Honest Scrap

My friend and crit partner Ali Cross passed on this fun blog award:

It requires I share 10 things about myself.

1. I have this weird aversion to drive-throughs, if I'm driving, but the drive-through at the bank is just fine (and very essential when you're with kids).

2. I did some ballroom dancing and acting in high school and college, and some days I miss doing them (especially after watching Dancing With the Stars).

3. My husband and I love to quote movies in our conversations or to let the other person know how we're feeling. One of our favorite lines (from Remember the Titans) is "You're cookin' my grits, Yost."

4. Though I consider myself an organized person, the thought of planning out every hour of my day (or every detail of my book) makes me squirm. I like looser outlines (or to-do lists), with wiggle room.

5. I've never had a real positive horse-back riding experience, which is ironic, considering I married a man who loves horses and used to train them for racing. (Still need to put training race horses into a book).

6. I LOVE chocolate, but not citrus, cherry, or raspberry-chocolate combinations.

7. I have a fear of heights and sharks - so parasailing over shark-infested water would probably not be my thing. 
 
8. Despite the fear of heights, I rode in a hot air balloon as a kid, which was pretty cool. 
 
9. I get motion sick very easily (in cars, on planes, watching Mario Kart on the Wii). One time my DH and I were at a movie and I had to go sit on the floor at the side of the theater because I was so sick.
 
10. My great-grandfather, Leslie Turner White, was an author whose books were published in the 1950's and 60's. One of them, Lord Johnnie, I've read and quite enjoyed. And though he died before I was born, we share the same birthday.
 
And now to pass the award on to Jolene Perry. I'm fairly new to Jolene's blog, but I love the funny honest way she writes her posts.

Turning Points

Last night at book club we were discussing life-changing moments. I didn't voice a comment - mostly because I couldn't think of much to say - but I've been mulling over today what I might have answered.

I can think of a few obvious life-changing moments: college, marriage, the birth of my first child. Then there's others that are more personal, less obvious: losing a baby, supporting my husband as he started his own business, and writing my first book.

The turning point, the life-changing moment in my writing was that first book. I'd wanted to publish/write a book for a long time, but the year my oldest was born, my husband gave me some plotting software that I used to start writing my first book.

At that point, I'd never been to a writers conference. I knew very little about publishing and even about writing a novel. I read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel (which is actually a great book) and some other writing books and I learned as I went! I wrote the book and I finished it. I became a writer. That was one of my life-changing moments.

What moments in your writing journey have been turning points for you?

Who Matters Most

Have you ever watched the TLC show Hoarding: Buried Alive? My hubby and I have watched it a little bit and I watched an episode one night in Indiana during my conference. It's a reality TV show about people who hoard things in their apartments or houses. It could be food, trash, papers, clothes, anything. But the problem is they have so much of whatever it is that they really can't LIVE.

The woman on the episode I watched said something I thought was truly profound. She'd been working with a professional organizer to go through all of her stuff and it wasn't easy for her. She said how sad it was when the things in your life block out the people. 

I've thought about her words a bunch the last month. And while I don't hoard physical stuff, what "things" do I allow to crowd out the people/relationships in my life?

We all work to strike a balance, trying to keep the scale from tipping too far one way or another. And this stranger's words helped remind me of that. Sometimes the "things" in our lives need to be momentarily set aside, weeded through, or weeded out to make room for what--or who--matters most.

Those First Stories

Since I'm up to my eyes in revisions (with a deadline for next week), I thought I'd enlist the help of Child #2 for this week's blog post. He's always telling us these funny little stories, so a month or two ago, I decided to type a few of them up while he dictated them to me. This one is my favorite - it's ripe with conflict, action, characters, and an emotionally satisfying ending.

One day we were all in the forest. We saw a bear coming toward us, but it was nice. There was a tiger heading for the bear, but it was bad. It was coming really toward us, but we were not afraid. There was a guy chasing the tiger and he shot the tiger. And the tiger was dead. Then we were saved. But there was another animal—it was an elephant, but it was nice. It let us aboard and it took us back home.