Tag Archives: challenge

A – and A + + Art Day 2

tielia-and-i-1980 Day 2 Challenge.

This is my best friend from grade school and high school. 🙂 It is her birthday today! We were in 4th grade here. I’m the one without the hat. 🙂 Seems like yesterday. lol  I did the background on yellow cardstock and then used Bic markers to do the designs on the background. I love doodling. I posted this on her Facebook. 🙂 We don’t see each other much nowadays, drifted apart, but we do still talk and care about each other. Great friend, fun friend. 🙂

the-importance-of-negative-keywords (credit to Bing.com images)

I dislike when someone takes the last bit of ice cream and leaves the container in the fridge. A certain young son of mine. lol  Of course, I think there is still ice cream until I go to get some and it is empty. 🙂

keep-calm-and-positive-energy (credit to Bing.com images)

Watching when your child succeeds at something, no matter how small of an achievement. Love the smile on their faces. 🙂

What is your – and + of life?

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Writing Challenges

My first NaNoWriMo challenge was November 2012. It was the first official beginning of my book #1 – Obeyville Snoop. I accomplished 5,510 words. My creative mind was not appearing for the challenge. I did have fun beginning the book, but lacked the discipline to write every day. I had post-it notes, apps on my phone, and to do lists reminding me to write but it didn’t help. I set the draft aside.

Then I saw Camp NaNoWriMo pop up in an email for April 2013! I had to do it. I could not resist. I went top speed on the first book again. The words flowed. I won with 50,219 words! Yay! It felt wonderful! I read afterwards what I wrote and couldn’t stop laughing. Nothing fit together. Definitely, a first draft!

Feeling inspired I signed up for July 2013 camp and began the second book in the series “Snoop In Overdrive.” Didn’t go well. Zilch!

Signed up for November 2013. Zilch again on book #2.

April 2014 rolls around, sign book#2 up and wrote 10,095 with a goal of 30,000 words. Thought maybe shorter novels would be better for me.

November 2014 I signed up book #2 again. Didn’t add any words. In fact, I tried revising first what I had written. Bad thing to do. Needed to finish it first.

Seems like the November challenges are not good for me. No creative spark. Maybe my mind is more interested in the holidays.

I skipped April 2015 but decided to do July 2015 with Book #1 revisions. I had already chopped so much out of Book #1 over the last year that the goal was now 25,000 words. Yep, short novels might be better for me. I revised a second time only 7,262 words.

Signed up again November 2015 with book #2. Zilch. I can’t stop signing up! LOL. It is like a habit now. Need the writing to be a habit. 🙂 We will see about this year. Maybe this will be where I finally stop signing up during November. LOL

I signed up for this April’s camp! It is going SOOO GOOD!!!!

I have officially revised everything I had cut long ago in Book #1. I am at 22,104 words with a 25,000 word goal! I feel great! Now comes adding the last 2,896 words from scratch. Which I am OK with because the book needed a different ending. I think I have been so hung up on that part and is why I never finish.

Lots of thinking and writing tonight!

The book will need a final complete revision but not because of the plot this time. The BONES are there! Finally!

Kudos to all you authors that can write several novels in a year. Maybe in the future for me but I don’t think this decade! LOL I’ll be tickled pink to finish this series of three books!

Maybe by 2018! 🙂

If all goes well, I hope to have Book #1 self published this summer and dive into Book #2 in July! Fingers crossed! I feel the writing muse is around me.

Have a great weekend! I hope to have great news on Sunday or Monday! 🙂

Obeyville-Snoop-Book-Cover-1

 

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I Did It Again

I signed up for NaNoWriMo!

I have never won a November challenge. The last few years I have not accomplished writing even ten percent of the 50,000 word goal.

The only time I won was the April Camp challenge. I was determined then unlike the November ones. I don’t know if it is because of the holiday time so lots of distractions or what the reason is. But I am going to give it another try. Why not. Plus, I don’t like to give up. I say every year I am not going to do the November challenge but then I sign up. 🙂

20151020_084323(My photo writing this blog in my new teeny tiny comp book.)

20151020_084459 (I think tiny items are so cute. I purchased these yesterday at my youngest son’s book fair. We had his teacher conference.)

The first novel in my series of books to write has the basic bones it just needs some more “fluff” to make it fun and interesting.

Obeyville-Snoop-Book-Cover-1( My current book cover for book #1.)

I am not sure if I will ever be able to write several books in a year. This first book has taken me since 2012 to write. I have the second book started but only a few chapters done. It is the book I signed up to do the challenge.

When I edited the first book I shrunk it from 50,000 words to about 25,000 words. There was a lot of extra stuff that made no sense. I was laughing when I read it, it was that absurd. 🙂 I imagine I will be more of a short Novella writer instead of a full novel writer.

Cheers to everyone doing the challenge!

Time to eat breakfast, waffles with peanut butter on it. Yum! 🙂

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Memories Can Be Inspiration

The current novel I am writing, Obeyville Snoop, centers around a mysterious underground cave system. In the middle of this cave is a stone town. The discovery leads to adventure and surprises.

cropped-8046327355_2f5b63ba911.jpg Credit to Bing.com images. My picture inspiration for my story.

The inspiration of this story came from a childhood memory of mine. About sixth grade a few of my classmates and I discovered the remains of a burned down house on a hill located in town. The shell of a door remained that led to a downstairs portion of the old house. At the end of the steps to the right a dirt tunnel led to a round dirt room.

The rumor was the man who had lived there was paranoid about a war starting in which we would be bombed. He built the underground tunnels and room so he could hide. We only found the one tunnel and room but there looked to be a possible other tunnel which was caved in.

Being the young kids we were we would sit in the round room and play Truth, Dare, and Double Dare! 🙂 We would be goofy but also try to scare the crap out of each other. On one side of the tunnel there was a tube-shaped object that looked as though it fell into the dirt from the house above that burned. I suppose it was a tank of some sort but we convinced ourselves it was a bomb missile that did not go off. It was more interesting to a sixth grader. 🙂

What remained of the house above was a few framed walls and scattered household items. A pair of overalls hung on a nail on one of the walls and we liked to believe it was the man burned up.

Imagination overload!

It made for fun after school exploring for a while. We stopped going up after we opened our mouths to our parents. Can you believe we listened? I like to think we spooked ourselves away. 🙂

I never did return to that spot and as far as I know it remained like it was until a couple built their beautiful home over it. This happened after I graduated, left for six years, and then moved back. So many times I wanted to walk up there and ask if they caved everything in. My imagination likes to think they restructured the tunnel and room and it is now under their house.

How cool would that be? 🙂

If you like this memory, I think you will enjoy my novel when it is finished. Thinking back on this time in my life I really think that’s when my imagination took off on its own adventure and my love for mysteries, adventures, and the unknown sparked my love of reading books. Those books ignited many daydreams in which I was the main character. I wish I had written notes on those dreams. I would have lots of material for stories and novels. 🙂

Doing research I came across this article by Stephen Wagner.

It is cool to think the possibilities of other discoveries. Granted a few stories are pretty far-fetched but that’s what makes a great adventure novel! It is one of the reasons I love to write. Love making up fun stories.

I hope my imagination will entertain many, if not at least a few.

Stay tuned, I will update as my novel progresses!

( If you click on the blue title, Obeyville Snoop,  it will take you to my website which will have the link to buying my book eventually.)

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Art Every Day Month

I came across another challenge from a fellow blogger, Art Every Day in November.

I signed up!

The rules are pretty relaxed. You can create a piece every day for the month, week, or one for the month. It is to encourage creativity. A neat challenge.

I find when I do creative projects whether it is around the house, my scribble journal, or scrapbooking I tend to write more. It seems to spark the creativeness in me.

I thought why not another challenge along with the my NaNoWriMo challenge. Crazy huh. 🙂

I see it as a break from the writing, especially when writer’s block shows up. Sigh.

If you would like to join along, here is the link! Art Every Day Month!

aedmlogopurple

Happy creativity whether it is writing or art! 🙂

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Game On, I accept your challenge!

I finally convinced hubby to play Words With Friends. He became frustrated with Candy Crush so was a bit hesitant to start another. 🙂

It wasn’t long after he began Candy Crush that he was kicking my butt at it. After awhile he got to a level that he couldn’t get past and so uninstalled it.  Once in a blue moon I will try but still stuck on my level. Of course, a level way lower than him.

At least with Words it should be an even challenge. 🙂 I may end up biting those words.

I’ve had fun playing these games on Facebook just because I can play with family and friends that live far away. My kids enjoy it. I know these are games that are less violent than their video consoles so they get a break from those. I don’t play as often anymore like I did in the beginning.

I was one of those Farmville freaks.

Go ahead and laugh. Now I’m sure my farm has disappeared as I haven’t logged in for over a year or more.

I do pay attention to not send game stuff to those who don’t want it. I usually hide everything so it doesn’t fill up the news feeds. I chuckle when someone puts a status of don’t send me game requests. There are many ways of ignoring requests without getting upset. I imagine it is because the notification goes to their phone and blows up their phone. I just turn those off.

My new addiction is words even though I disappeared from it over the holidays. Its a fun challenge that you can spend a minute on or a lot. It keeps your brain active. Who knows I might learn a new and exciting word for my novel.

Game on hubby! I accept the challenge. 🙂

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