Perhaps the best gift of the year

I've been pondering this post, I've come to the realization that I'm leaving 2010 with a better attitude than I entered it with.

I'm the first to admit, there's usually a lot of crazy in my life - but for the most part, it's usually controlled chaos. But from about January to October I felt like all I was doing was putting one fire after another. In that time, I wrote 4 books and edited 68.

I also did the dance of the single parent for almost six weeks while my husband was traveling for work, attended a conference, handled all the regular kid/school related stuff, spent time with family and friends and managed a week of vacation. (Yay vacation!) I know there was a bunch of other stuff in there, but at this point, it's kind of a blur. Editing 68 books in 9 months will do that.

I love my jobs - both the writing and the editing and definitely the parenting. I was getting everything done, but I felt constantly exhausted and stressed. Then I got a gift of sorts that drastically decreased my editing load. I won't go into details, as that would be unprofessional and honestly, they're not important to this post, but I do need to mention the results. At first, I was devastated. I was angry, hurt and very sad, but I've come to realize what people have been telling me for years. I was spreading myself too thin.

What started out feeling like a horrible loss ended up being the most precious gift I could have been given - time. I'm not saying that I don't still run around like a crazy woman - after all, I am my mother's daughter. But, I suddenly have breathing room that's been missing for probably the last three years. The weird thing is, I didn't even realize how very badly I needed it until I suddenly had it again.

During this time, I don't feel like I've shortchanged my family. They've always come first, and they always will, but I've definitely shortchanged myself. I've let things that are important to me go - like reading for the simple joy of reading, taking pleasure in writing a story, spending time on hobbies that don't involve my computer, sleeping...you get the idea.

Not working with those authors saddens me. There's no way around that. And the loss of that income is a bummer, but it's nothing in comparison to what I've gained. I have a new perspective on my life, and zOMG, I'm enjoying it! Sometimes, I even fantasize about sending a thank you note...

Here's to 2010, the lessons learned and blessings in disguise. However, for 2011, I'd like my blessings straight up, please. No disguise necessary.

As I type this I am sipping from my bad ass "Fang Banger" mug that a special someone sent me for Christmas

So, I had this big plan for this post. I decided I was going to grab all of my book covers from this year and post them up here for everyone to see. Of course they would be linked to the buy page for everyone to pick up copies of anything they missed.

And then, I realized what happened this year.

While I had 3 books released this year, I only wrote two of them in 2010. Two.

TWO FUCKING BOOKS!

As I stared in disbelief at my monitor I considered scrapping the idea of discussing my books and focus on the person aspects of my year in hopes of distracting everyone from my failure as an author.

But then I decided to use this information as a helping tool for new writers. I'm sure there are people out there who read this and don't comment but skulk around anyway hoping for tidbits of information they can use. (If that is true then I must apologize for my Wednesday clusterfuck posts and the lack of anything helpful they provide.) But today my young friends, today is your lucky day. For today, you may learn something from good old Dakota.

The two books I wrote this year couldn't have more different stories behind them.

The first book I wrote this year was Ultimate Ultimatum. It took me roughly six months to finish this 15k story. (I think I'm stretching. I don't know if it is actually 15k, it could be closer to 12k) I struggled with writing this year. And last year too. Life got in the way. I got married in October of 2009 and I had a baby in August 2010. (No, I was not pregnant at the wedding, he was a honeymoon baby thank you very much.) ANYWAY. Being pregnant did NOTHING to spark my muse into writing. I did a lot of lounging, a lot of eating, and a lot of crying. But not much writing.

The second book and the last for 2010, (Let's be honest here, there are only a few days left and I have plans for one of them.)was Clandestine. Now this book is almost twice as long as Ultimate Ultimatum. But I managed to write Clandestine in two days. Yes, you read that right. Two days for a 25k book. And this is where the learning comes in.

Writing can be a flighty job. Sometimes the story is there beginning to end and your job is to type it as fast as you can. Sometimes the idea is there but the story has to be drug out line by line as if you were pulling teeth from an unwilling sasquatch. You just never know what you are going to get from project to project.

But when it's all said and done and you get your author copies and you see your name climbing a best seller chart or you get an email from a fan telling you how much they love your work, there is not a better job on Earth. This life we have chosen is hard but I don't think any of us would trade it for the world.

Writing is kind of like being a parent that way. Underpaid, under-appreciated, never know what is going to happen from day to day, you're always scared of what's going to happen to your 'baby' when it goes out in the world. Yup, I love being a mom and I love being a writer.

Though next year I hope to be more productive in the writing department than in the baby having department. :)

Happy New Year everyone. Here is to a better 2011!

XoXoXo
Dakota

P.S. Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOO much Bron for the awesome presents! I LOVE them.

2010 In Review

Reviewing the year isn't always fun or easy, even if you know your subject. I had to scan my old posts to find out if I had actually posted goals and try and remember what I'd done. I can't find goal posts, so I can save myself the potential embarrassment of saying no I didn't make this or that.

Knight of Pleasure, the first Smugglers' Cove book came out March 15th of this year. I love getting to know the men and women who work at Smugglers' Cove and the world they inhabit.

In August, I sold my first cowboy story to Total-E-Bound's Saddle Up 'N Ride Anthology, which will be released January 18th, 2011 and a new series - Bound Hearts, the first of which is To Love Again and will be out in April of 2011.

I did manage to write, but not nearly as much as I had wanted or planned too. I did, however, get into grad school, worked, moved, and read.

Sometime this week, I need to get my goals for 2011 situated and set up some sort writing plan. I also need to finish the project I'm working on, so I can return to Smugglers' Cove.

My year was one of ups and downs, but overall it was a good one and I hope that 2011 is a better year.

Enjoy,

Simone

Happy Everything!

Happy Hanukkah-Solstice-Kwanzaa-Christmas-Everything!


Wishing everyone love, joy, laughter, peace and happiness.

Merry Chrismahanukwanzaka

*insert warm cider scent here* *cue the candles*

I've skipped a few topics in my move to Michigan. I figure I haven't been horribly missed by the general public though. Which is good for this purpose, maybe not so good overall.

Anyway, I did want to pop over and say Happy Holidays! to everyone. This has been an amazing year with a ton of stuff going on. I've had the opportunity to meet some new people, reacquaint with some older friends, and push my limits beyond anything I ever thought I could manage.

Happy Holidays everyone. May you have the best of everything in this coming year. May sales be through the roof, every story have a happy ending, and may your road-bumps in life get steamrolled into nothingness.

Happy Holidays

My wish for you this holiday season, whether you celebrate Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Solstice or something else, is that you have a season of joy and happiness. That your days and nights are filled with friends, family and love.

May 2011 be better than 2010. And true love be found where it is not.

Happy Holidays,

Simone

Traditions Galore!

We're a family full of holiday traditions. For instance, the tree goes up as soon as possible after Thanksgiving. It gives the cats more time to play in it.

The boys and I bake cookies on Christmas Eve. Even though they don't buy into the "Red Fat Man" anymore, they still want to bake cookies with me (and eat them!) and leave some out for Santa. I'm cool with that. I like baking with my kids. We'll also make our edible peanut butter and birdseed ornaments and hang them outside for the critters.

There are the special holiday decorations I love to get out every year. This is the hand print wreath banner I made with my kids many years ago (I had all of my daycare kids make one for their parents that year, too - best gift ever - directions at the end of the post) the Christmas castle my Grandma made for me, the holiday stockings I've cross stitched for everyone in my family. I'll be making a new one for next year since my brother is getting married in a couple months. Luckily, his fiancee knows exactly what she wants so I'll be starting on it as soon as I'm done with the Christmas presents I haven't quite finished yet.

That's another tradition - handed down from my mom, and her mom before her - scrambling to finish making presents at the last minute. Yeah...that's how we roll around here. When we were little, we'd frequently get gifts of fabric or yarn from Mrs. Claus and a note saying how Mrs. C was too busy to finish our presents but that she knew our mom was handy and wouldn't mind helping out.

I actually had to turn the tables on my mom yesterday at our family Christmas gathering and give her a gift with a note saying that Mrs. Claus was really busy, but she knew I was handy and could finish my mom's presents. :) When it's done, it'll look like this. My mom loves snowmen and pirates, so win-win!

I have a couple more to make - mostly sewing - and one and a half to cross stitch, so I'm actually ahead of the game this year - I still have nine more days!

Of course, my favorite tradition is spending time with my family and friends. I have no idea how I got so lucky to be surrounded by these wonderful, amazing people, but I'm beyond grateful. I hope you're all able to enjoy the traditions you have and the people you share them with!

DIRECTIONS FOR HAND PRINT WREATH: This hand print wreath is the easiest project ever. Get a piece of muslin and some craft paints. Hem the fabric then paint your kids' hands and have them press their hands on the fabric to make a circle - overlapping is fine. Berries are made with paint-dipped fingertips. Tack on a bow, if you like. Attach ribbon tabs at the top and hang from a dowel or a branch. Easy peasy and people treasure them. My mom still hangs hers up ever year, too.

Untraditional traditions

After I lost my dad two years ago I found myself spending my first Thanksgiving without him and it sucked ass. My daughter was off with my mom and Jr. Rebel v 2.0 wasn't even an idea yet. So I had the Mr. and I had an aching heart.

We spent the day drinking mimosas and watching videos on Funny or Die (www.funnyordie.com). This was the year I discovered Jon LaJoie. We nibbled on food occasionally but mostly I sucked down champagne and orange juice for hours upon hours and tried not to cry all day.

It wasn't my best Thanksgiving by far, but it ended up not being the worst one ever. Much thanks due to the Mr. for that feat.

We don't adhere to many traditions in our family. Things change so rapidly it's hard to nail down the same thing every year. I can say usually I spend the morning with my mom and we usually spend the afternoon with the Mr.'s family. But that's not always the case. And now that we have the baby in the mix things will probably shake up again.

But something that will always stay the same is that on Christmas morning I will wake up next to the perfect husband and he will kiss me and wish me a Merry Christmas. As long as I have that, the rest of the traditions can come and go as they damn well please.

XoXoXo
Dakota

Something New, Something Old

I come from a family with set traditions, with little allowance for deviation. Trees, stockings, food, baking, and gatherings on set days. This year things are different. Fighting between my parents and their siblings means that there is no big family party this year. Very few things will remain the same after this year. And I'm pretty much okay with that.

But one thing that is, is the Red Velvet Cake I make and share with some of my closest friends. It started when my friend N was still alive as a celebration, but now it is done also in remembrance.

So, a couple of days before Christmas, Bug and I will go to our friends house, cake in hand, break open a bottle of meade, and remember not only the good things that happened this year, but those who aren't with us. Dwelling only on the positive.

This year at Thanksgiving we started a new tradition, we set a place with an upside down glass on the plate in remembrance of all of the service personnel who couldn't be with their families, not just those who had died, were missing in action, or in combat, but all service personnel. During our entire enlistment none of my siblings made it home for the holidays, so it is as much a reminder for us as it is for those who are serving now. It is something we will do at each major holiday or get together from now on. The kids are told of its meaning, of the significance.

What traditions do you have? Do you want to have?

Happy Holidays,

Simone

My Timer

It never fails. The holidays roll around and I seem to get some sort of attention span problem. Focusing is a challenge because I’m pulled a million different directions. Holiday baking, decorating, cleaning, basketball practices and games, boy scouts, holiday parties, Christmas cards, special church services, etc. And that’s the short list.

One thing I do, because I’m a flybaby and Simone reminded me to use it with writing a few months ago, is to use a timer. When November comes around, I start putting my little kitchen timer right next to my PC. In a way, it’s a challenge. In another way, it’s a reminder of “only this many more minutes. Surely, you can sit still to do this for fifteen minutes.”

And I do. I write in fifteen minute spurts. Then set the timer and do whatever else I need to do for fifteen minutes. Then come back and write for fifteen more. I’m always amazed by how much I can get done—and the fact that I am getting it all finished. I can do all the family (that I want to do) and still keep up with my career. And it is my career. I think that’s one of the biggest things to keep in focus. If I worked outside the home, the job wouldn’t stop just because the holidays popped up. My job doesn’t either. I just have to use different strategies.

I hope everyone has a great holiday season! Remember to take time for you and keep in mind that you can do whatever you set your mind (or timer) to do.

Baby, it's cold outside - put on a damn hat!

As a writing mom, I have to wear a lot of different hats. There's the carpool hat, the what's-for-supper? hat, the homework hat, the editor hat, the writing hat - the list goes on. The holidays require more hats - the shopping hat, the wrapping hat, the baking hat, the making things hat, the gotta-be-on-time-for-family-gatherings hat... Well, you get the picture.

However, just because there are more hats to wear doesn't mean I get to slack off on the writing. The additional hats and resulting bad hair days don't mean I get to dink around and let the writing languish. I have deadlines to meet and projects to complete. Just because I'm madly cross stitching a pirate snowman to give to my mom for Christmas, doesn't mean I can skip my word count for the day.

So, in the interest of reaching all my goals - holiday and writing - I need to cut this short and put on my writing hat and get back to work!

Switch Hitter

As the song says, it's the most wonderful time of the year. I think I may actually write better around holidays. The stress of the holidays makes it nice to escape into my own little worlds for a while. I can block out thoughts of Santa, wrapping, cooking, card addressing in favor of thoughts of hot naked men getting all sweaty with each other.

The funny thing about the publishing world is that Christmas/Holiday books get written and submitted around June or July. Though, I suppose you could write a holiday book in December, it won't be available until the following year. I never really thought about that before I was published. Granted, I don't write holiday books, so it doesn't matter what time of year I don't write them.

Ok, this post doesn't make any sense. I'm babbling and trying to force my way through it but it's not working. So let's talk about something else.

I have a paper problem. Seriously. I don't know if I've ever mentioned that I 'collect' notebooks. Now, this means that I buy any book of paper with a cover that I even sort of like. And sometimes I may not even like the cover. Or it could be a plain cover and I just like the size or the style or the layout of the lines on the paper. (I'm serious). I love notebooks.

This love of paper has bled over into Scrapbook paper. I may not be as bad as my mom (yet) but I love me some scrapbook paper. It's so pretty. And I must point out that I don't actually scrapbook. I just buy the paper and put it in a folder and look at it once in a while because it is so pretty.

Recently Mr. Rebel pointed out that my paper problem has bled into yet another arena. Wrapping Paper.

ZOMG! I LOOOOOOVE wrapping paper. There are currently 12 rolls in my living room (just what I bought this year, I don't like to carry over last years wrapping paper. But I don't throw it out. Much like Scrapbook paper I like to look at it.) I believe I may end up with more rolls of wrapping paper than I have actual presents to wrap this year. Jr. Rebel got a big present so the number of gifts is smaller than usual. And the Jr. Rebel v. 2.0 is too small to play with anything so he is getting a lot of clothes and books, but since he can't open presents most of his things will be boxed together and wrapped in groups so we have them for pictures but I don't have to spend three hours unwrapping all the gifts I wrapped for him.

(The wrapping paper shown IS available for purchase at Amazon.com. I tried to make the picture a link but I'm not sure if it worked. Check it out if you are looking to buy.)

I have a weird thing about wrapping paper though. I'm not a fan of cartoony paper. I like really pretty paper. I don't want santas, snowmen, or penguins. Don't get me wrong, I like Santa and snowmen and penguins, but I prefer shiny, classic paper. Give me plaids, give me swirls, give me houndstooth and solids in blue or silver.

Oh yes, I love paper. All of it. But most especially around Christmas. Wrapping presents is my favorite part of the holidays. Even more than opening them.

Again, not much of a point to the post but it's at least about the holidays right? So here is another pretty. Don't you just love how I change the subject?

XoXoXo
Dakota

What do I do over holiday season?

Well, right now, I write comics for the postings over at Desert Island Keepers. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow I'm guest blogging. And what did I do? I made comics out of some familiar friends!That's Carol Lynne on the left, Brynn Paulin next to hair her, Bronwyn Green, Kris Norris, and me. I took this from the post I put up at the DIK blog. Please go check it out and let me know what you think!

Meet the ladies!

Writing Around The Holidays.

December is probably the busiest time of year for almost everyone. Just off the top of my head there is Solstice, Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. I think there is a Muslim winter celebration too, but I don't remember and if I google it now, I'll get side tracked and not get around to finishing this post or writing or doing anything else today, which is bad since I didn't get anything done this weekend. Well, I did watch Bug swim and that was good. But, nothing else.

Starting after Thanksgiving and going until the end of the calendar year there are about 1001 things that have to be done. Holiday parties for work, for professional groups, the big family one for my mom's side of the family, the one with my siblings and their kids and grandkids (trying to organize this is slightly chaotic), the ones with my friends, the Masque, Twelfth Night events, and lets not forget the New Year's Eve Party. Oh, and Bug's team party. And the cookie and ornament exchange I like to have. Invariably someone will say that I'm only a writer, so I have the most time to make this or organize that. Wait! Stop!

I'm only a writer, well yeah in the sense that are a heck of a lot more of us out there than just me. But, I still have things I need to do. Like when I heard the dozen or so cop cars zoom by my house, my one character, whose been exceptionally silent lately started talking a mile a minute, and I needed to get it all down before he stopped talking again. He doesn't talk a lot, so I have to take advantage of it when I can. The pies didn't burn, but it was a close call.

Everyday jobs have set hours and times, which means generally when you're not working, you don't have to worry about work or work. There are some jobs where people do that. Most writers also have everyday jobs, so their writing fits around their day schedule. And now you've thrown in parties and traditions on top of that! Oh, and if you do the gift exchange thing - gift wrapping has to be done too.

So, in the next couple of weeks, there will be parties, sports practice, sports meets, cookie and bread baking, gift wrapping and shopping and in between will be sewing, working, and writing.

It's important to try to maintain that balance that Bronwyn mentioned a few weeks ago. Balancing the holiday necessities with the needs of not only your family, but yourself and your writing.

For me, I may have goals I want to accomplish, but for the most part, if I don't make them, I'm not going to beat up on myself over it. For years, I would get stressed over getting everything done, getting it right. Now, I make sure I have time for me, my daughter, and the people who are important in my life. It's more important that I enjoy those events than worry about it being perfect.

It's the holidays, the busiest time of the year, and I'm still going to write. I may write more and cook less, which means no peppermint bark, no apple butter, no apple pie, or cookies. While that might get me yelled at, writing less would probably cause my characters to riot and don't see how that can even possibly be a good thing.

Enjoy,

Simone

Now That’s Good…

Success. How sweet it is.

To me, success is the pride of your family. Your husband bragging about you; your kids unashamed to tell their friends what you do.

Success is knowing your kids understand that their dreams aren’t out of their reach.

Success is looking at your work and declaring “it is good”.

Success is a rainy day in bed with your husband of eighteen years, with the knowledge that if God wills it, you will have many more wonderful interludes because neither of you is going anywhere.

Success is confident children.

Success is self-sufficiency, handling grown-up responsibility and creating a secure home for your family.

Success is bringing joy to others, not necessarily by what you give them, but by what you do for them.

For me, these are success.

Success comes in lots of flavors

I'll be the first to admit, I enjoy seeing seeing the words Best Seller alongside one of my books or the nifty little silver star used on some sites. And of course I enjoy a nice royalty check and a good review, but those aren't my favorite signs of success.

One of my favorites is finishing up a book and turning it in. There's something immensely satisfying about finishing a story and sending in out into the world.

The other is getting reader mail. I love hearing from readers. It's one thing to sent a book out into the world, but it's something else to know that it connected with someone - resonated to the point where s/he wanted to write to me to tell me about it. That is, by far, my favorite kind of success.

ACK!

I don't have anything for this week. Here are pretty boys. (By the way, these two yummies are featured in my mind as I am working on my current WIP. More about that later.) XOXOXO Dakota