And now, without further ado, a review!

January 23, 2013January 24, 201317 Comments

That’s right, a real, live book review! It’s been so long since I’ve reviewed a book that I feel like I’m back in high school. Okay, maybe college. Actually, that might very well be the last time I gave a proper book review like I’m fixing to give right here.

Yeah, I said “fixing to.” It happens.

Anyway, my book club met Saturday night and I was unable to make it to the meeting – again – so I decided that, since I couldn’t share my thoughts on the wonderful book we read with my book club ladies, I’d share them all with you! The book we read for January was Defending Jacob by William Landay and, while it was not a book I’d have normally read, I really enjoyed it.

The book follows Assistant District Attorney Andrew Barber as he investigates the murder of a local teenager, one of his son Jacob’s classmates. When Jacob is later arrested and charged with the crime, Andy’s life falls apart. As the investigation proceeds, he struggles to hold together his marriage and realizes how little he actually knows his son. It’s part crime novel, part lit fic, and entirely enjoyable. To find out more, just click here!

2013 Book List

January 22, 2013January 8, 201410 Comments

My book list, to be updated regularly (I hope):

Books I’m currently reading:

Stolen Child by Jennifer Sweet
How to Land (and Keep) a Literary Agent by Noah Lukeman

Books I’ve finished:

Strange times

November 20, 2012November 27, 20126 Comments

Yesterday, the courthouse groundskeeper was busy putting up fresh evergreen garland around the lampposts that dot the square. Today, he was busy mowing the lawn and it felt like spring. I know it’s Iowa and the weather will change at the drop of a hat, but dude – it’s November. Get with the program.

Just don’t swear. You can hold off on that till after New Year’s.

NaNo fever!

November 2, 2012November 27, 201210 Comments

I must be out of my mind, but I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo again this year. I skipped it last year because I didn’t have anything worth pursuing idea-wise and I was working on edits for The Lokana Chronicles like a madwoman. This year, though, I’ve decided to take the plunge.

Clearly, I am insane.

If you’d like to follow my progress…

Six years old and crazy already

October 6, 2012October 28, 201221 Comments

I hate to make sweeping generalizations, but I think all writers are a little bit crazy in their own unique way. Tales about eccentric and reclusive writers throughout history abound. In my online writing group, the Alliance of Worldbuilders, every time someone pops their head into the forum thread to join in for the first time, we try to warn them that we’re all mad here. Sometimes, they happily throw their own unique madness into the mix right along with ours and hilarity ensues.

My own particular brand of crazy began developing at a very young age. See, there was this boy in my class. We met in preschool and it was love at first sight. Well, it was love at first sight for me, anyway. He wanted nothing to do with me. But that was only because he didn’t know me! So I followed him around the classroom like a puppy, from the blocks to the sand table to the picture books and back.

When we started kindergarten, it was more of the same. He made my little five-year-old heart flutter so! But still, every time he saw me, he would take off running. How on Earth was he supposed to get to know me if he wouldn’t stand still long enough to talk to me? If he wouldn’t get to know me, we couldn’t fall madly in love!

But then first grade arrived.

Holy shamoly!

October 2, 201213 Comments

I don’t know what I wrote, but evidently someone – or several someones – found something I said of interest because my blog traffic is through the roof today. Normally I can expect to see twenty, maybe thirty people stop by on any given day. On a really good day, the number of visitors jumps up to around fifty. It’s a small following, I know, but I truly appreciate those who stop by regularly. I think it’s better to have a handful of loyal fans than a thousand people who maybe stop in only once.

But today? Today I’ve had 303 hits. I don’t know what I wrote that was so dadgum interesting, but whatever it was, I wish someone would let me know so I could do it again! Or at the very least, I could try to do it again.

And now, back to my writing cave!

Movin’ right along!

September 24, 201226 Comments

Guess who just finished the first chapter of her newest WIP? That’s right! Given that I’ve only been writing (not plotting) for what – a week? – and the fact that I don’t have a whole lot of free time in which to write, I’m pretty proud of myself. I can’t wait to see how everything is going to turn out. 🙂

I just finished my first book (for the third time…) (writeaubreywrite.wordpress.com)

Well, fooey…

September 14, 2012August 22, 20142 Comments

Oil Painting Workspace (Photo credit: nimbu)

I know I promised an exciting (Ha! :)) photo essay on repainting Tomcat’s room for today’s Photo Friday post, but the thing is, well…we’re not done. Oh, I’ve got a few before pictures, and we’ve got two coats of primer on the ceiling, plus a coat of paint and three coats of paint on the walls and two coats of paint on the radiator (I won’t be sorry to see that thing go as soon as we can afford to redo our heating and lack of cooling system). But the plastic is still on the bed and the floor, the tape is still on the light fixtures and the woodwork, and every night this week, we’ve looked at that wallpaper border and sighed with exhaustion. Also loathing. Maybe even a few other things.

So with no pretty, pretty after pictures to show off, I’m going to wait on that post-bedroom-remodeling post I had planned. Seymour wants to get the border put up Sunday, so maybe one day next week, I’ll get it done. That sounds like a nice, reasonably distant time.

Meanwhile, today is the day for the entries to fly in the agent pitch contest for GUTGAA (short for Gearing Up To Get An Agent). My entry didn’t make it into the morning pitch session, which literally filled up in seconds. Amazingly, we didn’t break Gmail. 🙂 The afternoon session starts in mere minutes. I had my finger hovering over the send button on my email this morning and my eye on the clock; I hit send as soon the clock hit 11:00 a.m. (well, 10:00 a.m. here), but I was just a bit too slow. Hopefully the afternoon session won’t be quite as crazy as the morning. There are 200 available slots; 100 remain as of this moment.

Okay, I just hit send. Let the waiting begin.

THIS JUST IN: I MADE THE CUT!!!

I repeat…

September 10, 201210 Comments

Dear God, I think I’m going to die. I need a good long soak in a nice hot bath. And a nap. It should last a week or two. And perhaps a full-body massage. That ought to put me on the mend.

That is all. 😀

She’s a-gone!

August 26, 201222 Comments

That’s it! I’ve finished! Yes, that’s right, again, I’ve finally finished again. But this time I mean it. I just hit send on an email to someone who requested my full manuscript. So now I really am done. And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go breathe into a brown paper bag for a bit and then maybe read a book. For fun!

I know, I’m such a party girl. 😛