Okay, so I’m late on my New Year’s post. I had to think of something to say – right? I have decided this year to be more intentional about writing. You say, “I probably should have been like that all along.” Well, true, but I have let some aspects of life get in the way. Life still may get in the way, but I won’t let it distract me quite so much.

I have joined a writing group. They are a group of like-minded people who I can converse and learn more about my craft. I have set up my Twitter account. Now to get followers. I have a Pinterest board to help market my books. Now I have to set up my author face book page and set up a website. I’m pretty jazzed about this.

What am I working on now? The story of Pete and Virgil. A couple of squirrels who want to part of the Royal Flying Squirrel Squad (say that 10 times fast) and chose the wrong way to do it. Can they fix their mistake? Or will everyone, and I mean everyone suffer the consequences.

Stay tuned!

I like the word conundrum. It just feels fun to say it. Conundrum. Did you know the first time it was used was in 1645? Me neither. Just one of those weird facts that pop up when you look up a word in the dictionary. Contiguous is another fun word to say. That word popped up in 1609. Can you tell I can’t sleep? It’s 11:30 pm Eastern Standard Time and I have to get kids off to school early in the morning, but in the meantime  I guess we’ll go back to conundrum

I have a bit of a conundrum. My friends would probably not think it a conundrum, but I do. What do I write now. I’ve been pondering that for a bit, and I’ve been told I should do some free writing. I suppose I could. I could post more to this blog than once a month, but I really like to have something to say and not post just for posting’s sake. Maybe I should just peruse my dictionary for some funny words and blog about them. That might be fun. I don’t know.

I was going to write the G.W. mysteries, but I think I’m thinking about those to much. Maybe I’m overthinking the whole story and should just sit at my computer and see what comes out. I was trying to plan a bit and sort of create a world, and well, it’s just not working for me. Like I said, I’m overthinking a bit. Also, since I wrote the original story for my dad with him as the main character, I’m not sure I’m ready to make all the changes I had planned to make for it to be a young adult novel with the main character a girl. Sometimes it makes me realize how much I miss him. He passed away several years ago.

Then I was going to work on Amy Dodd, and one of my friends said it sounded a lot like Fat Farm. I don’t agree since it is a totally different story with a totally different outcome. I can’t speak for all writers but I tend to put a piece of myself in my stories, and Amy Dodd is no different. Sometimes I work out feelings that are troubling me through the actions of my characters. I did that in Fat Farm. I was angry and I let it all out.

Amy Dodd is not an angry story. I started it many years ago, and really feel it needs to be updated and finished. This one would be more about bullying and the ramifications of those actions. Do I plan this out or just write by the seat of my pants.

The next set of stories is a bit more intimidating. I wanted to do Bible stories for middle grades. I want it to be Biblical, but creative and entertaining as well. It would be a series of books based on certain stories in the Bible like Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, etc. So I was thinking…what kind of conversations would Adam and Eve have with God. Is the snake one of God’s creations, if so, did God give it free will as well? How come it talked. Did the other animals talk as well? If the snake was not from God. how did the snake get into the garden to tempt Eve with the apple. It’s a conundrum. See

So much stuff in my head and not knowing where to start.  A conundrum of conundrums. Fun, fun.

I’ll let you know what happens.

As you  can read I got a new computer – Yay me!!! It has Windows 8 and a few cool bells and whistles that I’m still trying to get used to. But so far I like it. What that means is that it is time to get back to writing. I have been putting it off a bit, (No I’m not addicted to Candy Crush 😉 ), because I’m thinking,  and what I’ve been thinking about is world building.

I think with this new story, G. W. Sanders,  that I may actually have to do a little world building. I’m not much into world building, but some of my friends are. I know I’ve said that I “write by the seat of my pants.” Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I’m learning it really depends on the kind of story you want to write. With this story I will be bringing in historical references and I need to make sure they are correct and fit in with my story. There are parts of the story that reference a journal, and although the whole journal will not be in the story, enough of it will that I am going to have to write the journal before I get to far into the story. (Don’t you just love run on sentences?) Hence, the world building.

Another thing about this particular story is that I may actually have to do an outline. I have another friend that does that one. I have a story in my head and I usually just write it down. Now I may actually plan pieces of this one. Heaven forbid! My friends and I have had discussions on this before and they may actually get a chuckle from this.

So it begins. My research, my world building, my outlining and character building. It’s all going to be an adventure. My adventure is probably going to start at the Kennesaw House on the square in Marietta. The museum has research materials so I can find out how life was in the 19th century. It’s also reported to be haunted. Maybe a ghost will show up to add to this little adventure. We will see.

Grace and Peace be with all of you.

I turned on my computer last night and got the beeps. Nothing, no screen, no nothing. Just seven beeps in a row. My computer passed out. I’m composing this on my husband’s computer. I’m not sure if my computer is just in a coma or if it is really dead. I’m going to take it to the computer doctor to find out for sure. According to all the information I could find the seven deadly beeps means the motherboard is bad.  And that means it’s dead. I just want to cry. I live by my computer. I started a new short story for a project and have written about a 1000 words and I can’t get to it. ARRRGHHH! AND to top it off, I just bought a new battery and power cord. I just got those in last week. I hope I can send them back, if my computer is indeed dead.

I normally write stories and outlines on paper first because I’m pretty old school, but not this time. This time I composed my little heart out on my laptop. I was pretty pleased at finishing about half of the story. I figured it was going to be about 2000 to 3000 words. And now I can’t get to it. Hopefully the data can be retrieved because the problem is not the hard drive. If not, I’ll have to try to recreate it. And that’s going to be be a bug.

Well, at least the outline for G. W. is on old fashioned paper. Maybe I ought to get out my typewriter. 🙂

I wrote Fat Farm because I was angry. Angry at the way the obese are treated. Angry at society. Still am. I think I was laughed at in the grocery store on Monday. It was not one of my better days. I don’t like being angry. I try not to be angry. All it does is make me eat. Yes, I’m one of those people. I didn’t choose alcohol or drugs for my escape. I chose food. And that’s what people don’t understand. There are usually some deep hurt, or abuse that can lead to overeating. The same things that make people drink and do drugs are the same triggers for some obese people. I’m not going to share my story right now because this is not what this blog is about. To be truthful, I’m still figuring it all out. After hearing the story of the sodas in New York, and reading about it; I felt compelled to write my thoughts

When I was in high school, my history teacher had an exercise where members of class were the founding fathers and we were trying to determine how the country was to be run. When it came to voting for the president or representatives, the class thought it should only be the wealthy, educated people making those decisions. I was very shy, but I spoke up and said, “That’s not right. They may be uneducated but that doesn’t mean they are stupid.”  We are not a stupid people. I think we are tired. I know I’m tired, but I’m not so tired that I’m ready to have the government take care of me.

I read in the New York Times online about the state Supreme Court overturning Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on large sodas. He wants to keep restaurants and other places from selling drinks larger than 16 oz. It did not include all drinks just soda.  There were a number of legal reasons that I’m not going to go into, because, well, I’m not a lawyer, but it is a scary thought that someone in power can tell me how much to drink. I would like to think his heart and thoughts are in the right place. The comments on the article varied to yes, punish those making our insurance rates higher to understanding what is slowly happening in our society. I will tell you these thoughts scare me. Think about the consequences.

First soda, then candy. Let’s not forget cake or heaven forbid, Starbucks. Wait, we’re not allowed to watch this on TV or listen to that kind of music, or worship how we want. We’re not allowed to own that car we’ve been saving our money to buy. You know, we have to send these people away to get “re-educated.” They are a drain on our society. They don’t think like we do.Your child is fat, take him away –  oh wait. That happened.  

Do I want someone coming in and telling me what to do and what to think? No! But if we aren’t careful we are going to allow the powers-that-be to legislate our rights away and the the events in Fat Farm could come to pass.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/nyregion/judge-invalidates-bloombergs-soda-ban.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Farm-Lisa-Haman/dp/1482343304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365092829&sr=8-1&keywords=fat+farm+lisa+haman

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/lisa-haman