If you’ve spent more than a second in the blogosphere in the last 4 days, you’ve probably heard a little something about NaNo WriMo. If you’re unfamiliar with the tradition of NaNo WriMo, then allow me to fill you in.

November is widly known as National Novel Writing Month–thus abreviated NaNo WriMo. And those crazy writers who decide to participate in the NaNo WriMo challenge, try to write 50,000 words in one month. If you’re not a writer, then the word count probably doesn’t mean much to you. But if you’re not sure if that’s a HUGE challenge, let me assure you IT IS!

Like an idiot, I suggested (please note, how I’ve inflicted this torture on myself) to Jess Barnes that perhaps we should participate this year. She quickly agreed to go along with it–modifying her plans to write a mere 30,000 words, which is still a ridiculous amount to write in one month. But me, I decided that if I could just get those 50,000 words written, I’d pretty nearly have my next novel for Steeple Hill completed. So I decided I was definitely going to do it.

My problem. I’m totally undisciplined. Here I am 4 days in, and I’ve managed to write a grand total of 1,800 words. I’m seriously going to have to make this weekend count!!! 🙂

While you’re reading this, I’m hanging out with my family in San Diego! We’re going to Sea World! My favorite. I can’t wait to see my nieces interacting with the animals. Emily especially is freaked out by animals, so this is going to be fun! Pictures coming soon, so check back in soon!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend, fellow writer, and roommate at ACFW, Valerie Comer invited me to be  a guest on her blog. She said she’d like to review The Kidnapping of Kenzie Thorn–which she kindly did here. And then she said she’d like me to write 500-800 words on this prompt: Writing with my Muse.

Truth be told, I’d never really thought too much about my muse. I wouldn’t say my muse is a person or thing, really. It’s just my imagination, and I think it’s important to stretch and grow it all the time. Otherwise, my stories become mundane and much less fun.

I agreed to write the short guest blog post, and decided it was as good a time as any to have a little fun with it. So here’s the first few lines of my story:

My muse* is a pest—an incredibly annoying pain in the butt. She comes knocking on my door at the worst possible times. There I am snug as bug in bed, covers up to my chin, lights off, and sleep nearly reached. 

“Hey! Hey, Liz! Wake up! I have an idea.”

I open one eye and look around my bedroom. Same as always. She’s shy and doesn’t want to make an appearance, but she has no trouble pulling me from my extremely comfy situation because she has “an idea.” 

“What if it’s a bad one?” I ask.

Read the rest of the story here. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it.

Stretching my silly imagination until next time. -LJ

Well, folks. Snow is on the ground (thankfully without the ice we had last weekend). The wind is wipping up into a frenzy. And there’s hot cocoa to be had (seriously, I’m drinking it out of a moose mug exactly like the one below right this very minutes). It’s getting to be close to that time of year.

I love Christmas. I love everything about it. I love buying gifts and then watching my family and friends open them. I don’t mind getting them either. I love spending time with family. I love have a super-valid reason to take a week and half off of work. And I really love going to Christmas Eve service at church, singing carols, and listening to the only Christmas story that really matters.

There’s another holiday tradition that is near and dear to my heart, too. And in honor of said tradition, I’m going to do something really fun each week on my blog during the month of December. That something is going to include my good friend Katie’s expertise. I just know you’re going to love hearing from her, so be sure to swing back around in December. You won’t want to miss learning a little-known fact about me and finding out what a big geek I am. 🙂

Also, seeing as Christmas is coming, do you have a loved one who needs a signed copy of The Kidnapping of Kenzie Thorn for Christmas? Perhaps I should do a giveaway. I’ll noodle on a fun way to do just that. More details to come soon!

Singing Silent Night until next time. -LJ

I just wanted to give a shout out to my big sister Hannah, who turns 30 today!

I’m just so glad that we’re sisters and, moreover, that we’re friends. I love that I can tell her every embarassing story about myself, and I know she’ll laugh, give me crap for it, and still love me. We were just reminiscing a couple weeks ago about the one semester we lived together in college. It was seriously one of the most fun times of my college career–what with Friends reruns over dinner every night, plans for her wedding, and lots of laughs.

When I was a senior in high school, I said I didn’t want to go to the same college that my sister and brother were going to. But as it was, we all ended up graduating from Northern Arizona University, and it was some of the best years of my life. I think we’re all closer because of it.

Love you, Hannah! Happy 3-0! (Are we getting old?)

The veiw from my rear window today. Notice the blades of grass that look like grass that look like frozen green beans.

Snug as a bug in a rug indoors until next time. -LJ

By no means do I consider this a blog for writers. I hope you’ve noticed that by now. I don’t give a lot of advice or interview a lot of authors on how to write. I mean, I definitely want to encourage fledgling writers out there, but this isn’t the blog to get the most information about how to become a writer.

Instead this is a writer’s blog.

As such, I feel compelled to share with you an anecdote from the other night. To set the scene, I was sitting at the dining room table with my revision notes spread out around my laptop. I was busy rewriting a scene that my editor didn’t particularly care for. In this scene my hero and heroine were having a fight, a nasty one, and it made me terribly sad. Just then my roommate Tracy walked into the kitchen and asked how things were going.

“Okay, I guess,” I sighed.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I’m just so sad. My characters are having a terrible fight. I think I’ll have to re-read the end of the book to remind myself that it all turns out okay.”

She looked kind of a confused and said, “But didn’t you write it?”

Hmmm. I did indeed write it.

These writers are strange people, I think. Myself definitely included. Oh, well. I didn’t even try to explain the complex workings of my weird, weird writer mind. Suffice it to say, I did re-read the ending, and I was infinitely happy with how things turned out.

Even if I already knew that’s how they would end.

MizB of Should Be Reading hosts the Teaser Tuesdays weekly event

Here are the rules:
* Grab your current read
* Let the book fall open to a random page
* Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12
*You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
* Please avoid spoilers!

This week’s teaser is:
“Shock rolled through Sarah, forcing her to look away from her husband for fear she might cry. Had he found her so lacking already, without giving her a fair try, that that he was ready to be rid of her the first chance he got?”
pg. 70  – Straight for the Heart by Vickie McDonough

– Another book from ACFW shopping spree. 🙂 I’ve read books about women who married men to rescue them from jail time, but I’ve never read one where a man marries a woman to save her. Looking forward to it!