Kindle Lover

Anyone who loves to read as much as I do may be a skeptic to getting an Ereader. There is nothing that can replace the smell of ink and the feel of the paper as you turn the pages of a book. I love to feel a book in my hand and my kindle just isn't quite the same. BUT I have to say this, I LOVE MY KINDLE.

When I first got my Kindle it literally sat on a shelf and didn't get touched for months. I couldn't stand it. The feel wasn't right and the reading just wasn't the same. But one day there happened to be a book that I REALLY wanted to buy and I didn't want to drive 30 minutes to a store and buy that book. I just didn't have the time to make the drive. And then I remembered . . . I had a kindle. So I searched for it, dusted it off, and took a few moments to learn how to navigate it. Minutes later I had my book ready to read. I was instantly enamored by this as the reality set in. Wait, I can buy any book I want in MINUTES and I don't have to leave my house? Whoa, maybe I needed to re-evaluate my opinion on this whole Ereader thing. So I played with the Kindle some more, got used to how it worked and realized there are mountains of books out there that I have wanted to buy and on the Ereader they are MUCH, MUCH cheaper. I became obsessed at all the possibilities. Books I have wanted to own for years I could actually purchase because on the Ereader they were half price. Not to mention the fact that there are a lot of self-published books that are just as good, if not better than traditionally published books and they are a third of the cost. Very exciting stuff if you read as much as I do. 

So things to know when you are going to buy an Ereader. Hands down I would go with a kindle. I have tried to read on a nook and the thing is just HEAVY. The kindle is much lighter. I don't own the kindle fire because I don't see myself using internet on my Ereader when I have a very nice apple laptop that suits just fine for internet use. Cost of a kindle is quite a bit cheaper than the nook and Amazon has an amazing selection of books. So if anyone was curious about if you should get an Ereader my vote is a Yes! And best of all, if you are going on an vacation you can have several books on one device, less to bring on the airplane! 

Chow!

Keeping Up With The Jones

Six years ago, I moved across the country from a city to a very, very small town. The immediate difference that my husband and I noticed, aside from having zero traffic and a thirty minute drive to a local grocery store, was the lack of keeping up with the Jones. What do I mean by that? It is the notion that you have to have the biggest house, the nicest furniture, the newest car, etc. There was a lot of that in the city. When we lived in the city, my husband and I always found ourselves focused on getting ahead as quick as we could so we could get rich and buy a big TV and a brand new car. We would plan out what our next new prize was going to be and talked endlessly about how nice our house would look with it. We wanted to prove to the world that we were better than everybody and well on our way to getting rich.

When we moved to Virginia, we immediately got back into that mindset. We bought our third house and worked to fix it up to be as fancy as we could make it even though we didn't exactly have the money to do so. Once again, we had to prove to the world that we were bigger and better than the other people our age because we had fancy, nice things. It took us no more than a year to realize that no one cared. In the country where we live, there are no billboards to remind you that you need to go out and spend your money on the next cool thing. It's just farms and laid-back people. And these people couldn't care less if you lived in a barn or a mansion. They are just friendly and happy in life. They wave to you when you when you drive by them even if you have no idea who they are. In the city, I never had that happen to me. If I waved to a stranger I would stop them in their tracks and they'd give me a funny look for waving at them. 

As time passed, my husband and I started to see life differently. We stopped caring so much that we drive an older vehicle and that we don't wear designer clothes. It was as if a large curtain that had been blocking our eyesight was removed and we could really, truly see what mattered. We began to see that all those things we had spent money and time on were really just a waste and would never really make us happy. It was almost as if we were telling ourselves that we would never be happy until we had the biggest house and the nicest car. But sadly when you get that big house and nice car you will find that it doesn't make you happy. My husband and I learned a valuable lesson through this experience. Being in the country has helped us to see that we were all wrong about happiness. And we were not truly happy by seeking to have the materialistic things in the world. 

Now, when it comes to a purchase, we save for it and think about if we need it first before buying it. It is a very different approach from how we did things before. We have realized that there will always be those people in the world who look down on us for not wearing those designer clothes or being caught up in materialistic things, but we are the ones who are really happy. Not them.  

Talents

It puzzles me every time I hear someone say "I have no talents." And if you are one of those people then here is what I have to say to you. Everyone has a talent. What? EVERYONE. You may think you aren't good at anything, but it's just simply that you aren't looking for what you are good at. Sure there are those "born with talent" but that just means that one guy can run faster than you because he's more coordinated. It doesn't mean you don't have the ability to run at all does it? Nope, no way, you are wrong. You have a talent.

When I was young I loved the piano so much that I begged my mother to let me take piano lessons. She couldn't afford to send me until I turned twelve, but when I got the opportunity, I jumped on it. Even though I had all these friends who could whip out Pachelbel's Cannon in D and I was learning to play Mary had a Little Lamb, I still practiced as much as I could to catch up with them. Eventually I got up to their level and guess what? Now I have the talent of playing the piano. Did I always know how to play? No, I didn't. I learned by practice. This is how life is. If you want to learn how to do something, you simply practice. 

The way I see it is the sky is the limit. If you are telling yourself you aren't talented then you are refusing to give yourself the opportunity to be talented just simply by saying "I have no talents." You are therefore guaranteeing for yourself that you will never achieve more than what you are now. You will never progress to learning something new. You will just go on and continue to be who you are now. I am not saying that you don't still learn and grow as a person through other experiences. But a talent helps to define who YOU are. Some people are more musical, computer oriented, crafty, social, etc. We are all different and that is what makes being in this world so fun. We all have a purpose. 

So why should I care if I have a talent? Why am I even reading this stupid post eh? Well, I'm not sure really except for the fact that your talents could make you more money if you pursue a particular talent for a career. Or it could help you serve others when they need a hand with something. Or they could just simply help you feel better. You will realize that you are somebody instead of just an average Joe. Progression and accomplishment can be the biggest reward in life. To be good at something, to have any kind of specific purpose at all is the best medication for depression or low self-esteem that I have discovered. And it works, I promise. So find a purpose. Find your talent and you will be an all around happier person. 

Roses And Thorns

I wanted to take a moment to give some great family advice. About a year ago, I happened to pick up one of the parenting magazines I have laying around. It's funny that I even picked it up at all, every few months I get these things and I'm not sure why since I never subscribed. But even though I randomly get them and never read them- I still keep them for a rainy day. I picked up this magazine and flipped through it finding mostly ads for diapers and baby clothes and whatever else they promote to parents.  Annoyed by all the ads, I was about to set it down when I saw a short article about Roses and Thorns.  I started to read and little did I know that this article was not only about to change my life, but the life of my family.

Roses and Thorns is a simple concept that a family sit down together at dinner time every night (or during some other moment when you are all together) and take a turn discussing their Roses and Thorns for the day.  What is a Rose?  A Rose is something good that happened to you today.  It is as simple as: "I took the kids to the park and we had a great time"or "My son helped me with the dishes today." Anything that made you happy that day--there are no right or wrong answers.  AND tell all Roses--ever day should have many.

A Thorn is not necessarily something that occurs every day.  If you haven't figured it out yet, a Thorn is something bad that happened.  Like "I spilled my drink all over my shirt" or "I wasn't feeling good today." You get the general idea. 

As soon as I read this article I told my family that evening, while we sat around the table eating our dinner, that this was our special new thing. My children embraced it way more than I could have imagined. I realized that many nights my husband and I would have a conversation that may not have always included our children and many times our children were forced to just sit and listen to us talk.  In other words, we weren't talking TO our children enough. 

As months passed, I saw a significant change in my family by applying a simple, but very important concept. We explained to our children that every day should be filled with lots of Roses and sort of discourage thinking of a Thorn.  If they have a Thorn, they of course share it, but we try to teach them to focus on what makes you happy instead of what makes you sad.

My family has grown so close by this small, simple concept.  This works for young children or old children. We even make people who come to our house for dinner share their Roses and Thorns and it helps us to get to know them even more too.  So here is my advice/challenge to you. Try this in your house even for just a week and I PROMISE the results will be amazing. You will learn things about your children that you never knew before. It really opened up a new level of communication in my family and we are stronger and closer because of it.  

Writing Advice

Okay, so I know I've been failing at this whole blog thing for awhile... which is why I've decided to get myself to add something at least once a week.  We'll see how that goes....


I wanted to take a moment to talk about writing advice.  Shocking huh?  This is for all those people who are curious or trying to become writers.  Let me just say this "You're in over your head!"  Okay, just kidding.  I will admit, you will have days that you feel this way.  But writing takes TIME.  If you don't have a lot of time, it doesn't mean you can't be a writer . . . it just means that it will take you a lot more time to get a finished product than others.  If you are a very busy person--estimate years and years.  If you are an insecure person (like me) and you are constantly giving up and thinking you will never aspire to anything remotely readable--estimate longer.  **this is where you laugh**


Do you need an education to be a writer?  Well obviously you need SOME, you need to know the english language enough to figure out the difference between "know" and "no."  There are so many great books you can read that help you to learn about being a writer as well as loads of blogs and websites too.  For me, I read books.  Actual novels.  I study the structure of other writers.  I don't just read the book, I think about how they introduce their characters, describe the room, at what point the climax of the story is revealed . . . that kind of thing.  Okay, so you've got options here.  Of course, college is never a bad idea.  I'm still thinking of going back just to deepen my knowledge.


The greatest thing a writer can do is write.  Huh?  WRITE people!  Books don't just magically appear.  The work doesn't improve unless you actually work on it.  But what would be most helpful is figure out what your story is first.  What's going to happen to your characters?  Who are your characters?  Are those characters part of the overall plot?  I could go into so much detail it's not even funny.  But I'll try to keep it simple today.  Any writing you do makes you better.  Let's repeat that: ANY writing you do makes you better.  No one just sat down to a computer and wrote a book and BAM it was amazing and brilliant and ready to publish.  Nope.  No way man.  This is the real world.  All those great writers out there work their butts off to get just the right sentence.  And yes, I said sentence.  Every single word is important and when you have 60,000 of them or more to make up your novel . . . it takes awhile.  So write and write and write.


And when you are finally done with your novel . . . you are going to have a sort of mid life crisis hit you when you see how much work editing is.  This could all depend on how good of a writer you are, but if you're like me you will basically re-write your entire book again and maybe ten or fifty times over again.


Now don't be discouraged.  If you have a passion for writing.  GO for it!  You should let nothing stop you!  But just know that it's going to take work.  But the goal is so rewarding.  And when you are done with writing and editing.  Then comes publication.  **bangs head against the wall**  But we'll talk about that another day . . .

PATIENCE

I recently had an experience that taught me a valuable lesson in patience.  Many weeks I had been praying for direction in my life.  I had reached a point with my newly finished novel (that was edited and re-written several times over) that I knew it was finally ready to get published.  I prayed for this guidance to lead me in the right direction on what my next move should be.  Through the help of a good friend, my novel happened to make it’s way to an editor for a publishing company.  I waited anxiously for seven weeks to get the answer that I hoped to get “We love your book and want to publish you!” 

Through long hours of prayer, agonizing over the result of what this editor would say about my novel and how it would change my life, I was given a feeling of peace and comfort that I was on the path that I was supposed to be on.  I felt like this feeling of peace was a conformation that this was it.  That this editor was the one and that my book was about to get published.  

Alas, it was not.  The editor gave me a sincere response and informed me that there were some things about my novel that needed to be re-worked.  I struggled for days on this, confused by the feelings and answers I had received that this was the one and that my novel was finally done and finished.  This was my big moment where everything would change.  I was heartbroken and lost.  Did I read the message wrong?  Were the encouraging and comforting feelings not real?  Did I make the whole thing up?  Maybe I heard wrong.  Maybe everything I think I know about personal revelation is wrong. 

But that was not the case.  I was heartbroken and lost, yes.  And I did the worst thing in that moment that I could have.  I stopped praying and reading my scriptures.  I pushed God away when I really should have pulled him closer and allowed him to help me understand what had gone wrong. 

I probably would have understood sooner had I not pushed God away.  But a week later I finally received my answer.  I spoke to my mother who informed me that maybe the reason that I was supposed to submit my book to this editor was not because my book was ready to publish, but because this editor had something important to point out to me about my novel.  I listened to the editor’s advice and revised my novel.  Through all this, I learned that God does lead us down the paths we need to follow, but we need to stop and listen for the purpose for why he took us down that path.  The results may not turn out the way we want.  We may not even understand at first why we must do it.  But if we stop, listen, and have a little patience we will understand how that particular thing fits into his overall plan for us.  

Journey of Writing for Me

Four years ago, I started writing a novel.  It had no structure, no plot really, just three triplet boys that I knew could be amazing.  For three years I wrote, erased, wrote, considered jumping off a cliff, erased, erased, erased, then wrote some more.  Three years passed and the book still wasn't finished.  I realized that by not figuring out the overall story first, that I was getting nowhere with my book.  If I kept going back and perfecting everything that was already on paper, the book would NEVER get done.  So I pushed through to the end.  Whew!  Crossed that finished line.  Wrote the last words of the book and celebrated!

And then the Brick Wall came.

I stared at this Brick Wall wondering where it came from and how I was supposed to climb it.  I tried the easy way and used a trampoline to jump it.  The trampoline being a quick query letter and a couple reviews of that query letter from some friends and submitting it away to an agent.  Well that didn't work.  To my utter horrification, I realized that my novel was not ready.  Tears, cursing, migraines and 6 months later, my novel was re-worked.  Okay, this time I was done.  I just knew it!  **Throws confetti**

Another 6 months passed of editing.  I had others read it and give me feedback.  All the while my book just keeps getting better.

It turned out that I had only strapped on my harness and dug in my pegs.  I hadn't even started climbing yet!  But I was getting there.  I started researching online and came across Jenny Milchman and saw the Polished and Published course.  I learned so much in this class.  I met friends.  I learned about the business of writing.  And I also learned how important it is to have your book and query absolutely perfect.

And now, I'm scaling that Brick Wall.  Still working over my book and trying to get an agent.  We'll see what happens!