day, even if it's something as simple as fun and thought out email, a poem, or something in my journal. Every day you should write something. You are a writer after all.

Blogging. Posts are scheduled on Sundays. During the week I comment. Sometimes I just lurk. This is the one that so often takes the back burner. Though I hate to do it, my life is far to hectic sometimes and this must be downsized.

So how do you cope? What order is your life in?

B is for Blog

Call it cheating or call it creative but today I'm talking about Blogs.

For this challenge I know a lot of you will want to visit as many on the challenge board as you can.

Don't wear yourself out. Otherwise after the month of April you'll have to take a blog hiatus because you ran yourself ragged.

It comes down to pacing. Take a chunk a day. Try and visit everyone once. Don't be hard on yourself if you're finding it difficult to say hello. With over 600 entrants that's going to happen.

However there is a way you can make it easier on your fellow participants... here are some tips.

1. Short posts - The short & sweet one's we can stop in, say hello, get the message you're sending and comment.
2. Simplicity - Some blogs are crazy. The easier your blog is to navigate the easier it'll be to comment and read what you've written.
3. Blog look - Big headers and too many gadgets make the blog harder to load. If you want people to stop in again and again re-evaluate what's important to be housed on the front lines. Blogger has something known as pages. Use those for the stuff you still wanna chat about but are more important if the follower is in for the long hall.
4. Follow button - If you plan on following and wanting people to return the favor don't make it hard to find. People don't want to search on how to keep track of you. Study those you look up to in the blogging world. They have their blog set up a certain way for a reason. To make it accessible to newbies.

So there you have it. Ways to make the A to Z Challenge easier and to also make your blogging life a little easier!!! See my cheating (or not cheating) made this blog post shine!

Have a fab weekend everyone!

Hashtags and ABC's

Big things happening in the blog world.

Before I share the big things do stop by Jillian's place (The Teenage Bride) for Love Letter Friday where I showcase how my husband proposed to me (since so many of you asked)!

Okay now for more real important stuff:

Hashtags & the ABC’s of April.

Oh yes… I’m going to explain.

Hashtags – For fellow twitter fanatics they speak my language but for those who don’t it’s easy and should be used cautiously since they are potentially dangerous.

I like to tell people you’re not a true twitter peep if you don’t use them. It’s easy, all you do is type a # sign in front of your deepest darkest most ridiculous thoughts.

Watch:

#iusehashtagsonmondaynightswhilewatchingthebachelor
#blameitontheroeckersisters
#batshitcrazyistheonlycrazyiwannabe

See? You add crap behind crap. They can be shorter but I love mine long. So go ahead… use a hashtag in the comments, you know you want to.

Now lets discuss the ABC’s of April. The team of awesome that’s here to make April seriously rock your socks off… and to keep up with twitter (and my promise last week) I bring it to you hashtag style -

#KarenGowenJoinsTheForce
#StephenTrempCan'tHelpTheAwesome
#CandylandDemandsEpicness
#AlexCavanaughIsReadyfortheFireworks
#LeeIsRockingItLikeUsual
#TalliCan'tHelpButShine
#JeffreyBeeslerShowsEnthusiasm
#MeOfCourseRocksitOut

Here's how it rocks -

#aprilspectacular
#26daysexcludingsundays
#abcmondaytuesdaywednesday
#crazynottojoin
#hitthebannerontheside
#everybodysdoingit

Want to know the real scoop behind the A to Z Blogging Challenge hop over to my sidebar and hit the button. 200+ peeps already have, don’t you want to be a follower (duh, everyone does).

Let’s recap:

1. Tweeting is fun, if you aren’t doing it, do it now. (oh and follow me at @jenunedited)2. Knowing the alphabet makes you cool and allows you to be challenged (do it)
3. If you are tweeting and we’re not besties already make it happen (@jenunedited)4. If you don’t know your alphabet how are you reading this (join the challenge)
5. Hashtags were born to be used (be bad and give me your best hashtag @jenunedited)6. People want to know why Gwenyth Paltrow named her child Apple, find out on April 1st when I use the letter A (join the challenge)
I think my work is done here. The subliminal message has kicked in (I'm sure of it). Follow me twitter style and join the challenge. Oh and maybe enjoy your weekend.

Author note: If you don’t leave me a comment hashtag style you’re not near as cool as you think you are (just sayin)

A-Z Blogging Challenge

Last April Arlee Bird set up a magnificent blogfest. I was so excited to hear the was planning to enjoy the fun once again! This time a few extras are going to help out to make this the best blogging challenge around!

Talli Roland, Alex Cavanaugh, Arlee Bird, and Myself.

It's simple. There are 26 letters in the alphabet. There are 26 days in April (if you take out Sundays). You would blog Monday - Saturday writing a blogpost with the appropriate letter for that day. April 1 - A, April 2 - B, etc., etc.

So you wanna join in the fun (you know you do)? Join the link and grab a badge because April is going to be the time of your life!!!

A-Z Blogging Challenge will take over the blog! As a blogfest participant in the past I know how easy it is to forget to sign up so I will be sure to give you all warning before the first post begins. So don't hesitate to sign up now! You don't want to miss this!!

Y is for Yum

Yup you are seeing it first hand, I'm taking the easy way out. I tried to think of something really creative and clever. Bish always has such insightful posts, definitions included, but I'm beginning to think that my brain power is coming to an end. Afterall tomorrow is the last letter of the alphabet... Hmm what will I choose?

Focusing on today though I have decided to chose the word YUM. Life should be fun and today, being as we are so close to the weekend I thought it best to discuss food. Now normally I try and think of something writing related, but today I'm not feeling it, so we're going with the fun and useless brain power approach.

I'm going to create a list of yummy things... so feel free to follow along!

Snack foods

1. Pizza
2. Ice Cream
3. Apple Pie
4. Popcorn
5. Gummy bears

Hunks

1. Channing Tatum
2. Johnny Depp
3. Ryan Reynolds
4. Mark Wahlberg
5. Heath Ledger

Books

1. Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
2. The Truth Tellers Tale by Sharon Shinn
3. A bump in the road by Maureen Lipinski
4. Match Me if you can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
5. Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard

TV Shows

1. Criminal Minds (Dr. Reed!!!)
2. Cougar Town
3. Glee
4. Medium
5. The Real Housewives

Movies

1. Sex and The City (THE SEASONS TOO!)
2. The Wedding Date
3. 27 Dresses
4. Last Holiday
5. Monster in Law

Okay there you have it... my yummy's for today! I know it was kind of a cheat day but I hope you enjoy it, and by all means make your own list! I'd love to hear what you'd add!!!

X is for Xenophilius Lovegood

I was going to choose something like X-ray or x-ray vision but I was afraid everyone else would chose it and that wouldn't be any fun! So why not really rack my brain and think of something a little more creative, and what did I come up with?

Xenophilius Lovegood... do you know him? I doubt the first name would give it away, but the last name should be familiar to one Looney (Luna) Lovegood!

If you didn't already know, and if you couldn't tell from this post I love Harry Potter! I've read the books over a dozen times and I own the films and I've watched them several times in a row. I'm excited for the next to installments to come out in theaters so I can see how they will portray the books. They never are able to put 600+ pages into one film so I know there will be plenty of information missing, but regardless I'm excited and sad to see the end.

So I can't make this post all about Harry Potter, I do need to focus on the letter X so here is a little bit about Xenophilius Lovegood:

Nickname: Xeno
Occupation: Editor of the Quibbler (a magazine that is as quirky as he is!)
Wife: Died when Luna was 9 years old
Children: Luna Lovegood, one of Harry Potter's friends. Has strange beliefs just like her father.
House: Shaped like a rook, they live near Ottery St. Catchpole, very close to the Weasley's.
Encounters: Though strange and normally by himself he did have a run-in with the death eaters when his daughter was kidnapped. He tried to betray Harry Potter to save her but failed and was imprisoned in Azkaban for awhile.

So there you have it, there is a little bit about Xeno Lovegood!!!

Whose your favorite character from Harry Potter? What are your X words?

U is for Unpredictable

Life, So Unpredictable. We all have good days and bad days; don’t they say it’s what you make them?

I believe this statement is true. Life is what you make it. Janna had a fun post yesterday; it said “Life is” The first thing that had popped into my brain was, Life is what you make it, however the person in front of me had put Unpredictable. It got me thinking, what did I really think of Life?

So Life is what you make it. If you want to make it fun, and then make sure that during the negative moments you have something positive to help work yourself out of the funk. Play some Aqua and dance like you did when you were a teenager. Call a friend and go bowling, make sure you add the gutters… this is supposed to be fun! Oh and make sure you do the glow & the dark bowling filled with beer and pizza, the point is too have fun.

If your stuck in a rut with writing or life in general pick yourself up with a fun flirty chick flick, or a fun magical read to take you into a different world. Think about it, the world is your playground so what are you do moping around waiting for the teeter totter to lift you up, sometimes you have to be the one to push yourself to have fun.

So life is unpredictable, but doesn’t that make it for one wild & exciting ride? How do you plan on being unpredictable or breaking out of your shell today?

T is for Time

Tuesday I asked all of you if there were any questions you wanted answered, and thankfully a few of you stepped up to the plate and asked me!!! I'm excited to take a bit of a break from this little A to Z Blogging Challenge... don't worry I've still applied it for today...

ACTUAL PHRASE: Time for Answers

See told you I'd make it work! So on to the questions!

The Alliterative Allomorph asked - How often do you actually read and comment on your followers blogs? Are you able to get to each and every one of them at least once a week? And if so, HOW?????

My rule of thumb is anyone who comments on my blog will get a visit from me that week! Normally it's a daily thing, I love comments and know how much they mean to me so I can only imagine they feel the same to everyone else! Now I can't visit 400 blogs every day, but those 40+ who comment... they for sure get my blog love!!

Justine Dell asked - Why did you start writing?

I'm sure everyone is curious about this. I had racked my brain for years on what I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn't have an answer, I wanted to be EVERYTHING! One day I sat down and asked myself "How could I do it all?" and writing popped into my head, now I've always written stories just never taken it seriously, until one day I picked up a piece of paper and a pen and viola!! I now call myself a writer!

Christina Lee asked - Are you in the query stage now or still editing?

For those of you who don't know I am indeed finished with my first draft, this happened just recently. I am now in the editing stage and working hard to improve what I had at the beginning. I know that won't be hard since my first draft is currently a war zone! So as much as I'd like to be in the querying stage I'm not quite there!!

Saumya asked - How far along are you with your project??

I answered this above, however just to recap I'm finished with the first draft and have approx. 15K words revised.


Crystal Cook asked two questions: First question - How did you write your MS so fast without getting stuck?

For all of you who don't know I finished my MS in 5 weeks, I think I had only one moment when I was truly stuck and it wasn't for lack of ideas. I had to bounce some ideas off of my husband to iron it all out to fit on the pages, however my muse bothered me so much that not writing wasn't an option. I worked 7-4pm came home, ate dinner and then began writing. I made sure to go to bed at a decent hour and when frustrated I would shut the laptop down and go to bed. I think that my getting stuck phase has hit when I started to revise. So I guess for every writer there is a brick wall to crush, mine just happens to be a different stage!!

Second question - What's your favorite band?

Hmm I can't say that I'm that in to music, I don't even know a whole lot of bands, however I do enjoy Paramore and A Fine Frenzy. Imogen Heap is also someone who truly moves me, and is great inspiration for my writing!

Amy Saia asked - Have you ever taken dance classes?

No, and if you saw me dance you would know this to be true! I'd love to take dance classes and do the salsa, and a little hip hop, but I'm your average white girl dancer, it's just not there!!!

AND FOR THE NUMBER ONE QUESTION:

MT
Amber Tidd Murphy
Alexandra Crocodile
Mary

What's your secret, How did you manage, and how the hell is it possible that you reached 400+ followers in two months?

I'm a witch who spends her time collecting followers rather than saving the Wizarding World from Lord Voldemort (Yes I've watched a little too much Harry Potter).

I'm not sure how I've received all of the love, but I'm not taking it granted for even a second! I still notice when someone stops following, it makes me sad (Yes I'm talking to the three of you who left me yesterday) but if my blog doesn't suit you then I don't want you to feel that you have to stay! If I new the secret I would give it to you...

I suppose it could be the little secret sparkles I send to everyone over the blogosphere... here take some and see if it works!!!

S is for Sneak Peek!

So I told you in yesterdays Ridiculously Awesome post that I was going to share a little something from my current WIP finding me... I promise I didn't let you down! So here it goes:

My feet are cold and my whole body tingles, I sit up and look around me, my eyes are still adjusting but it doesn’t look like I’m at home anymore. I stand up to get a better view but my hands sink deep into the ground, the dirt is wet and I realize I’m in water, I shiver and try to catch my bearings. As I stand up I see myself in the reflection of the water, still haven’t gathered what has happened. As I look deeper in the water I begin to realize I couldn’t possibly see my reflection, but something more, still me just a different me. I find myself staring over my own body.

I look at myself in the river, my body cold, my lips are blue. My red curls once frazzled are now soaked and tucked under several rocks, a trickle of water falls over my ankles. I see several bruises across my legs and as I see my once perfectly painted pink nails have now barely any color left and cuts all around. Did he make me walk here? Was I half awake?

I am confused and at that moment the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, I look around, I know I am being watched, I can feel it. I also know it is not the me standing that is being watched, but the one lying in the river. I’m alive, but barely, I know I have to be alive or I wouldn’t be standing here. Am I possibly the soul of my own body, the only thing who can heal me? I look around me and don’t recognize anything, it is a very unfamiliar place, I feel him still but cannot see him, I know he’s watching. I want to know who he is. Ugh I wish I could remember how I’d gotten here but everything was such a blur. The trees and grass are so overgrown that I don’t know how I could have gotten here. That does explain the cuts on my feet and arms though, walking through these woods or even being carried could have severely hurt, I’m lucky I didn’t have to feel all of that pain. As I continue to search that’s when I spot him. He’s staring at me, watching my movements, which at the moment are motionless, I am knelt down next to my body, frozen, I can’t see his eyes but I can feel him, I can also see the shadow of his face thanks to the moonlight. My heart beats rapidly and though I know it’s not something that can be heard I feel like the world can hear it. Can he see me? Does he know there are two of us?

There you have it!!! A little sneak peek! Hope you enjoyed! Feel free to share your thoughts.

Sorry I didn't make it to all your blogs last night, I was revising and as you all know that comes first! I also just added a facebook badge so for all you avid facebookers I would love for you to be my friend :) Feel free to add me!

Q is for Quirks

HAPPY TWO MONTH BLOGGING ANNIVERSARY TO ME!!! That's right Bloggers it's official I've been blogging for two months and I'm elated to have met so many wonderful people! You have all truly inspired me in one way or another! I was able to finish my first draft and now I'm on to revising and I have all of you pushing me along the way! THANK YOU!!! Thank you for all the wonderful sweet comments you give me throughout the week as well! You all keep me motivated!! Oh and I also noticed I hit the 400 Follower mark, thank you to all of you who comment daily, and those who comment when you can, your love is appreciated, and I hope you feel the love back!!

Okay now to todays actual post, Q... this is a tough one, or is it?

Everyone has a quirk, and if you don't your lying to yourself! As writers I believe we have many, I also believe it is what makes us who we are. Have quirks about ourselves gives us the opportunity to add even more quirkiness to our characters and to our stories.

My main characters name is Lauren, she is your typical over-dramatic 17 year old who always complains that her life sucks. Her number one complain... the fact that her perfectly manicured parents produced her and rather than gracing her with the traditional good lucks they gave her bright red hair and really skinny frail legs. Her quirkiness comes out in her attitude and how she copes with certain situations. She ends up falling into the Traveler's world where she will have to grow up and forget about how awful she thought her life was and start realizing that if she isn't careful it could only get worse. Her funk and sarcastic personality makes for a little quirkiness when she meets a boy. Strange habits begin to unfold that she didn't even realize about herself.

So I'm sure your wondering what quirks I have... so I'll share a few:

I travel with a new toothbrush always
I like to do a few jumping jacks to help wake up in the morning

-- My brain isn't functioning or I'd list more --

So what are a few of your quirks... what about your MC's?

Oh and just to try this out for size... does anyone have any questions they'd like to ask me? That was my original Q but Quirks sounded like so much fun! I am open for questions though, if anyone wants to know more about my life, blogging or writing ask away and I'll post when I'll answer them on tomorrow's blog post!

P is for Pancakes and Pajamas!!

Happy Monday!

Let's start this week off right! Join me for breakfast in your favorite pair of PJ's! It's the perfect start to what we can say will be the perfect week!

After having quite the stressful week last week I had realized I was running out of steam and needed a mental break and since my muse was already telling me this I realized I was the one standing in the way of the relaxation time! Once I noticed the problem I drew
a bath, made some cinnamon rolls (my favorite), and snuggled with the hubs. There was no sense in worrying about something that would work itself out. I needed rest!!

So today even though I am back at work I'm still taking the relaxing approach by picturing myself in pajamas eating pancakes and naturally what happened was that I got my mojo back!


Tonights plans: Pen and Paper!

Revising will be happening, my muse an I hashed out a compromise, forever page I revise I will take time to work on the second installment of the series for my muse, though she isn't super happy about she respects my wishes!

So what plans do you have for tonight? Are the creative juices flowing?

O is for Out of Ideas

Good Morning fellow bloggers!!! Happy Saturday!!!

Today's word/phrase: Out of Ideas

Yep that's me, I am having the same problem as yesterday where I am out of ideas, I hate the feeling, I feel helpless and frankly a little frustrated but I know that in time everything will fall back into place. I think all those sleepless nights and vacation time has finally caught up to me.

So this post is simple and sweet, instead of being trapped in the blogger world or writing world since I have nothing to say I'd say it's best to go Outdoors, enjoy some sun, or rain whichever Houston decides to produce and hopefully the ideas will start flowing again!!!

What do you do when you've run out of ideas?

L is for Leap of Faith

Leaping... can you picture it? Well if not you can see above that I found a lovely picture via google for you!!! Leaping is fun especially if you're a lemur!!

We as writers or creative beings do our best to take a leap of faith on an idea something we've dreamt up or just a solid idea that we think might be worth while to investigate. Sometimes it's a bust other times it's brilliant! I took a huge leap of faith with my current WIP based on to things a story I unknowlingly made up about my husband mixed with a dream, I took a chance now I will tell you that the story I started out with was not the story I began with however it evolved into something so much more that you wouldn't even know it was the same thing! All from one idea from one leap of faith I took a chance and that chance turned out to be the best idea ever!!!

So take a look at yourself today and even though you may have had a bad week or month or year of writing you still came up with one idea and you took a leap of faith! We all stand behind you and support you as you continue to allow your work to evolve into something specatacular! In time the pieces fall together I know last night revising was something that wasn't going to come easy but rather than beating myself up I chose to look at myself and remember that I wrote a book I spent time and energy and put it into something amazing though it's not finished yet the piece I did finish was amazing. So take those small victories and remember those when you're down!!! Continue to take a leap of faith for yourself!!

Are you leaping yet?

By the way today is a big day over at Christine's Journey!! It's the writing line game and it's super fun! Run over to her blog and add to the story I have done this on my blog before and thought about bringing it back so I'm glad to see others want to partake in it!!!

K is for Kick-Ass

Yup bloggers you heard me! K is for Kick-Ass... The weather here in Houston, the wedding I just attended, my trip to Los Angeles, My baby sister having a little girl, my co-worker having just had his little girl, my hubby, my kitties and all you bloggers are KICK-ASS!!! It feels amazing saying it too I'm sure you can tell that I've been waiting for K to come along!!!

What is Kick-Ass in your life right now?

Actual Word: Kite

You know the one's they are high in the sky when the weather is fantastic!! I find the perfect time is in the spring when the air is crisp and the breeze is perfect, you can run a little and quickly unwind the string that supports the whole thing it's amazing to watch something so simple work with just ease when you just believe that it will fly and with a little wind it does. What stinks are the days when the breeze isn't perfect and the kite remains flat on the ground.

Do you ever find this true with your writing? Where one minute your high in the sky and the next minute your flat on the ground? Have you ever thought it might be because you're trying to hard to write something that wasn't meant to be written? I have found that the more I create deadlines for myself the more disappointed I become at the end result whereas if I allow an idea to come to mind it freely flows on the pages as I had intended. I mean think about it have we ever pushed to use our imagination or does our mind just guide us in that direction?

Happy Blogging!

J is for Join

Join in the fun!!! You're so missing out on this blogging A to Z! I have had fun coming up with silly words and trying to think of something insightful! Darn insightful would have been good for I! Too late now! Anyways it's not to late to join you can always start with J today or K tomorrow!!!

Actual word: Jolly

So what better way to start our week off fresh then with pictures from Los Angeles!! My weekend was great, the wedding was beautiful and one of my sisters had her baby! It was quite the weekend to say the least!!!

So here are some pictures:

Our Hotel:


Our view from the hotel:



Trevor & I Rehersal:


The Bride (Theresa), Thomasina & I


The other two were bridesMEN... it was so neat:
David -

Jacob - The Bride's brother


The Bride & Groom - Theresa & Giovanni:


The Beautiful Bride:

Before - Always Gorgeous!


After -



The Bride & Groomsmen


The Maid of Honor and Glowing Bride:


The Groom & I:


As you can tell I had a ton of fun! I could have posted a million more pictures but this at least gives you an idea of how much fun it was and it was a BLAST!!!!

As far as the news on the baby front here are a few pictures!
The Happy Couple:

Baby Chloe Elizabeth:



So there you have it a piece of my weekend! I hope you all enjoyed it and right now I'm feeling Jolly!!! I plan on trying to make my rounds as far as commenting but please allow about a week for me to catch up! I have my first critique group meeting this Wednesday so I am working on revising while commenting on blogs!!

I is for Ikea

Who doesn't love IKEA? Okay so I have to be honest here, I'm from Iowa and they don't have IKEA there but as soon as I moved to Houston the first thing everyone told me was to visit IKEA (and eat barbeque but that isn't important!) this is like a Mall for any interior designing you need! I love that place, my whole apartment is furnished by the wonderful gods of IKEA! So if you haven't visited this wonderful land of awesomeness you must check it out!!! (I received nothing for this advertisment... though I should have!)



My real word: I is for Imagination!

This one was super easy right?! I know I kind of cheated I could have done Ice Cream, illegal, important, independence, insult or intrigue but none of them felt like me so I imagination it was!

I wish the world was filled with people that have the imagination that we all had! Everyone could pick up a book and picture that they were actually in the world and living as the main character, unforutnately the world isn't filled with imagination, the older some people get (NOT ALL OF US) the less and less they believe in things. I mean I still believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy & the Easter Bunny but some people believe they never existed... isn't that the saddest ever?! Thanks to my imagination I was able to write my first draft and have such inspiration that a sequel is under way with even more magic than I could have ever imagined!!!

How's your imagination?!

Also I promise I'm coming home and will comment on your blogs!!! I still love comments even though I've disappeared and all of those who comment will for sure get some blog love when I get back into town!!!

H is for Happy Vest

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this A to Z Blogging thing...

Happy Vest

Also known as a straight jacket... I'm sure at times as a writer you feel a little crazy, all your characters talking to you at once telling you what to do. Our fellow writers all understand but our everday families and friends don't always understand where we are coming from. I think we should all just rememeber that even though we live in our alternate universe that we don't need the Straight Jacket... Lets go with the Happy Vest instead... if we've got the ideas and eventually will make a dollar or two on something we love then why not do it?! Who cares if we are wearing Happy Vests or not?



My actual words - Happiness & Heart

Two things that are needed while writing being happy and having a ton of heart! No one else can tell you to have that one idea or to continue to write, only you can. You have to want it that's where the heart comes in, you have to have a ton of heart to be able to sit at your desk alone and quiet and put that pen to paper or type on that laptop you so desperately wanted. After your finished you'll realize that happiness is at the end of the road!!

Do you need a Happy Vest today? What bring you happiness? Is your heart in writing, art, photography or anything else?

Just for all of you here is a picture of Trevor and I having fun in Los Angeles!!

F is for Funky & Fabulous

Ahh to be funky and fabulous how does one do it you ask? Well you simply get up in the morning take your shower put on your best outfit make sure your do is out of this world and then repeat these words "Today you look fabulous" the funky is always there but the fabulous... the fabulous is something we must remind ourselves of!



My actual word: Firsts

We have a ton of firsts, first loves, first drafts, first agent, first publisher, first pair of heels!!!...I'm thinking you get my point. There are plenty of firsts and all of them feel great (notice I only named positives), in the moment they are the best thing you've ever felt, you don't think you'll ever feel that great again. However I wonder do you feel great the second time around? After that wonderful first love do you find your true love and you realize that's greater? I never knew love until I met my hubby.




Is the same true for first drafts, agents & publishers? Is your first always the best or is it the feeling you always revert back to? I've only written and finished one first draft and I'll tell you the feeling is something that couldn't be matched, so for those of you who have finished more than one do you experience the same high? What about finding your agent what was the first feeling that came to mind?

NOTE: Sorry if I was unable to visit your blog last night my carpal tunnel was giving me a hard time!! Unfortunately this will be the last time until next Monday that I'll be able to comment on your blogs! Don't think the blog love has disappeared it's just on vacation! I'll still post for the A to Z challenge thanks to my iPhone but commenting won't be happening!

E is for Eeep!!!

Eeep! - A sound of shock, usually said in a stupidly high voice

I love using my stupidly high voice to show all of you that I'm super excited!!! Today is Tuesday... yes I realize you knew that but I wanted to let you know I'm excited! Tomorrow I am packing for my trip to Los Angeles to see a friend get married! I'm super excited and looking forward to being in the wedding and watching her walk down the aisle!!! Eeep!!

Okay so today's word I have chosen to be EDEN... definition: any place of complete bliss and delight and peace

So what better way to describe my Eden then to show pictures of the different places that give me the delight and peace!! Okay I'm eager and excited to get started!!!

The Beach - of course a fantastic place to stay and really enjoy the relaxation!


Massages are something that I enjoy!! They are so exhilarating and serene!


I think that possibilities are endless when you're in a field of flowers!


Sitting under a nice shady tree, a jacket on a wonderful book and a cozy blanket during the fall months are a perfect way to enjoy a nice lazy day.


Last but certainly not least is an awesome bookstore! This one is elaborate and grand I love it! I'd love to visit it someday... if of course I had any idea where it was!


So what is your Eden? Do you have multiple places that you find peaceful?

D is for Da Bomb Diggity

Before I get started - I have a brand new blogger (I'm talking started yesterday new) who could really use your blog love! He is looking for a nice outlet and as you all know this is the best place to vent and share your thoughts! So take the time to visit Dave over at Farm raised, City Savvy!

A to Z Bloggin, yup I've decided to take the plunge and join all my fellow bloggers for the challenge. I will choose a letter each day and do my best to keep you entertained! I know I'm late so A-C I'll have to pass but we can pick up at D. Here we go:

D is for Da Bomb Diggity also to mean You're cool, you're the best or you're just plain awesome! Which is so true of any blogger who visits me! Now since there isn't really much else to go from here I figured the next best thing is to choose a more appropriat word to talk about... but the fun catches more people's eyes!

My actual word: Dabble

I love to Dabble in several areas of life this is also true for my writing. I love to dabble in different genres to see which best suits me. Before I began to write this young adult mystery/magical novel I started with chick lits. I read one too many Susan Elizabeth Phillips books who actually inspired a lot of my writing in the first place! Each genre gives me a little more inspiration and a different outlook on my writing style. I can tell you I'll most likely always end up back at YA because I do love to write it and definitely in the mystery/magical sense as well it just allows my imagination to run wild and I love it!

Do you dabble in different genres? Did you know that your Da bomb diggity?