Happy Halloween!

Check it out ya'll, I won a spooky romance contest.

Have a spooktacular day!

Love,

The Grave-Digger, Emma Swan (from Once Upon A Time), the Wizard, and the Bumblebee! 

Otherwise known as Mommy's candy collectors. :)

Keeping Goals

You see that little Goodreads book counter on the right side of my blog? Scroll down a little bit. There, that's it. The one titled, "2012 Reading Challenge." It says I have read 42 out of my goal of 50 for the year. I am one book ahead. Yay!

Except in a few days it will be November. And here in my house, November means fast food, laundry mountains, cold cereal, late nights, pajamas, showers few and far between, and barrels worth of Diet Coke. Yes, NaNoWriMo, my people. And fo sho no reading for fun, I can assure you.

Which also means for the first time this year, and much to the chagrin of anal, OCD me, I will be FALLING BEHIND on a goal.

Never fear, I still plan on meeting it, even if I have to lock myself in a closet come New Years Eve. Because that's how I roll. I'm careful not to set goals for things I can't control, and ponder really hard before setting goals, but I usually reach the one's I do set.

As I wave adieu to my staying ahead of the curve all year, you tell me...what goals have you been able to keep this year?

Now when the sun come up, I'll be there to say what up.

Meeting Authors

A couple of weeks ago I had the fabulous opportunity to listen to Tess Hilmo (award winning author of With A Name Like Love) speak to my daughter's writing club.

My daughter with Tess 

and the fancy signing pen her son made her. :)

She was amazing, of course, and got the girls excited about writing, plotting, reading, words, names, and almost everything else about writing you can think of. I know the girls had a blast, but even I thought it was soooo helpful for me as a writer. In fact, here's a method of plotting a novel she shared that I'd never heard of before.

What authors have you met? Have you learned valuable writing tips from them?

P.S. It is snowing outside....what???

Inspired by Keturah

I love to read.

Shocker, I know. As with everything else I love to do, I wish I had more time to do it. My time is valuable, so it is very rare that I read a book more than once--there's just too many good ones out there. But I thought I'd spotlight one today that I revisit over and over again. I read it again earlier this month for a book club, and am still amazed with how good it is.

Here's the description of Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt:

Keturah, renowned for her storytelling, follows a legendary hart deep into the forest, where she becomes hopelessly lost. Her strength diminishes until, finally, she realizes that death is near—and learns then that death is a young lord, melancholy and stern. She is able to charm Lord Death with a story and gain a reprieve, but he grants her only a day, and within that day she must find true love. A mesmerizing love story, interweaving elements of classic fantasy and high romance.

Ooh...a dark tale of fantasy and romance--delicious! It was a National Book Award Finalist in 2006 (along with earning a slew of other awards) and was rereleased at the first of this month as a paperback. 

The story is original, engaging, and unforgettable. The themes of life, death, sacrifice, friendship, love, destiny, and choice join together with the most lyrical of language and a voice that would make any writer envious. 

And if that's not enough to convince you, this book inspired the third book I ever wrote (Koa's Passage), the NaNoWriMo novel I'm planning to write next month, and another story in my "to be written" pile. 

Yeah. Kind of changed my life. I can't recommend Keturah and Lord Death enough.

I'll leave you with a picture of the most delicious key lime pie I've ever tasted in my life. Isn't it pretty? It literally melted my face off. Or would have, if my face could literally melt. It was our dessert for the book discussion, and I think it changed my life as well. Book club peeps, am I right? :) (Thanks, Nicole!) If you've read Keturah, this virtual pie is yours if you can tell me how it relates to the book.

What books have changed your life?

Day in the Life

No time for a real post today, so thought I'd leave you with a taste of my other life...that of a homeschooling mama. What else do you do besides write?

Complex Villains

*I may or may not have a serious crush on Loki*

I have this problem. I LOVE bad guys. More often than not, they end up being my favorite character in a movie or book. Way more than the hero or the love interest. And the more complex, the better. I'm a total sucker for an evil character that isn't completely evil. One with a glimmer of hope that maybe...one day...he could be good. Maybe?

*Darth Vader, the ultimate complex villain*

My favorite "bad guy" is Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica. Talk about complex--he's the guy we just LOVE to hate. Any character that can make me want to shoot him dead one day and cry for him the next is amazing indeed.

*Why settle for one Gaius when you can have two?*

It's even more fun to WRITE a complex villain. I'm planning one right now for my Nano book who I think will be the most three-dimensional character I've ever written, period, and I'm SO excited! Tell me, who is your favorite bad guy?