This weekend was a nice break from the chaos that has been my life these past few weeks.  Saturday morning, we went to Fly Creek Cider Mill near Cooperstown and treated ourselves to fresh apple cider (made that morning) and watched them make even more cider.  We had lunch by the duck pond where both T and Chriss decided to converse with the ducks ( Read more... )

So the other day when I was walking on the nature trail with my friend, her son asked me if I wanted to see the cool thing he found in the woods.  Of course I said sure.  He led us off the trail and into the trees.  Call me silly, but it had never occurred to me before that I could veer off the path and trek through the forest.  A little ways in, ( Read more... )

I’ve been reading Press On by Joseph B. Wirthlin.  Today I was reading the chapter entitled One Step After Another which is based on his October 2001 General Conference address.  I found the whole thing very inspiring but one passage in particular stuck out at me.  It was something I very much needed to hear.  He said:

“Let me cite a hypothetical ( Read more... )

There’s a line from the movie that I just love.  It’s become my personal mantra:  Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something.

People are very fond of telling other people what they can and can’t do.  And it usually is because they either can’t do it themselves or because it seems too hard, too unattainable, too impossible.  So ( Read more... )

This is something that has been weighing heavily on my mind for quite some time now.  I've been disturbed lately by the seeming obsession people have with tearing others down.  I see this everywhere.  On the news, between politicians, on TV, among writers, in families, in schools, in the work place, among adults and children alike.  It's ( Read more... )

I got this in my email this morning and thought I'd share it.

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked,

"Who would like this $20 bill?"

Hands started going up.

He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this."  He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar ( Read more... )

Today is a very sad day, indeed.  Miss Snark has announced that she's retiring her blog.  I know she'll probably never see this, but I want to extend a very heartfelt thank you to her for all of her hard work and her willingness to teach writers like myself more about the industry.  I have learned so much from her and the other agent blogs I read ( Read more... )

So, as I mentioned the other day, the series I'm working on has 11 books planned. (The only way it'd possibly increase is if one of them needs to be broken up because of length issues). Well, this series has a very complex over-arcing plot. That's what I call the things that tie each book together. Each book has an individual plot that gets ( Read more... )

This weekend was a big weekend for my church. It was a semi-annual event we call General Conference. This happens the first weekend of April and October every year. In this conference, our prophet, apostles, and other general leaders speak to us. Their talks focus on giving us a better understanding of Christ’s teachings and how we can apply them ( Read more... )

I'm determined to break through the scene I'm stuck on in chapter 43 so I thought I'd try the stream of consciousness exercise to help me out. Well, when I got started, I realized it wasn't my MC speaking, it was me and I was chastizing her. Before I knew it, I was having a conversation with her about the issues she's having that are affecting her ( Read more... )