Don't miss Laurie's past journal entries. Here are the archives:
2011 Journal
I'll keep you posted here on all my
writing adventures...
December 27, 2011:
Hello everyone! How was your Christmas? Mine was a wonderful
series of meals and get together's with family, culminating in cooking a
traditional turkey sit down dinner for 17 people. I have to admit
the turkey was superb and I believe everyone enjoyed it. It was a
wonderful two days celebrating Christ's birth. I'm really enjoying
how our Christmas Eve's and mornings change over the years as my boys
get older. Of course, it's fun to have little kids to bring the
magic of Christmas Day, but it's great to have more mature kids as well.
I have an appointment tomorrow with a website redesign service. I'm excited to start working on the revamp and unveiling it to you.
December 14, 2011: I spent a really fun evening last night talking to the Junior Women's League about my life as a writer. It was a fantastic group of women and they were very welcoming to me. Thanks Gina and ladies for the invitation!
I mentioned a month ago that I plan to revamp this website to a brand new look and feel. Although I've done some work towards it, I probably won't get it up and running till January so stay tuned!
I hope your Christmas season is progressing well, and you're able to enjoy the festivities of the season and the meaning of the holiday amidst all your preparations.
December 1, 2011: A quick post to let you know that a new interview with me has hit the web -- thanks so much to Rachel Brimble for making me her guest author today! Here it is.
November 27, 2011: The inevitable march leading to the end of 2011 is upon us. Thanksgiving is OVER, Christmas will be here before you know it, and then ... 2012. I often think of a motto by the Happiness Project author, Gretchen Rubin, "The days are long, but the years are short." I look around me and suddenly my life seems to be in fast-forward. I have a son in college, who will be 21 on his next birthday ... a legal adult in every way! HOW on earth did that happen? And my baby is 16 -- more than halfway done with high school, soon will be solidifying his own plans for college and preparing himself for the rest of his life. I'm just baffled at how fast things have gone. Do you remember when the years seemed to drag by? When you were looking forward to something and it just NEVER seemed to get here? Well, gone are those days.
So, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, made even better by the fact that I took 9 days off work so I could really relax and accomplish and enjoy the people around me without being in a rush. And by the fact that I saw so many of my family members and friends. And we did all kinds of fun things, most of which involved eating. Now, onward to the Christmas rush!
I'm happy to report that amidst my extended time off, I also began writing again. I wrote a solid 12 pages of my work in progress, Roadtrip to Redemption and I really love how this book is turning out. Of course, it's first draft time, when I try to just get the words flowing -- tell the story, I can go back and polish it/fix it later. What's important now is getting the words down on paper.
A few writing events to look forward to: on Dec 1 an online interview with me will be published (stay tuned here) and on Dec 13 I am the guest speaker at a local women's group. That's always fun. Enjoy your December, savor every moment you can, and remember the reason for the season!
November 2, 2011: I write to you from my living room couch at 10:00 in the morning, my second cup of coffee steaming beside me, and The View playing on the television. I'm taking a vacation from my day job for the sheer purpose of relaxation. I've accumulated a lot of paid time off since I've been with my company so long, and since work has been intense and crazy this year, I find myself grabbing opportunities to get away and relax whenever I can -- a luxury I wasn't able to do a decade ago. Life is good!
My son's football team continues its record-breaking season -- they finished as champions of their conference, and they power-housed a win in the first round of the State Playoffs! We're preparing this weekend to play against the team who came in 2nd in State last year. It's been a fun and exciting season and we'll see just how far this train keeps chugging along!
I'm looking forward to my monthly writer's group this evening, seeing my cadre of fellow writers and absorbing their enthusiasm and commitment. I'm bringing pages for critique -- pages I actually wrote close to a year ago, on my work in progress, Roadtrip to Redemption. Now that my work schedule is more under control, and football season is nearing an end, my dedication will turn towards jumping back into that manuscript soon and making forward progress on it.
And ... I've made a decision about THIS website. It's time for a change. The time has come to update and modernize it. I opened this website in 2000 when my first book, Whispers of the Heart was months away from release. It's been a lot of fun learning how to update the website myself, and the original site has grown and blossomed and expanded. I feel good about my presence on the web and the content that I've provided to my fans and readers for the last 11 years. But it's time for a facelift! I promise I will still have a fun, interactive site, and I will carry forth your favorite features to the new look and feel. But I need to bring the site into the modern web world. I will be working on it over the coming months, and when I'm ready, I'll announce the launch and offer some sort of contest to go along with it. So ... stay tuned!!!
October 11, 2011: Happy fall, everyone! Or, if you're in the central part of the US, happy Indian Summer! We've had a beautiful snap of unseasonably warm weather and I'm soaking it in before the crazy cold temps hit us.
Football season tromps on, and my son's team is doing fantastically well! We're in first place in the conference this week! This Friday is our final conference game, so we either emerge Conference champs for the year, or due to how everyone else is doing, we tie for first place with 2 other teams. We'd much rather be at the top by ourselves, but I guess even the worst case scenario is still great. Last year we lost more than we won. Good job, Pioneers! Looking forward to the playoffs!
A new interview with me has hit the web: Realmantic Moments with Lila Munro. Thanks Lila for having me!
September 26, 2011: Just a quick post to share with you the article I wrote for Savvy Authors has been published. Here it is! It's called "Include Song Lyrics in your Novel? Oh No You Didn't!" It's an informational and hopefully entertaining look at my journey to gain copyright rights to include the lyrics of the song Tomorrow from the musical Annie in my YA novel, Chronicles of Casey V. Judging from the number of hits and comments, I'd say many authors were interested in learning about the topic!
September 16, 2011: I took the day off of work today to focus on a bunch of "writerly things" that had been piling up on me. So often I feel like I have to rush through my writing tasks because the rest of my life (career, family) takes the best of my days and attention, and I am forced to squeeze my writing activities into those spare minutes not taken up by anything else. <<Frustrated SIGH>>
So I'm feeling very happy that on this self-induced day off, I not only managed to sleep in till 9 AM and relax through my coffee, but I also marked two tasks off my To Do List: a web interview that will appear on Oct 11 on the Realmantic Moments with Lila Munro site and an informative article I was asked to write for a fantastic author's reference website called Savvy Authors. I don't have a publication date on that yet but now that I've submitted the article and pictures, I hope to have a date soon. I'm happy with how both projects turned out and can't wait to make them available to you.
Do you like football? It's certainly the season for it, and my son plays on the Varsity team, so every Friday night is all about football! I've taken it upon myself to create a scrapbook of all the Varsity football games he plays in, and this is Year 2 for this endeavor, since he was lucky enough to start as a Varsity player last year as a sophomore. So every week I'm cutting out newspaper articles, collecting quotes, taking pictures, etc., so that he has an all-inclusive scrapbook of memories. It's a lot of fun.
Have a wonderful "what's left of September!"
August 24, 2011: Another quickie to share another guest blog interview, the next stop on my Inner Diva media tour! It's on Sandra's blog. Check it out!
August 21, 2011: Just a quick journal today to tell you to check out the first of my appearances in my media tour for Inner Diva promotions! Here it is: an interview with me on the Unwritten blog. Enjoy! And keep your eye on my home page for lists of new appearances too!
August 14, 2011: I've been blessed with an extraordinarily great summer. Throw another great trip onto the pile -- we had ten days in beachy paradise at Myrtle Beach, SC. Wow, great weather, wonderful beach, terrific friends. Couldn't have asked for better. And we returned to a nice cool snap in central Illinois. My son sure appreciates that as he enters two-a-day football practices preparing for their first game THIS FRIDAY night. Go Pioneers!
As the summer winds to an end and the school year begins, I've decided to take on a bit of homework myself. I scoured the internet looking for opportunities to promote my new e-book, Inner Diva, and as is so consistent with the super-friendly romance community, every single blog or website I approached, welcomed me with open arms. I'm now putting together a schedule of blogs, interviews, chat hosts, etc. which I will post on this site so you can hit all of them!
Have you taken part of the Scavenger Hunt for Long and Short Review's 4th anniversary? My website is participating, along with 59 other authors. Read this page to see what it's all about, and how you can win a Color Nook e-reader if you are the lucky winner!
July 26, 2011: A month has passed since Inner Diva was released. It's fun having a new release out! For those of you who have bought and downloaded it to your e-reader, thank you! And I hope you like it. In fact, if you are so inclined, go onto Amazon or BN.com and leave a review with your thoughts of the book. Also, if you want to read ID but don't have a Kindle or Nook, there are still ways you can read it. You can get a Kindle app for your Ipad, any smart phone, or even your laptop/netbook or desktop computer. Just look on Amazon or BN.com for free downloads of the software.
I was happy to visit a book club this month as guest author. They had read my Preacher Man as their monthly selection and we had a wonderful time talking about the book, my EPIC contest win and a variety of other topics. Thanks so much for having me, ladies!
As August approaches I look back on what has been a wonderful summer already. In addition to my dream trip to New York in June, I escaped for a quick trip to Dallas to visit some great new friends in July. And of course, I was among the millions of other Harry Potter fans standing in a long line to see the final movie in the epic saga, and loved every second of it (twice already!). Now, I look forward to a fun family vacation to Myrtle Beach. We'll drive this time, taking two days to get there, then a full week on a beautiful beachfront condo, then a two day drive back. However you love to spend your summer, I wish you all the best in getting to do it.
June 30, 2011: It's released! A few days early! If you want your own electronic copy of my newest book, take a look at this page for all the order and download details. If you want to read the book and don't have a Kindle or Nook, there are many options to download free Kindle or Nook software on any variety of electronic gadgets. Also, leave your own review on Amazon or BN.com to let others how you liked it! Time to celebrate!
June 28, 2011: It's right on schedule! Inner Diva should be released to Kindle and Nook e-readers on or possibly even BEFORE July 1! Of course I'll announce right here (and send a newsletter to my mailing list) when it's ready, but keep your eye on Amazon and BN.com for your copy. You may just get your copy a day or two early!
June 22, 2011: I just returned from a wonderful and magical trip to New York City where I fed my addiction to musical theater! Ha ha. I saw FIVE Broadway shows and for any one of you who also love theater, I documented my personal reviews in this trip report. Take a look if you're interested. I guess it doesn't surprise me that Monica in Inner Diva is a such a theater fan. Maybe because her creator is!
June 5, 2011: I'm so proud and excited to present my new cover for Inner Diva, created by the wonderfully talented Kimberlee Mendoza who designed my last two covers, as well, for Preacher Man and Chronicles of Casey V:
The book will be released for Kindle and Nook on July 1 through Amazon.com and BN.com. If you like to read your books on e-readers I hope you'll get a copy!
May 26, 2011: Oh maaaan! I haven't journaled for almost THREE MONTHS. For those of you who happen upon this journal, or maybe even mark it in your Favorites and stop by every once in awhile, I apologize! As is often the case with us "artists with a day job," life has gotten in the way, big time. In fact, I was glancing over my last journal entry from early March and remembering how all-consuming that day job was at that point -- driving me nearly crazy in the process. And I have to say that things have improved. My workload has eased a little, yes. But I've also changed my attitude about it. I CAN'T do it all. And in order to be a happy, well-adjusted person operating at the top of my game, I can't continue to be a slave to my work schedule, neglecting all else. I HAVE to do those things that I enjoy in my private life, or I'm no good in my professional life either. So now, I have a more optimistic mindset about it all. The dark clouds of the winter have passed me by, and the sun is starting to peek through. Just in time for summer!
Part of my changed attitude is the fact that I have two remarkable trips planned over the next two months. I am joining my friend Laurie in New York City where we absorb ourselves in the theater district for 4 or 5 days! Last time we went, we saw 5 Broadway shows in 4 days! And this time we'll do the same thing. You have to be a major theater lover to do that, and Laurie and I are so alike in that regard. We've got tickets already to How to Succeed in Business, starring my Harry Potter favorite, Daniel Radcliffe. And we've also got tickets to Catch Me If You Can (based off the Leo DiCaprio movie). The rest of our "show card" will be filled by spontaneous ticket purchases at the 1/2 price kiosk in Times Square. I'm so excited about that trip. My second trip is my annual pilgrimage to the beach in August. Despite being a land-locked midwestern girl, I'm a true beach girl and I need my trips to the beach to re-inspire myself and refill my well.
But this journal is about my writing escapades. Although I haven't been writing new material this spring, I have made a decision about one of my finished manuscripts, Inner Diva. You'll see in my last journal entry that I'd submitted it to one major traditional publisher, as well as two e-publishers, and it hasn't garnered a publishing contract. (Did you like that? I avoided the word "rejection" all together). I've decided I'm going to try something a little different with this book. Many romance writers are venturing into independent e-publishing through the major book sale websites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The websites make it fairly easy to self-pub a book and offer it for readers with any e-reader. I've spoken to several authors who have taken this path, and they rave about how quick and easy it is to get the book out there, and how they get much higher royalties on these books than they receive from publishers. So I decided to give it a try with Inner Diva, sort of as an experiment.
Inner Diva is a contemporary love story featuring a hot, sexy Mexican named Carlos and a prim, proper theater lover named Monica. They definitely fall into the "opposites attract" category. No one in their right mind would put the two of them together, but boy, when they get together, the sparks fly!
I consider this an experiment, because looking at my past book sales, only a very small percentage come from e-books. The vast majority of my readers, when offered the choice between paperback and electronic, choose paperback. But e-readers have infiltrated the market, and more and more people are choosing to read their fiction on a Nook or Kindle. So I'll give it a try! I'm working right now with a cover artist to design my e-cover, which I'll post here as soon as I get it. And I'll make it my summer project to do final edits on the manuscript, format it and get it uploaded to Amazon so you can start ordering it! If you want to receive an email from me when it's ready, send me a note and I'll put you on my mailing list. Or if you don't want one more thing in your Inbox (I know how you feel!) just keep an eye out on this website and you'll be among the first to know.
Happy Memorial Day everyone! Take a moment to reflect on your lost loved ones and especially those American military people who have given up the ultimate for the protection of our freedom. And ... happy summer!
March 6, 2011: I have a few interesting writing-related items to report. I was invited to the February meeting of BALS -- Broadway Avenue Literary Society -- as guest author. A wonderful group of ladies led by my friend Ruth read Preacher Man for their February selection and we had a delightful evening talking about the book and writing in general, drinking champagne and eating cheesecake. Thanks for the invite, BALS!
I finished Chapter 3 of my new book, Roadtrip to Redemption. I love how it's developing and I'm having a great time creating memorable moments for my main character, Leslie.
An interview with me was posted on the web and I really like how it turned out. Check it out here.
And, in not so pleasant news, both publishers I submitted Inner Diva to, sent me rejections. I guess ID is not ready for prime time. I'll have to figure out what to do about it -- either go through massive revisions, or just let it simmer on the back burner for awhile before I submit again.
Work is insanely busy, and has been for months. This week I realized I hadn't had a day off in 19 days, and I logged 62 hours of work last week alone. The stakes are high, the environment is stressful. I'm either stressed out to the max, or I'm walking around in a fog due to the overload. It's not good for my mental or physical health, and my work/life balance is way out of whack. I have no energy left at the end of my long days for my family or my outside interests. I've had to drop out of church choir, which I dearly love, because of my work on Sundays.
Yesterday, I forced myself into a no-work weekend. I attended church for the first time in four Sundays, and God did one of those "Hey Laurie, listen up! This one's for you!" services. His message to me was so clear I couldn't have ignored it.
First, the anthem. Lyrics of songs do a powerful job of speaking to me, and this one seemed custom-made to what I am going through. Here are some of the lyrics of the beautiful song called "Press On."
When the mountain is
steep, when the valley is deep
when the body is weary, when we stumble and fall
When the choices are hard, when we're battered and scarred
when we've spent our resource, when we've given our all
In Jesus' name we press on, In Jesus' name we press on
Dear Lord, with the prize, clear before our eyes
we find the strength to press on.
Then the sermon. Our pastor Becca began with the story of
Lewis and Clark pressing on and after a long difficult journey, thinking
they had reached the easy part, only to reach ... the Rocky Mountains.
Then she moved on to Jeremiah the prophet who preached for 46 years,
through thick and thin and all sorts of adversity, remaining faithful to
God.
It will get better. God takes care of our needs. We just need to keep the prize clear before our eyes, and press on.
January 31, 2011: My friend and fellow author Kienna Riley invited me to be a guest on her blog today! She was nice enough to post my interview and I really liked it. Take a look.
Not too much to report except two pieces of good news in the submission process: my full manuscript of Inner Diva has been submitted to two publishers now. Hopefully I'll have exciting news to report about a 2011 release!
In non-writing news, the weather guys are forecasting a HUGE winter storm heading our way tomorrow and the next day. I hope it either passes us by, or hits us so much that school and work are completely cancelled for a couple days! All or nothing, baby!!
How's your winter going?
January 20, 2011: I'm a little late on my first journal entry of the year! Is that any way to start out my second decade of managing this website? Yes, do you believe that?? Ten years I've had this website, which means ten years I've been a published author, which means ... I have to think of some way to celebrate! Stay tuned on that when I do more brainstorming, but 2011 will be my year to celebrate a decade in this crazy business.
Anyway, it's time, as it always is during my first journal entry of a new year, to set some writing goals for myself. They keep me focused, and it gives me something to measure myself against. So away we go:
1. Make a sale!
>> It's time to submit some work and get another published book under my belt. I have three manuscripts completed (or nearly so) that have not been contracted yet, so I need to spend a little bit of time getting one or more of these in front of editors. >>
2. Complete manuscript tentatively titled Roadtrip to Redemption.
>> Get back in the groove of writing regularly and see this manuscript, currently in its infancy, to completion. >>
3. Branch out a little: try something new with my writing and shake it up!!
>> Try a new genre, a new publisher, or publishing venue. Something completely different. What the heck? Maybe my collaboration with my colleague who is working through Keeper By Surprise with me will turn into something big in 2011. >>
Happy New Year everyone and let's make 2011 a GREAT one!
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