Looking For Love In All The Right Places

My childhood was fairly isolated.  I had no social life to speak of and only a couple of friends because my mother was terribly overprotective.  I was even isolated from extended family.  My dad wasn’t fond of my mom’s side of the family, so my brothers and I were effectively cut off from cousins and aunts and uncles.  We’d go years without speaking to them.  It was pretty pathetic.

I grew up, but outside of my wild college days (when I made up for lost time), my life continued to be isolated, especially a few years after getting married.  Not by choice, mind you, but there was work, family, and more work, expectations, and mistakes that took precedence over a social life.

I fell into a rut.  Working at home made the isolation even worse.  I could go days without leaving the house.  I never had a chance to make new friends.

And even though my father wasn’t around to forbid me from calling my cousins, I didn’t try to rekindle those relationships (please forgive me Toria and Maria!).   I figured since they all lived so far from me, how could I develop a relationship over the phone or through email?  It just wasn’t the same as seeing them in person.  I avoided reaching out because, if I wasn’t going to do it right, I wasn’t going to do it at all.

That was before July 2011.  After July 2011?  A totally different story.

So what changed for me?

This week I’m blog-sitting for Elena Aitken (one of my cyber sistas) while she’s on vacay.  I’m headed over to her blog right now to finish this discussion and I’d love for you all to follow me over there because I want to tell you all about how I’ve come to appreciate the beauty of having cyber friends…

A Few More Deets on Souled…

Image: businessnewsdaily.com

This has been such a great week for me and I owe it all to my WANA sista, Bridgette Booth!

She helped me pry my fingers off my closely-held WIP and held it up to the light for all to see.

For me, and probably most writers, that’s a big step. After eating, drinking, and sleeping with the characters for many, many moons, the act of talking about the novel in public and acknowledging its upcoming release, makes it all so very real.  Knowing that months of hard work will soon draw to an end is, quite frankly, a little scary.  It is probably similar to watching our children leave home for the first time.  We push them out of the nest, hoping we’ve given them enough love and nurturing to fly on their own.  We’ll still be there for them, cheering them on, but ultimately we have to let them go and move on.

Sadness and elation – two emotions that are creeping up on me as I write this. But, it’s part of the writer’s life, a life I fully embrace.

Today, Bridgette has once again generously opened the door to her blog, this time to ask a few questions about me, my writing, and my upcoming novel, Souled.  Are you ready for some answers?  Then please join me over at Bridgette Booth’s digs for a little conversation.

In the upcoming weeks, be sure to come back, because I’ll be posting excerpts from the novel, interesting information on soul attachments, the making of the book cover  (a huge thank you to Crystalyn Abercrombie, artist and tattoo expert!), and other fun stuff!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Stepping Out For Some Fresh Air

Photo: mandylifeafter30.com

You may or may not have noticed, but I’ve been less active here on my blog and in the Twitterverse.  I know that I feel the difference.  Not posting my blogs and connecting with you feels like something is missing, but it has been for a very good reason.

You see, my next novel is almost ready to be released.

In the beginning of the novel writing process, at least for me anyway, the first couple weeks are dedicated to feverishly writing down ideas and scenes that play out in my head.  The fever then dissipates and the intensity lets up.  As words on the pages get cut and rearranged, as holes get filled in, and copy editors and beta readers help tighten up the loose ends, the fever kicks in again.  So over the last month or so, I’ve been focused solely on the last phase of my second novel.  The more detailed oriented I need to be, the more I need to go into hiding.

Photo by Thinkstock

So who brings me out of this self-imposed social lockdown?  My wonderful friend and WANA sister, Bridgette Booth!  Bridgette is diligently working on her own manuscript, is an avid reader, AND a homeschool mom.  Whew!  In between her writing, reading, and teaching, in addition to all of the stuff life throws at her, she is very generously sharing her blog space with me to talk about my soon-to-be released novel.

I’m thrilled that she has read my manuscript and will be talking about it today!   Then on Wednesday I’ll be answering her questions!

So jump over to her blog today and see what has been consuming my spare time!  I’m really excited about this novel and I’m certain you’ll see why!