ARRRR--Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day

Today is, Talk Like a Pirate Day. WOOHOO! I love this day. I spend all day talking in my best pirate voice. The family gets a little tired of it, but hey, the horses love it. So speak in your best pirate voice today. Here, I'll get you started.
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest--
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" And pity poor Beth. We have our crit group meeting today. She's going to love hearing her critique done in my best pirate voice. : )

Writing is an itch. What has it taught you?

Writing for me is an itch that I must scratch daily. I read where someone said that the writing life was like the sex life. And the longer I do this, the more I believe that is VERY, VERY true. I desire to write. You are reading this post, so you desire to write. I think it is an ache. And I don't have to think about it. I just do it. It comes naturally for me.

When I know it's time to write, I sit down and type. Writing is an attitude. And it's a feeling too. I use all of my senses. I touch, see, smell, hear, and speak when I write. I use my mind. But all the things that I have been through in my life, the things that have made me who I am, have made me the the writer that I am today. Everything. The good and the bad. Through writing I have discovered what makes me tick. I'm intense! Who knew? :) Writing has taught me that I am very organized(most of the time). And that my punctuation skills are ZERO! Thank you, thank you Beth. God knew what he was doing when he gave me a high school Literature teacher for a critique partner. Grammar skills stink too. But I learned that I do have a huge imagination. Yeah. *fist pump*

What have you discovered about yourselves through your writing? What has it taught you?

We're alone, yet together

A writer has a lonely job. I mean we spend hours and hours alone in our offices or studios or wherever we work. But we are together. We are all working to that same goal. And it's not to be published so much as it is to create. I love making my stories come alive. Whether it's my picture books or novels. I am so thankful that I can do this. And so thankful to have all of you. I'm thankful for my family, my sons doctors, our farm, and of course, for my horses.

Tess got me to thinking as I read her post yesterday. When we sit alone in front of our computers, we can know that we're all in this together. And that we're really not doing this alone. We couldn't do it alone. We need our critique groups. We need our bloggers. We need our beta readers. See? We're not alone at all. When one of us gets an agent, or is offered a publishing deal, or gets to do a guest stint on Rachelle Gardner's blog, (you know who you are)*grin* we're thrilled for that person or persons in the case of the guest stint.

Writing can't be done alone. Someone said, "Writing a book is like building a house or birthing a child or starting a company. Okay, I guess you could do it alone. But we don't have to. Isn't that wonderful? I have learned to be a better writer, thanks to all of you. My writing family. :)

How do you name your characters?

My MG novel had two girl protags named Anna and Claire. Anna is THE main character, Claire is her best friend and is in the novel from beginning to end. I always wanted to name one of my characters in one of my books Claire. And it really fit good in the novel that I just finished. Claire was Claire. But I really had a lot of trouble settling on Anna's name. Which now, I can't imagine her having any other name. Anna is Anna. But I went through a lot of names, even Claire for the main character. Claire was the best friend. It was a feeling I had. I finally thought about my Irish grandmother. Her name was Anna and she was a strong little lady. So the Anna was given to my girl.

How do you pick the names for your books? I really want to know. I find it interesting. My new novel has a boy for a main character, Michael. And I went around and around with that too. He was originally Jack. Jack ended up being his stepfather. The names tell me where they want to go as the characters are becoming more real to me. I do believe that if you're writing a book like historical fiction that you need to check and see what names were popular in your time period. And I read that the names Brian, Keith, Gary, Christine,(care to weigh in Chris) Sharon, Carol and Linda should only be used for characters over forty. In other words those are the names of parents or grandparents for those of us writing for children.

What say my pals in the blogosphere? :)

Have you joined?

A group for authors and illustrators of children's books, from picture books to YA, in all genres, plus aspiring writers and all readers who love children's literature. Authors and illustrators, tell us about your published work, what you're working right now, any cool stuff you've seen or heard about in the field of children's books, post your book covers or illustrations and more. And don't forget to spread the word about this group to all your contacts in the writing community. For aspiring writers, connect with published authors or other writers like yourself and for readers of all ages, check out what your favorite authors are up to, discover new ones and join in discussions.
Check it out here

It is really a great bunch of writers sharing what they've learned. :)

Check this out!!

The Literary Lab authors invite fiction writers to submit your 1 to 2,000-word short stories to us. The contest deadline is December 1, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. PST, and they plan to announce the winners on January 7, 2010, which marks the Literary Lab's 1st anniversary.

With Genre Wars, they want to celebrate all genres of writing. So, whether you write science-fiction/fantasy, horror/crime, literary, romance, children's literature/middle grade/young adult, or experimental, send in your work!

Write something new. Send something old. Polish something up. If you've never written a short story before, now's your chance to try it out!


Prizes
20-30 special selections will be chosen for inclusion in the 1st Genre Wars Anthology. All of the profits from this print-on-demand publication will be donated to a writing/reading non-profit organization that will be announced in the future.

6 genre class winners will be selected, one from each of the genres listed above (assuming they have entries in all genres). Each of these stories will be posted on their blog, followed by an author interview. Each winner will also receive a $10 gift card to a book store of their choice.

1 overall winner will be selected from the genre class winners. In addition to the prizes listed above, this writer will receive an additional $50 gift card to the book store of their choice.


Contest Guidelines
1. E-mail your 1 to 2,000-word short story to LiteraryLab@gmail.com before December 1, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. PST. Paste the work in the body of the e-mail with breaks between paragraphs (hit return twice). They will be reading all submissions blind, thanks to a kind volunteer who will send them the entries with all names removed. No attachments will be opened.

2. In your e-mail subject line type GENRE WARS ENTRY. In the body of the email include your name, the title of your work, word count, and which genre category you'd like to compete in: 1. science fiction/fantasy, 2. horror/crime, 3. literary, 4. romance, 5. children's literature/middle grade/young adult, or 6. experimental--yes, you have to pick one.

3. Works must be previously unpublished, and we ask for the rights to post the winning stories online and/or in print in the anthology. Afterwards, you are free to include the story in your own collections or as a reprint in another anthology.


Judging
The judges for this contest will be the Literary Lab co-authors: Michelle Davidson Argyle, Scott G. F. Bailey, and Davin Malasarn.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Well, hop to it! Write that short story you've always dreamed about writing. Not always dreamed about writing a short story? Write one anyway! And good luck to all the entrants. :)

My treasure from one of my super bloggy pals and remembering

I got this most wonderful award from one of my most wonderful bloggy pals. Tricia over at Talespinning honored me and I am very happy to accept. Thank you Tricia!! It means so very much to me. I really respect Tricia and all my blog pals. It's wonderful having y'all to turn to. This comes with no strings attached, but I want to give it to some folks who ALWAYS leave super comments on my blog and all the other blogs too. :)

Linda Kagewho btw, has a book coming out early in 2010. And a baby on the way. Visit her blog, you'll love it. :)
Scott at A Writer's Blog is my pal and yours too. What a great guy who never fails to make us laugh.
Cindy Wilson always has great, inspiring things to say. Her blog is super too.
Jennifer over at Me, My Muse and I. She is funny and always makes me smile no matter what is happening in my day. Thanks guys!


I am remembering those who left us on 9/11 today. Say a prayer for those that were left behind. What a day that was. God bless America!!!!! :)

I was home-schooling and a friend called and told me to turn the TV on. I know I don't have to tell you that our school work was canceled that day. Where were you when the twin towers went down?