Goodbye to June

 

Hello everyone!

 

I hope you enjoyed your June as much as I did, and are ready for July.

 

June was really busy over here, and had all kinds of crazy extremes going on. As enjoyable as most of it was, I'm crossing my fingers that July might be a little less hectic. (But I'll admit I'm not holding my breath.)

 

Here's a quick look at what was taking up my time this month.

 

What's Playing?

 

June was the 20th anniversary of our local Christian radio station, so they played a lot of music from twenty years ago. Some of it was pretty crazy, and some of it made me nostalgic, so I've got some oldies on the list.

 

In the Ghetto- Elvis Presley

Neon Steeple album by Crowder

Anything by Celtic Thunder

Summer Storm- Joel P. West

The Heat album by NeedtoBreathe

Awake album by Skillet

Taylor Swift, back when she was country...but not country enough...but not pop.

The End is Where We Begin album by Thousand Foot Krutch

Castle-Halsey

Old school Newsboys. Like, back when they looked like this...

 

What's on the Kindle?

 

I read so much this month. So much. Besides the books I've reviewed lately, I've also read:

 

The Beautiful Pretender, and the Regency Spies of London trilogy, all by Melanie Dickerson.

The Lost Girl of Astor Street by Stephanie Morrill

I'm currently reading The Noble Servant, also by Melanie Dickerson.

All of which were absolutely fantastic and will be receiving reviews later on.

Besides those, I'm also reading fellow Apple Gang (also known as the five winners of the Five Poisoned Apples contest) members' stories Snowbird by Rachael Holt ,and Falling Snow by Skye Hoffert. You guys, they are so good. I cannot wait for this collection to come out in December so you can all read the in their beautiful finished glory.

 

What's on TV?

 

Veggie Tales.

 

No, but seriously, that's what's on.

When Henry isn't watching however, I've been watching Heartland, and When Calls the Heart.

Heartland is probably my favorite of the two, even though When Calls the Heart is good. I do feel like it is my duty as a reader to point out that it is nothing like the books, but I mean, when are they ever?

 

What I'm Writing:

 

Bad Boy is probably about 60% done with its first draft and sitting at about 70K words.

Red as Blood is 99.9% done. There is one more line I want to add to it, and then I will think its officially done.

1868  is now completely outlined and ready to go for Camp Nano.

Blood and Dust is currently in search of an editor. I've got two that I'm getting sample edits from so I can decide who to send it to. Another Apple Gang member, Jenelle Hovde introduced me to #Faithpitch on Twitter. You can pitch your stories to literary agents via twitter, on certain days (tomorrow, or later on in November) and if they heart it, you can send them your query. So, now I'm on Twitter. I'd like to have Blood and Dust  ready to pitch by the next date in November.

Code White is currently at the editor. EEEK!

 

 What's Been Happening?

 

It has ranged anywhere from the 60's to 100's temperature wise, with really high humidity.

Lots of thunderstorms, roughly eight inches of rain, and a really nasty swimsuit sunburn. Can anyone say "racer back"?

June involved a lot of road trips with Jarod, that were super fun, even though they were work related. There's also been a lot of swimming, as implied by the swimsuit tan.

And I've been doing a bunch of crafting. I'm currently working on building myself a patio table, and if it works I'll share pictures. I also just finished a barn quilt, which I do not have a picture of, and this little guy.

 

He's not quite done in this picture, but this is for Jarod. He designed it, and plans to put it out in his field where he's been experimenting with cover crops.

 

Quotes of the Month:

 

I have a little chicken shaped chalkboard in my kitchen, and I try to change the quote on it every week or so.

 

This month these were featured:

 

"I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, sound mind."

 

"Tell yourself a good story"

 

"Earn every smile and shared moment."

 

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" 1 Cor. 2:9

 

I confess, I don't actually know where I picked them all up, so I can't properly reference them. I may have picked them up in a book, or online, or maybe on a piece of junk mail. I don't know.

 

What's on the Agenda?

 

The end of this month/beginning of next, my hometown Ashton, hosts Ashton days, so I plan to head there. There will be a ranch rodeo, and turtle races, so me and Henry plan to see of fast our little EEM can move.

 

City wide garage sales are also next month, and I can't decide if I should go shopping, or have one of my own. The struggle.

 

!!!FIREWORKS AND FREEDOM!!!

AKA, Independence Day.

 

Our 2 year wedding anniversary. (as well as my friend Victoria's birthday. She's a true friend. She sacrificed her birthday to be my bridesmaid)

 

Camp NaNo.

 

So that's what my month has looked like.

 

What about yours? What are you looking forward to next month?

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Day of Summer Post

Hello all! Pardon me for not posting yesterday. Me and my littlest sister took an impromptu shopping trip, then watched movies all evening, and I wasn’t feeling in the blogging groove.

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But here I am today, and what better day for a blog post than the first day of summer! Although I must say, with the triple digit temperatures and major thunderstorms we’ve been having here the last few weeks, it felt like summer already

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Today I’m just going to give you a bit of an update on where I’m at with life and writing, as I feel like lots of neat things have been going on, but I don’t know that any of them were of a large enough scale to merit their own blog post.

My middle sister, Emily, graduated on Saturday, so I spent a few days helping mom get everything ready, since Emily skipped all the work to volunteer at Bible camp. Freeloader. It turned out beautiful though, and it ended up being a really good day.

 

We went to my parent’s house for Father’s Day, and they ended up bringing a movie over to our house the next day. If you haven’t seen I Can Only Imagine yet, you definitely need to do so, post haste. I’ve seen Mercy Me before in concert, so I had heard the short version of the story behind the song, but it was incredible and inspiring to see the entire thing in detail.

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We’ve had about 5.7 inches of rain in the last three days, and I’m thrilled to report that my garden has withstood the storms like a champ. My basement on the other hand, is rather soaked….

On the writing home front, things are looking good. I’m all but finished with edits for Red as Blood. I’ll admit, I thought I was going to die at the beginning of this process, but it actually wasn’t nearly as hard as I anticipated, and I couldn’t be happier with how the story has turned out. As much as I loved it to start with, I love it even more now, and it has definitely made huge improvements from the original version. I am so excited for all of you to be able to read it in December.

Besides working on Red as Blood, I also sent off my second contest entry, Code White, to an editor. My plan is to work on revising it while the team at Rooglewood is working on the things that don’t involve me, so hopefully Code White can come out on Kindle sometime early next year. Stay tuned on that one.

The 100 for 100 challenge, hosted by Go Teen Writers just finished its fourth week, and I’ve been doing pretty good. I had to use my grace week, but overall I’ve been able to write at least one hundred words every single day. I’ve been continuing on with the Bad Boy story (which really needs a real title) and have added 5,796 words to it. Not a terrible lot, but I’m keeping at it at least.

I'm really enjoying how the story is unfolding, and to top it all off, Mirriam Neal commissioned a painting for me of the main character, Brass.

 

Isn't it just gorgeous??

I also got ambitious and signed up for Camp NaNo. It’s like NaNoWriMo, in that you work on a writing project for the whole month of July, but instead of trying to make 50,000 words, you can choose whatever word count you want, and you can work on a story that is already started, instead of starting from scratch. This year I want to work on my 1868 historical romance, and I set the word count goal for 25k. I think I can do it. If not, at least I’ll have got some work done on it.

So it looks like my summer is shaping up to be chuck full of writing, plus I plan to fit in other things like swimming, visiting friends, and hopefully riding some horses.

 

What about you? What do your summer plans look like?

Olivia Twist- Book Review

Hello everyone! I hope you had a good week. Mine was full of carnival rides, cotton candy, and many hours spent in the tractor.

Today on the blog I’m reviewing Olivia Twist by Lorie Langdon.

From Goodreads

 

Here’s what Goodreads has to say about it:

Olivia Brownlow is no damsel in distress. Born in a workhouse and raised as a boy among thieving London street gangs, she is as tough and cunning as they come. When she is taken in by her uncle after a caper gone wrong, her life goes from fighting and stealing on the streets to lavish dinners and soirees as a debutante in high society. But she can’t seem to escape her past … or forget the teeming slums where children just like her still scrabble to survive.

Jack MacCarron rose from his place in London’s East End to become the adopted “nephew” of a society matron. Little does society know that MacCarron is a false name for a boy once known among London gangs as the Artful Dodger, and that he and his “aunt” are robbing them blind every chance they get. When Jack encounters Olivia Brownlow in places he least expects, his curiosity is piqued. Why is a society girl helping a bunch of homeless orphan thieves? Even more intriguing, why does she remind him so much of someone he once knew? Jack finds himself wondering if going legit and risking it all might be worth it for love.

Olivia Twist is an innovative reimagining of Charles Dickens’ classic tale Oliver Twist, in which Olivia was forced to live as a boy for her own safety until she was rescued from the streets. Now eighteen, Olivia finds herself at a crossroads: revealed secrets threaten to destroy the “proper” life she has built for her herself, while newfound feelings for an arrogant young man she shouldn’t like could derail her carefully laid plans for the future.

 

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Review:

I love this book so much. It’s the first book I’ve read in several months now, and the first book I’ve read by this author, and I was not disappointed. It took me two days to read it, but it should have only taken one. My family thinks they need fed and interacted with. Entitled things that they are.

Everything from the characters, to the setting, to the spiritual theme was perfect.

I love the characters so much. Olivia is a firecracker leading female. She’s got spunk, and energy, and I love her motherly femininity, even as she masquerades as a boy.

Jack is my new fictional crush, and will probably remain on that list for many years. He is the perfect combination of danger, renegade, charming, and caring to create the perfect anti-hero, and I love his gradual character arc toward morality.

There is a whole slew of background characters that make this story that much better. Adorable little street boys, romantic rivalries, caring relatives, and a first rate vile villain.

The setting of this story really captivated me. Langdon perfectly captures the filthy, gritty side of Victorian London, while at the same time drawing out all the romanticized aspects that we tend to associate with it. All of the little details about furniture, clothing, and the city landmarks brought the time period to life.

I really enjoyed the spiritual/moral thread through this story. The author did a great job of weaving it into her story without coming off as preachy, and I loved how she really let her characters show her theme without spelling it out in black and white.

I’ve never read Oliver Twist (Its now on my To Be Read list), but the idea of Oliver being a girl in disguise, and this being the continuation of the story really fascinated me, and the plot has several exciting twists that I wasn’t expecting.

 

Content Caution: I really didn’t think there was much for content warnings in this book, but there were a few things I noticed that some people might want to know ahead of time.

There are a few mild cuss words in the story. I didn’t count them, but I’d guess no more than five. Please don’t kill me if you count them and I’m wrong. Most of the time they were just used in period slang like Hellhound, or gambling hell, so really not too vulgar.

There were also a couple mild innuendos, that imply Jack probably isn’t as pure as the wind driven snow, but nothing graphic at all, so probably wouldn’t pose a problem.

There are also a couple big kissing scenes, that don’t lead anywhere beyond that, but the author did describe them very well, so be warned if that’s something that you’d rather avoid.

 

Overall, I absolutely adored this book, and would definitely read again, and recommend to anyone.

 

What about you? Read any great books lately that I should know about? Have you read Olivia Twist yet? Do you have any plans for Father’s Day? Do tell!  

Summer Snapshots

I'm late getting this posted.

 Mostly because the blog topic I was going to do wasn't working out.

 I don't feel real good today, and I've got fifty things to do today, and no motivation.

 

 So in the name of getting the important things accomplished, I'm going to skimp on a proper blog post today, and just share some pictures of what's been going on in life lately.

 Hopefully I'll be back next week with a real post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend Happenings

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Hi everyone!

 

I hope you all had a good weekend. We didn't do much for Memorial Day, because everyone was busy hauling cows out to pasture, but me and Henry did walk down to the cemetery and put flowers on some of his great grandparents' graves. Henry helped by carrying the old ratty looking flowers to the dumpster.

 

It was a long walk, so I also acquired him a toddler bike, so next time, something else can carry him around when he gets tired.

 

Something fun happened over the weekend also. My cat, Inej, had gone missing a few months ago. At first I thought she might have just gone wandering, like farm cats will do, but then she wasn't coming back, so I worried maybe she got hit by a car or something.

 

Well, Monday my neighbor texted me to let me know that she had Inej, and her three kittens, and was going to bring them over since they were big enough to travel. Cue the little girl excitement.

 

Henry was asleep when she dropped them off, so when he woke up I took him outside and he was so excited. He actually handles them remarkably gentle, which I was surprised. Aren't they cute?

 

 

So when my neighbor said three kittens, I instantly started picking names for them. (I have a long history of naming kittens crazy band or book names. It's a tradition.) For some reason, I just assumed boy names. Everything is a boy to me. If I don't know what an animal is, I automatically say good boy. Don't ask me why. So I had three glorious boy names picked out, only to find out they were all girls.

 

Now, I had a cat named Peter Pan as a little kid, who was very much a girl, so the thought did cross my mind to go ahead and name them boy names anyway, but I caved in and chose girl names instead.

 

This is Vittani. She's pretty shy, but adorable.

 

This one is Shasta, and seems to be Henry's favorite. She's the most friendly, laid back of the bunch.

 

This one didn't get a name for a long time. I was drawing a blank. But I eventually decided to call her Minoa.

 

Henry also got to go to the pool for the first time, with several of his cousins. I didn't take any pictures, because I was pretty busy trying to convince him he wouldn't drown. He wanted to go in, but he kept getting cold and wanting out then, so we're going to go back on a hotter day.

 

He also got a new bed. *brushes tear* They grow up so fast.

 

 

Even though yesterday wasn't technically the weekend anymore, Jarod came home early since it had been raining, and we went and drove around the lake till dark. I haven't driven around the lake in several years, so I had a blast, and it was so relaxing to just wander around with Henry snoozing in the back seat.

 

And lets not forget the sunset.

 

What did you do over the weekend? Tell me all about it!

 

I'm Going to Starve to Death

Hello everyone!

 

Today we are totally detouring away from anything book or writing related, and we're going to talk about me instead.

 

When I was around sixteen I suddenly developed eczema, after never having it before. Long story short, I went to a series of doctors who told me all kinds of things, like change my detergent, use lotion, take more vitamins, use this steroid cream for the rest of your life, and stop using soap.

 

I live on a farm. You know that right? I can't just...STOP using soap.

 

There was also that one really helpful doctor who said it will never go away and there's absolutely nothing you can do about. Thank you.

A couple months ago though, I found a doctor who thought the eczema outbreaks might be a delayed food allergy reaction, so we did blood work and a food panel and tested me for allergies to 98 common foods.

 

Sure enough, my blood work showed that I was definitely reacting to something.

 

Now, I love food. I love cooking, eating, pinning it on Pinterest, the works. So when a doctor tells me I'm allergic to something I'm eating, I went into panic mode. Which food was he going to tell me? The horror.

Turns out I'm allergic to dairy. Like, basically all of it. Except mozzarella cheese. I don't know what mozzarella did to be kicked out of the Abuse Maddie club, but he isn't in it. So out goes my morning glass of milk, cheddar bites, grilled cheese, all things wonderful.

 

I'm also allergic to every type of grain, as well as gluten. I'm not allergic to corn though, which is a relief because I live in Nebraska.

So essentially, dairy and grains are conspiring together to keep me from eating pizza.

So, the doctor's plan is for me to completely go cold turkey off all those foods for two months, and see if that clears up my skin at all.

It. Has. Been. Torture.

I thought at first it might not be too hard. Stop drinking milk, skip the bread on hamburgers. But no, it's in everything. Meatloaf has bread, milk, and cheese in it, and it tastes like garbage without it.

Tacos without cheese or sour cream, on nasty corn tortillas are miserable things. What is the actual point of chili if you can't eat it with cheese, crackers, and cornbread? The answer: There is no point.

Basically, I'm going to shrivel up to nothing and starve to death, because I don't know what to cook. Gluten free recipes still use dairy. Dairy free recipes use wheat. Grain free recipes are full of sugar, which I'm not supposed to have either.

I need Paleo, Vegan, Keto, sugar free recipes, all rolled up into one, essentially. Here's the deal. You can't take the sugar, dairy, grains, and gluten out of a recipe and have anything left.

Which leaves plain meats, fruits, and vegetables.

 

But get this, I'm allergic to more.

Honey, and cinnamon. Eggplant. Green beans. (Why? That's literally the only vegetable Jarod will even eat, and I'm allergic to it.) Also, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and pineapple.

I love pineapple. Why must I be allergic to it?

 

So, in short, it's been a very depressing week. My body hates me, and I'm starving.
Every time I think I get an idea for a meal to make, there's my allergies, laughing at me.

Jerks.



All Images From Google

Tales of Editing

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Hello everyone!

Today we're going to delve into what my editing process has looked like with Red as Blood.

 

I received the line edits and revision requests at the end of April, and have been trying to work on them a little each day.

 

The team at Rooglewood Press sent me seven big things that they wanted worked on in the story, along with leaving notes and comments in the document regarding specific lines and scenes.

I'll say, its been really exciting getting to work with real editors, and have that input, but also pretty terrifying.

 

I actually cried after I read through the notes and revisions the first time. Not because I didn't like any of their requests, or that they were harsh, because they were very helpful and encouraging. But it just seemed so overwhelming. There were comments everywhere. So many things I needed to fix and smooth out and plot better.

 

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One of the main things that popped up repeatedly was the lack of emotion involved in my main character, Zaig. He's the only point of view character for the story, and I'm afraid I didn't let the reader into his head, at all. Mysterious guys are great and all, but not when they're the only character and you never get to find out about them. So I have to fix that.

 

That realization was really depressing. I shouldn't have been surprised. That has been the consistent problem with all of my stories since I started writing years ago.

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I believe I was actually told that I blocked everyone out on my own emotions as a teenager, so apparently its a pattern.

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You would think I would have figured out how to fix a problem that I've had for at least ten years, but no. It's still very much a problem, and one of the main things I'm struggling to incorporate into the story.

 

Another big issue, that also kind of ties into the emotion problem, is that the editors apparently picked up on a romance in the story that I didn't purposely write, and are now wanting more development on it. Now, I am thrilled that they ship my characters together. But I am totally floundering at trying to deepen a relationship that I didn't know existed. I'm trying.

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So, how does one go about editing a story exactly?

 

Well, the first week I didn't have my computer so I dashed over to my parents' house and opened and saved all the files so that I could print them off. Once I had the story printed I went through with a blue pen and added in notes on all the comments the editors left. Then with a red pen I went through and wrote down my reactions and thoughts on how to fix those problems.

Yes, that is Ernie

 

My computer is back now, thank goodness, so that has made things much easier, and I've been able to go through the document on the computer and add in those things I wrote on paper. Some of it has been simple, easy fixes, just adding a line or two. Other times I've had to add whole scenes, and cut out others.

 

One of the changes requested was to change the story world/time setting. I'll give you a guess at what period its going to be set in now.

It's all for the best though. When I'm not banging my head against the computer I'm really enjoying where this story is heading, and liking the characters even more than I originally did.

 

The past several days I was horrifically stuck and complaining about my lack of inspiration, and Jarod said: "Why don't you pray about it before you start every day?"

 

That was a breakthrough moment, and I have no idea why I didn't think of that. He's such a great hubby. I don't know what I'd do without him. (Certainly wouldn't get this story edited, that's for sure.)

 

Yesterday was a great day, and I was able to knock out a huge chunk while Henry was taking a nap. I'm now halfway through chapter six, out of eight total. They're not perfect yet. I've mainly been going through and fixing the big things that I'm confident in, and as the characters and world are developing more I'm jotting down notes of little things that come to me later, and I'll go back afterward and fill those in.

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So despite the craziness, it's actually going pretty well, and I'm super glad I get the opportunity to work with editors and deadlines, and all this "real" writer stuff.