IWSG: December '13

For more Insecure Writer's Support Group blog posts visit Alex J. Cavanaugh's Site.

I suck. that is how I feel when it comes to my writing. quite the change from the last on of these I wrote. you see I had high hopes of editing my novel in a single month. I mean really several of my writery friends have run through second and third drafts no problem. Me? well editing is really hard. I need to figure out a new way of doing this. but you know it's not working so well. maybe I am still too close to the manuscript, maybe I'm not disciplining myself well enough. maybe I just have start-ites and I really just want to start something new. I don't know what is wrong or how to fix it.

If you have a practice of editing please share below in the comments section.  or you know if you are willing to be a beta reader for me, or you know if you need a beta reader. I had hoped to take on a few MS to read for other writers.

anyway this is the last post for the year. I hope that 2013 has been a great year for you all and look forward to seeing you all again in the 2014.

till after the new year, God Speed and Open roads.

maternity leave

This will be my last post till after mog comes. actually it will probably be my last post for the year.  So here is a minor update of a little bit of everything.

Mog: I'm so tired,  heartburn, nausea, and what i think might be pre labor contractions. (they don't hurt all that much, just uncomfortable.) yeah I'm ready to have this baby on the outside of my body. my mom will be here soon to start off the long line of family that will be coming to visit us in light of our new little child, the first child, the first grandchild, and the first niece or nephew.

Reading: if you follow me on goodreads or facebook you know i've been on a bit of a bing reading kick. I've read Catching Fire (dystopia), White Oleander (fiction), Blood Ties (urban Fantasy), and Evade (paranormal romance).   Each of these books I pretty much read in a single sitting. It is nice to be reading like this again. my next couple of books are The Republic of Thieves (heroic fantasy), which I am over halfway done with, and Chimes at Midnight (urban fantasy). I look forward to finishing both these books, of course once i'm done reading them I have to wait for the authors to publish the next book. luckily I have a long list of books to be read.

writing: well I think I will write up a post for ISWG, so this may not be the last post. for now I'll just say that Nanowrimo is almost over, those of you dear readers who are participating in this endeavor you can do it! just keep writing!

knitting: I'm behind. I'll probably finish the blanket today or tomorrow, but my socks won't be done, neither will my shawl. it makes me fairly sad but that is what happens when i don't knit except at knit night.

I think that is everything, till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today I am doing something different. I am going to give you a recipe to make chocolate chocolate cookies. I love making cookies and baking and last night I took some of my cookies to knit night. I was told I should just put the recipe out there for everyone. so here it is:

3/4 a cup brown sugar
3/4 a cup white sugar
1 cup butter
     (cream the butter and sugar together before moving on.)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1~1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla (I don't ever measure vanilla I just pour a bit in and call it good.)
6 Tablespoons of cocoa.
     (optional a dash of ancho chili powder)
     (mix everything together)
2 3/4 cups of flour (stir in one cup at a time)
add about half a bag of chocolate chips (or butterscotch were pretty well too)
bake for 10 min at 350 let cool on cookie sheet

there you go that is my chocolate Chocolate chip

week 37

Mog is growing, that is pretty much all there is to this update. we are getting close to the end which is good. but everything is looking average. I'm am going to admit that I'm really sorry I haven't been keeping up here on the blog. I mean I missed IWSG again. I didn't mean to but as we get closer to the coming of baby, there are things that are taking precedence over other things. I mean there are several things I want to get done before the baby comes. four of them are knitting projects. and the other is editing my story but hopefully I will talk about all those things latter this week.

the good news is that we have now gone a week without  throwing up. Which it is pretty nice. however it seems like there is still so much to do. get the car seats in the cars, wash the liners of everything, make sure I have all the parts, pack the bag for the hospital, refill the first aid kit, get nursing gear all set up. it is a never ending list that always seems to be missing something.

oh well it will all work out eventually.

Week 36

Now we are coming down to the end of this thing called pregnancy, and a lot of people talk about how this time takes forever to get to the actual labor. right now I feel like this baby might be coming a little quicker than I'm ready for. yes I'm ready to be done with the heartburn, the spewing, the pain in the abdomen, and the alien independent movements in my belly. But I'm not sure if I'm ready to have a baby in the house. It's kinda scary to think that very soon, in as little as three weeks, there will be a little human larva in need of a place to sleep, something to eat, a safe place to be in the car, a pediatrician... yeah I woke yesterday terrified about the coming changes in the house.

However it is exciting. a little boy or girl is about to enter the world. I'm going to be a mom, exciting and terrifying.

till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

Evade (Ever book 2)

I received the advanced reader copy of Evade from Jessa. 

Last year when I read Ever I was pleasantly surprised by what I read. Here was a YA book that was Paranormal Romance that I enjoyed. The heroine is likeable and relatable. The romantic triangle is well managed and the supernatural elements intrigued me. All that is to say that when I finished Ever I was truly looking forward to Evade. 

Jessa Russo did not disappoint. There are two big things I enjoyed about this book, the way she handled the romantic tension and the way she opened up her world to her readers. I am generally fairly critical of Romances, particularly the trend where readers choose teams for the two guys that the heroine can't decide on. I don't want to go into too much detail about how this is worked out but I found it refreshing. 

As for the way she opened up her world she makes use of the classic fish out of water. Ever has been through into a world that she doesn't understand and is forced to learn the rules of or she is going to get herself killed a lot sooner than her ticking clock predicted. It of course doesn't help that like most girls caught up in the supernatural world everyone is too busy protecting her to tell tell her what's going on, at least until everything hits too close for comfort. 

perhaps my only critic of the book is that there is not enough Jessica. yeah she is my favorite character in these books, But really is that much of a critic? 

Author bio: An unashamed super fan of all things paranormal romance, Jessa Russo reads, writes and breathes paranormal YA, rarely straying from her comfort zone. When not writing or reading--or raising the coolest kid ever--Jessa enjoys making memories with her amazingly supportive family and friends, while secretly planning her next trip to New Orleans. She will always call Southern California home, where she lives with her husband and daughter, and a Great Dane who thinks he's the same size as his cranky sister, the Chihuahua.

Evade Links: GoodReads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo

Jessa Russo's links: Website, Twitter, Facebook: To Friend, To Like/ Follow

So till next time God Speed and Open Roads. 

week 35 update

Baby Mog is now the size of a coconut, which translates to 17-18 inches long and 4.2-5.8 lbs. and dancing like his/her nick-name-sake. he/she likes to start up dancing around 9pm and continues till after I have fallen asleep. Of course he/she is active most the day, I know that babies supposedly sleep at some point, but most the time it seems like baby Mog is a very happy and healthy baby who likes to move. It probably means I'm going to spin a lot of time chasing this little guy or girl around once he/she enters to the world.

Let's see, I have finally reached the point where I am  sore from being pregnant, I can't see my toes, and I'm having a hard time putting on my socks and shoes. oh and I'm still throwing up about once a week, yeah.

I have had my last ballet class till after I have recovered from labor. which is very sad about that because ballet has been a bright spot of my week for some time. I will miss it but hopefully I will be back at it very very soon. I mean I've only got 5 weeks left of pregnancy and then hopefully I will not have anything major to recover from. But there is no way to know what that will look like.

I did finally watch a birthing video. I don't know why these women agreed to let the whole world see their ho-hos, it was a bit traumatic. my first thought after seeing what labor would be like was "um, maybe a C-section wouldn't be that bad.  I guess only time will tell.

As the date comes closer second by second there is still much to do. the crib needs to be emptied-I've been lazy and instead of putting my linens in the crib rather then putting it in the up high shelf in the closet. we need to put the car seats in the cars,  I need to go through the bags of clothing a friend gave me and start washing everything. not to mention I should probably wipe down the walls with bleach to make sure I don't have any more mold growing in the nursery/office/art studio. Then I should probably take stock of things I don't have and yet still might or might not need. cause lets face it is difficult to know what is actually going to be helpful when the baby comes.

I think that is all of the pregnancy updates to share, so till next time: God Speed and Open Roads!

Finished! So time to edit

The last time I talked about my writing it was for IWSG September edition. Crazy how the time got away from me but I promise I was very very busy. See I finished the rough draft of Witchborn. (Que fireworks and confetti.) That means two things. 1. I have to begin the process of editing and 2. what the heck do I work on next.

1. Aaaaahhhhhh editing how I hate thee! Eh it's not so bad. I mean Google docs is a little over zealous in saving changes so instead of doing a full read through where I get rid of spelling errors and capitalization errors I got act one done. Then I nearly went completely bonkers. I'm working on having a play bill with each of the characters listed, which house they belong to, and well how they relate to the story. that way I can make sure I have the correct spelling of the names through out. This is also true of place names. I got to a point where it was easier to just type in the town on the other side of the harbor then what the town was actually called, cause I couldn't remember what I had called it. So that is what I am calling simple edits.

The next part I am working on, and I am doing this by act, is to make sure that each scene in the act is progressing the story, growing characters, and has a consistent flow. Some times this means moving scenes, sometimes it means adding scenes and sometimes it means deleting scenes. So far I haven't had to delete entire scenes, parts of them yes, some of it is to keep me from repeating myself too much. I think in the first draft I told the story of the fourth sacking of Tiar three or four times. this is the fun part.

My goal is to have this ready to go out in the world to beta readers by the end of November.

2. After much thought I have decided that the next story I work on is going to be a story that takes place in the same world as Witchborn but with very different characters in a very different area of the world. Rowan and the Dragon. Rowan is a half orc warrior who teams up with Novalee the half elf bard. Each is trying to escape their past and together they make a bit of an odd couple as they travel the barbarian lands.

I'm looking forward to this story. I am planing to do some fun and different things with the narration. but I also don't plan to start working on it till the beginning of January. Why? Well I'm going on maternity leave starting November 25.

That beings me to NaNoWriMo. I'm not participating this year. I know I know how can this be? I have participated every year sense 2005. Well, a) I need to edit Witch born. b) I will be 9 months pregnant at that point. I will be writing, of course but the 50,000 goal is not going to happen. Maybe 25,000 new words as I edit. But I think it is a little silly of me to try and write as I'm getting ready to be a new mom. So instead I will be cheering on everyone from the grandstand. (Look for me with the marching band I play the alto saxophone.)

well that is everything for now. till next time- God Speed and Open Roads.

Knitting: Socks, and a Baby Blinket

Currently there are three projects that I am working on as far as knitting goes. All three of them are projects that I am hoping to have done before the baby comes. Will they? Oh probably not.

I am still working on my shipwreck Shawl. It is coming along but I haven't really made progress that is noticeable so no new pictures on the shawl this week. I probably won't post any more pictures of this one till it is done. Oh and I can't wait for it to be done.

Now I did cast on some new projects since the last time I blogged about knitting. The first is a pair of Brainless socks. I want these to be my socks that I can wear at the hospital. These have been a nice pair of socks to knit. so far the pattern is just engaging enough to stay interesting and yet simple enough that I can work on it while watching tv or gabbing at knit night. I'm using Hecate colorway of Buddy, dyed by my good friend Stephanie Stratton. (check out her shop here)

The second project is that I finally cast on a blanket for my baby. No I don't know the gender so I am making up my own pattern to make something that is gender neutral, and very soft. I'm using  which is 100% Polyester. So far I have used two colors in blanket, I plan to use at least one more colorway, maybe two. Part of it depends on how big I make the blanket. the nice thing about this is I'm using Euro-baby MayLole. It's bulky yarn so it is knitting up really fast.

and that is it for now. Hopefully I will have more pictures and knitting to share with you next week. till next time God Speed.

Babysitter win and 32 weeks

So I've kinda fallen off the radar again. and it was a pretty bad timing. I ended up missing IWSG, which I hate missing. I am still trying to figure out what my new normal is. with my luck i will have my new normal set just in time for mog to make his or her appearance and then I'll need to find another new normal. Eh that is life though. it's always changing.

Job is still going good. however I think I may turn into a bit of a nap nazi. The little guy woke up real early this morning and I thought that meant he would take some really good naps today. Well even though I made him wait till normal time for his nap and bottle he only slept about 45 minutes for his morning nap. Then for his afternoon nap he tried to get away with only sleeping 25 minutes. the kid is a good kind unless he doesn't get his sleep then he is only mostly a good kid. So I let him have what was left of his bottle gave him a pacifier and figured if he was still crying in 10 minutes I'd let him stay up. guess what he only cried for about 3 minutes and was fussy for about 30 minutes, now he is sleeping soundly. I call that a babysitter win!

As for my current status of growing a tiny human in my belly, everything is still looking good. I went to the doctor last week and he is happy with everything. Okay and I have to brag just a little bit. I actually wore some of my pre maternity clothes on saturday and sunday. Before any of my pregnant friends start making voodoo dolls of me can I just say that the reason for that is probably because in the last 7 months I have not gone more than 2 weeks without throwing up. (Right now it has only been 3 days since I have thrown up dinner. and it was a bacon cheese burger too.)

Oh and I've been meaning to post this for some time. its just that, well, I've had many fights with my technology lately (read the last year) and that means that I just have a digital camera not a camera phone or tablet. and my camera is about 7 years old, so here you go this is my belly at 30 weeks. (currently 32 weeks along only 62 days left.)

Knitting, shipwreck and Elephante

Okay I have finished my third Elephante by Susan B. Anthony. I love love love this pattern, which is obvious because I've made three of them. I think I am going to keep this one. However I am thinking about making another one, I'm not sure yet if I will or not. But probably in the next couple of days either there will be another one of these on the needles or the basic bear. we will see. Oh here are pictures because he is so cute!

Front veiw, this time I decided to try and put stripes in the ears
I think it worked out really well

Side view

From the top. you can tell from this angle I ran out of read and
had to substitute it with a variegated pink/red.
still i am very happy with how it turned out

I think the next one I make might be striped with all the blues I have.

And here are some pictures of my shipwreck shawl. I love the way this is looking and I can't wait to block it and start using it.

So I stuffed a pillow inside the shawl to try and show
it to you all the pretty lace, but
it didn't work out so well...

this is panel 2, it is a heart pattern

This is panel 1, it is called a strawberry pattern

this is panel 3, a leaf pattern

This section has beads, I'm on round four with the beads

the beads that I have already strung on the yarn,
and that isn't all of them. this shawl with have approximately 5,000
beads on it when it is done. 

So that is my current knitting projects. I hope you like the pictures and till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

Week 27

I hereby dub this week of pregnancy Heartburn and getting kicked in the ribs. Mog really likes kicking me in the ribs. and some times I have such bad heartburn that I don't want to eat, even though my stomach is growling to be fed. it is fun to have heartburn over nothing in the stomach but a half a glass of water.

In other news job is still going well. it is nice to be taking care of a kid twice a week and I'm excited that baby mog will have lots of friends when he or she comes into the world. between baby J who will arrive sometime around october 1, the for lovely little girls at church (ranging from almost three to almost one) and Ford (code name for baby boy I babysit) Mog will not lack for friends no matter what.

Speaking of Mog, Mog likes to dance on my ribs, and just hang out there. which is rather uncomfortable. but it is good to know that he/she is active. Also Mog is the size of a rutabaga. I have no idea what that means cause it really doesn't sound that big.

IWSG September

It is time once again for the Insecure Writer's Support Group hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Once a month writers connected by little more than the Word Wide Web come together to share their insecurities and encourage others.

Before I get into my insecurities and what not I'd like to take a minute to share with you my writing stats from August, then share some of my goals for September. I don't know how appropriate it is to share my stats during IWSG but at least this month I will.

August Stats:
Total words written in August: 22,982
Days written: 21 out of 31
Average daily word count: 741

September goals:
Write at least 21 out of the 30 days
Write 23,000 words total
Finish witchborn. (hope of hopes!)

Please share your own progress that you have made for the month of August in the comments, as well as any goals. That way we can celebrate together the progress we have made, and goals are always  good to share so that others can keep you accountable.

So what are my insecurities this month? That I have spent the last month chasing the muse. See I have gotten a good amount of words, I wrote on days when I didn't feel inspired. I wrote by dragging up words like a soot sprite at work in the furnace of Kamajii (Spirited Away). So I wonder about the progress I've made and wondered what everything will look like when I have to edit and rewrite. often I find myself writing a scene looked over it and thought, "hmmm, I Don't know if that will actually work, I may have to delete it latter, it might work somewhere else, but it will probably go." Sometimes I shrug these thoughts off, other times I feel discouraged.

I still think it will all come out in the wash and we will just have to see what it looks like after I get to the end, which with any luck maybe as early as September 23 *fingers crossed*any way I would love to hear about what you are insecure about, what encourages you, what you accomplished in August and what your goals are for September. Good luck and till next time

God Speed and Open Roads

Week 26 Pregnancy and other updates

We are now at week 26, Baby Mog is now the size of an egg plant, which means he or she is 13.6-14.8 inches long and weighs about 1.5-2.2 pounds. and we are less than 100 days from mog's arrival in the world. what this means is that the baby is getting big, and cramping my stomach, or at least that is what i think is going on. See when I have a nice meal, and eat a little more than when I have a meal that is not as nice I end up losing my dinner. It is most definitely not fun. My days have started to look like this: day one have good tasty food for dinner throw up, Day two eat little feel sick most the day, Day three feel  better but still not eat too much, Day four have a good tasty food and throw-up latter. it really is no fun.

But we have less then 100 days left so pregnancy is almost over. I am sleeping more, though lately I've had odd dreams. I blame that more on Mira Grant and her Newsflesh trilogy. (more on that latter this week.) Zombies seem to be showing up the last couple of nights.

In other news Mog is very active. Yesterday he or she must have completely stretched out for it was like my skin pulled in several directions several places. Also finally after trying many many times Greg felt the baby move. that is definitely something that is very awesome.

Also I now have a job. I am now watching a little 8 month old boy two days a week in lexington. this is a complete answer to prayer.

well that is all for now, till next time
God Speed and Open Roads.

Achieving My Writing Goals

So last Friday was a very productive day in my writing life. I achieved my word count goal. Okay so my goal wasn't that big, it was meant to be practical and also the very least amount of words that should get the manuscript done by November 25, if I could get it done earlier, then that will be great but Nov. 25 is my Deadline. so the good news is that I reached the word count, the bad news is that I am not as far in the story as I thought I would be. I am 3/5 of the way through the story, but I had hoped to be closer to 4/5 of the way done. oh well. luckily I have 10 days till the end of the month.

the other thing though is that I'm still working on the details, little tiny details, like making sure a character doesn't change names when they show back up in a later scene, or that the city's spelling doesn't change. (My story stays one city, but I have seen at least three different ways that I have spelled it in the manuscript) So before I move on in the story I may need to sit down and make an index of all the characters so far and who they are and who they are related.

I also still need to see what the actual projection of this project is. Witchburn Like I said was supposed to be a stand alone novel set in a rather generic fantasy realm. there are other stories that I am interested in telling but only one of them was connected back to this one, and really only loosely, however somewhere when I added in the demons and an amulet that wards of the powers of demons a seed of inspiration has been planted and is trying to take root. We will see what happens. life could get rather fascinating.

Knit one Purl one

After having little to say about my knitting for weeks I am happy to say that I am now very happy with what I am working on. first I finally was able to get beads for my shipwreck shawl, so as soon as I get them strung on the yarn I will start working on that shawl again. *yah!* I can not wait to finish this one.

Also some sad news, I think I lost my size four Knitpicks harmony straight needle. this means that my Japanese waves shawl is stuck. Granted I have been thinking about maybe frogging that one back and trying something a little more interesting.  I still love the yarn but the rectangle shawl isn't really doing it for me anymore. I bet I could use the yarn in the wingspan shawl, that could be fun.

The last fun news is that I cast on another eliphante, This one is red, yellow and orange. I'm hoping to clear out some of my acrylic yarn so I can have more reasons to buy more yarn.

That is all for now till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

Adventures of being pregnant

Mog is growing, apparently he or she is now the size of a cantaloupe, moving around like crazy, and miraculously not currently making me sick. This last part is exciting, after being up all night vomiting up everything I had eaten it is a wonderful change that I have not been sick since Monday past.

Other than that I seem to have entered the everything is uncomfortable part of pregnancy. It's not that I'm in pain all the time, it's just that certain positions cause my muscles to cramp in odd ways, and it is getting harder to find a way to sleep comfortable. I'm not waking up multiple times at night, just a hard time to fall asleep. though my good friends have recently given me an awesome recliner that has a heater and massager built in. I haven't plugged it in yet but I can't wait to try it. I keep thinking maybe I should just call my chiropractor but then I think maybe I can hold out till my appointment in a couple of weeks.

Other than being pregnant my life is filled with searching for a new job. this search has lead to some interviews but so far I am still just trying to be the best homemaker I can be.

Till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin

I finally finished it, A Storm of swords. and I am so glad I did. For those who are watching the HBO Series but not reading the book Season 3 is basically the first half of the book. and while stuff that happened in the first half, including the evil closer of the books second act (the red wedding) the stuff that happens latter is awesome. which is good cause I thought about quitting when I got to the bad thing that I won't spoil.

All in all I've enjoyed the Song of Ice and Fire books. I like most the characters and I find it nice to have something that feels more like a historical fiction than fantasy. Particularly when I come across the historical event which the fictitious one is based on.  And even though it gets dark, I mean really dark, at times I still hold out hope that in the end everything will work out and the good guys will win. I really liked this book and can see why it is a favorite of the series. I think though I am going to put off reading a Feast of Crows for a bit because The Winds of Winter may be set to come out in 2014 but lets face it Mr. Martin could end up having that pushed back. So rather than deal with that disappointment and have to wait and wait I'm just going to focus on the other series that I am currently reading. The next Gentlemen Bastards comes out this fall, as well as the next October Daye Novel. Not to mention I still need to finish the Tawny man trilogy and I just started the Emberverse books.  Oh and I wanted to get though Jane Austen's novels this year since it is her 200 year anniversary. So I have plenty of things to read before I start the Feast of Crows...

So I'd love to go on about the things I loved in this book, the things that made me have to put the book down for a bit, and of course the things that shocked me. I figure most my readers haven't read these books yet, and well if you're watching the TV series then I could talk about somethings but I think I will just say this. 1. if you can handle the gore and sex and like fantasy don't give up on the books yet. 2. if you are watching the tv show, you really should read the books, that way you don't have to wait to see what happends till the next season.

The Epics of Writing

So I have a problem, everytime i try to write a stand alone piece it ends up being just a small piece of a grander epic. Seriously, the piece I am currently working on (Witchborn) which the whole point was to write something that was small,  insignificant, and simple, has a small little insignificant plot line that is trying to become something. it might even become something because well hey it's kinda cool and fits with some other things I wanted to do in this world. I have no idea where it is going, but I have to admit if I have time in the next couple of days I may do some plot chasing and see what this could be.

In other news as far as writing goes, I'm doing pretty good with the write every day thing. I did take a few days off because Baby Mog made me very sick. (silly baby). but the strange thing is that I'm kinda chasing the Muse right now. I mean I have no idea if what I wrote yesterday and the day before, and the day before that are really any good. all I know is that the plot is advancing very soon we will begin the climb up to the climax, but first (even though I'm about 10,000 over where I thought I would be at this point, oh well story is just taking more words that I thought it would) I have to finish the mid point.

So that is where I am at, trying to finish this book before I go into labor, chasing plots and wondering about what will come next.

Till next time, God Speed and Open Roads

Pregnancy and life updates

Generally this update would come on monday, but yesterday I was trying to get better from a sudden surge of pregnancy symptoms. So instead of talking about my knitting today I will give the life updates that have for the moment made me sluggish towards blogging.

First lets talk about Mog, everyone loves babies right? Well Mog is growing and growing well. I am now 23 weeks along and so that means that I am over halfway through this pregnancy, and on my way into the third trimester. Baby Mog is roughly the size of a papaya. his or her face is fully formed save for baby fat, and he or she is pretty active. I can feel baby mog moving quite a bit, even other my husband hasn't. he had tried but it seems Mog is not strong enough to kick through my layers of skin, muscle, and let's be honest fat.

However as I come out of my second trimester, which has been pretty nice has come the return of Pregnancy Sick. Not morning sickness, well okay lets face it morning sickness isn't just about being sick in the morning, but I am just going to call this Pregnancy Sick. Also because I'm not really nauseous, it's more heartburn that generally results in me bowing at the Ceramic thrown. the last few weeks have been marked by several bouts of me tossing out my cookies, sometimes more than once a day. Now I am back on some medications to help control it, and I go to the doctor tomorrow and I'll talk to him about the heartburn part of this nastiness.

In other news my mom visited us a few weeks ago. this was a great visit, and a busy one.  She came to visit and to help me move the furniture around in my small house to make room for the baby. before my mother came I was trying to figure out where we would be able to put a crib, and if we should even buy a crib due to our lack of space. but as luck would have it my mom is the queen of nesting. and somehow our house now feels like an entirely new space. we have the crib setup and even room for the great chair we are being given. suddenly the reality that we are going to have a baby has sunk in. there is a crib in a room that is half a nursery and half an office. it's really pretty cool.

That is pretty much the main updates in my life, hopefully the next few months of pregnancy pass fairly uneventfully. they probably won't but I can hope. tomorrow I have to take the Glucose test-joy of joys- and I hope that will go over well, I have no reason to think otherwise.

anyway till next time: God Speed and Open Roads.

IWSG: August

Hello everyone did you miss me? sorry to let you all know that I have been busy, and then lazy. But I wanted to get working on Insecure Writer's Support Group because I've missed the last few months, and Alex I don't want to get left out!

So lets talk about Writing and the insecurities that happen. one of those things is a thought I often have, what if what I write really sucks.

lately I have taken a lax stance on my word count, the thing I've been working on is writing every day. So instead of writing as much as possible and then take a few days respite my goal is to write 250 words a day. as long as I get more words than that down I figure I'm doing pretty good. Now really my current average is actually 1,421 so I am not hurting word count wise. the thing is that I am pretty sure the last 3,000 or so words I've written most recently I am fairly sure I will cut during the second draft. That is kind of depressing.

the good news is of course that even if I end up cutting those 3,000 words in subsequent re-writes it won't really matter because right now that is 3,000 words that get me closer to the end of the first draft and right now I really want to get the first draft of this novel done before I go into labor. wish me luck!

till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

The King

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J

It was morning, Lilli woke to the bells ringing back in the town. She couldn't help thinking that the thing with her father had to all have been a dream. that was the only thing that made any sense. Except that there he was standing next to her spinning wheel. "Papa?"

"Lilli, I'm glad to see you've woken. did you sleep well?"

"very well but how?"
The king nodded, "How did I get here?"
Lilli nodded.
"I don't really know. the last few days have been a blur, but I remember searching for your mother's spinning wheel." he looked at the spinning wheele. "Purhaps your mother's magic has passed down to you."He smiled.
She returned the smile with one of her own, "How do we get out?"
Her father held the cord she had spun. "with magic." he said and took from his belt a drop spindle. he attached the spindle to the cord and let it spin, the spindle floated int he air and spun there was a shimmer over the roll of cord. suddenly the cord twisted itself into a rope.
Lilli gapped as she watched the cord. "I don't understand.
the king was still smiling, "You knew your mother had magic when it came to fiber, I have some too. and now that the curse was lifted I can use it again."

Next Lies

Reading: The Two Towers

So about a year ago I decided to take my time and read all of Tolkien's books. This began with with the Silmarillion, then the Hobbit, Then the fellowship of the rings. I will be starting the Return of the King after I have finished reading Beowulf. I find that I need a little something different to read between books.

really I have enjoyed reading these books. it has been a long time sense I had read the Lord of the Rings. I've read the hobbit more times then I can count and it was the first time I had read the Silmarillion. However I have watched Peter Jackson's Lord of the rings many many times. In fact I know those movies so much that I used to turn them on when I needed back ground noise. and re reading the books has brought up something that makes me sad. First let me say that I love the movies, they are some of the best books to movies there are.

But here is what makes me sad, all my favorite parts of the books have either been cut or completely re written in the movie. Like the Ents. Wetta gives the ents a wonderful aesthetic, but I don't think jackson and company got the Ents. in the book they are wise and cautious, in the movie they are slow and stupid.  then there is the Battle of the Hornburg, I get what they did in the movie, I get it's purpose, but I like the book better when the elves don't show up.

The big one of these is the Frodo giving into the whispers of Golem and leaving Sam behind. I hate that in the movie, but in the book as Frodo and sam make their way up the stair and through the tunnel their friendship makes the whole thing something different. they know that Golem is up to something. in the movie at this point Frodo comes across as an idiot who is blow about by the opinions of someone that he knows is evil.

So I like the movies, I watch them about once every so many months, but I like the book better. All I can say to those who have been brought into the world of Tolkien by way of Jackson, what the heck are you waiting for?

till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

Knitting: Fun Times

my main concern with my knitting lately is about trying to get my stash down. Partially to try to make more room on the book shelves for other things, and to make room for baby. and Partially to get ride of the massive amount of Acrylic yarn that I have.

Acrylic is fine yarn, I am just sadly becoming more and more of a yarn snob and more and more I am preferring natural fibers. my answer to this is to make toys. Toys are great things to make, first because they can use a lot of yarn, second because they almost always have fun construction. So sunday during game time I cast on the Cute-as-can be Baby Seal found in he winter 2012 issue of Creative Knitting.

this thing is cute and easy! I am almost done with it, I just need to make the little flippers then I can get it sowed together. also I'm making it out of eyelash yarn which means this little guy is going to be crazy fluffy.

Other then that I am as far as I can be on the Shipwreck shawl because I don't have beads yet, but I will hopefully get it done fairly quickly as soon as I have a chance to get the 5,000 beads the pattern calls for.

Sorry I don't have any pictures for you today.

That is all I have to talk about for now. Till next time God Speed, and Open Roads.

19 weeks,

So last week baby Mog was the size of a sweet potato, this week he or she is the size of a mango. the thing is I thought sweet potatoes were bigger then Mangos. at least as far as length goes anyway. But you know these things are helpful but not necessarily true.

so mog got bigger, and me? well I'm mostly just weird feeling. like seriously you can feel the muscles moving for the baby to get bigger and stretching. I also haven't been sick in a while. though now that I have said that I will probably be sick in the morning. or you know the curry beef that Greg made could just come up. Wont that be pleasant.

But really Pregnancy hasn't been bad, really. Sure I was sick a lot, and tired a lot, but it's not so bad. Oh and I have the ultra sound this week so we will get to see pictures.

J is for Jaws

(I haven 't forgotten, just lazy)

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I,

"Scarlet no!" yelled Hunter from the tree he dangled from.

the moon was out and it's silver light was covered by a passing cloud. a snarl was heard and when the moon light shone once more Urgar no longer saw a simple girl before him. his eyes when wide with terror as a large wolf jumped at him. Jaws snapped down on his arm and shook his small body about.
Urgar shoot eldratch magic at the wolf and there was a yelp. the jaws opened and released the little dwarf who ran away.

At that moment more voices were heard "Over here" said one "we have you surounded," said another.

The wolf that was scarlett growled.

Queen invida's men came out of the shadows. some were on horse back and others were on foot. they were armed with swords, spears, crossbows, and tourches. "surrender." said the comander.

Hunter tried to reach his knife but Scarlet was too fast. the moon light glittered off her fangs as she made fast work of the guards. They were all dead or dieing by the time Hunter got himself out fo the tree.

He rushed to the red cloak. Scarlet growled at him and started to prepare to pounce him. just as she jumped he through the red cloak and it caught her int he face.

The magic worked quickly and by the time she hit the grown she was human again.

"Oz." hunter called as he released his companion, "are you okay?"

There was a snort that was followed by a groan, "I didn't know He still had that much power over me." Oz had taken his human form as well.

"Don't worry about that.' hunter passed him a pair of trousers, then turned his focus back to Scarlet,
"Scar? we have to move."

"I know," Scarlet's voice was weak, "I'm ready."

next King

Kiya: hope of Pharroh

I received this book as a gift from the author though a blog post competition. And i will say that I probably wouldn't have read it if I hadn't been given it.

that being said here are my thoughts on the book.

1. Katie Hamstead is a great author. I can't believe this is her first book. Seriously people who read YA be watching this chick she has talent. I was really blown away by how well the story was crafted. the word usage, characterization, plot all revel someone who to the time to make sure it was right. Katie I laud your craftsmanship! you are awesome!

2. This book does exactly what a historical fiction should do, inspire someone about a historical period. I devoured Historical fiction growing up, the civil war, the revolutionary war, world war 2, the Tutors anything i could get my hands on I read. it is no surprise that my goal was to go get my phd in church history and then teach and write about it. but I can totally see giving this book to some teenage girl and then latter watching that same girl begin researching Egyptian history for herself.

3. Now sadly I must revel my one criticism of the book. I don't really worry too much about historical accuracy in a good historical fiction. (even though my favorites include their bibliography and a little bit about the actual events.) In a historical fiction the facts serve the story more then anything else. but there was one thing that was like a record scratch in the whole thing. It was the portrayal of the Hebrew people. there were really only two things but they were kind of plot critical.

One was the dietary laws. The dietary laws don't really exist before the Mosaic Law. it is a fundamental part of Modern Judaism, and of biblical Judaism, but when we look at the patriarchs we don't see anything about any kind of dietary restrictions.

the second is the practice of Sabbath. now thanks mostly to the christian reinterpretations of of Sabbath a lot of people get the wrong idea of how Sabbath is celebrated. If I understand correctly Sabbath is the day of rest, no work and no travel on these days. the religious services (Which I don't believe really started up until the synagogue showed up during the Babylonian captivity after the Temple of Solomon was destroyed) take place on friday night, not saturday. The Christian reinterpretation (by either the puritan or the reformers in general) is that the holy day of god is the day they go to church. So first Naomi would have no problem participating in Sabbath because it would be a day of rest not a day where she needed to find a 'synagogue' to worship at. The other thing is once again we are dealing with a practice which is also part of the mosaic law. The understanding that they should have a day of rest does not show up in the religious life of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.

now I hate to really talk to much about these things because it really is the only criticism that I have, and on the one hand it's not a big deal, other other though it will probably keep me from reading the rest of this series.

On the whole I still give it 3 stars and a B+.

Writing Goals

For those of you who haven't heard July is a time for camp nano. but things are different at camp then they are during November for the official NaNoWriMo. during camp you can officially make your rule breaking goals.  for example maybe you don't need a push two write 50,000 words, maybe you need a different goal.

My goal during camp is to simply write everyday. I can write anywhere from 250-1,667 new words. now at the end of the month i would love to look back and see that I wrote 50,000 new words and finished a novel, but really I will be very happy if I can look back at the magic spread sheet and see that I have not missed one day of writing.

to those participating in Pitchmas best of luck maybe next year I will be able to join you. Also I was wondering how many of you readers are participating in camp nano? and if you are what are your goals?

till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

18 weeks

little Mog is now the size of a Sweet Potato. the last couple weeks have been good. I am sleeping more, sick less, and I have more energy. Oh and I think I have felt little mog move, which is pretty cool. I also spent saturday afternoon with a friend getting my baby registry put together. there is so much stuff in the for babies. Not only like categories of stuff but also multiple types of the same thing. I mean how many different types of pacifiers are there. and then there are cribs, or pack and plays, or moses baskets or bassinets. so many things.

the other fun thing going threw my mind these days is figuring out where the baby will go when it gets here. of course it will probably sleep in our bedroom for a while but after that it is going to take some fun rearguing to make our curent place work for such things.

on the other hand I am starting to be a little insecure about other things that are not exactly in my control. the job hunt is going well and hopefully soon that area of my life with calm down, and things will become more stable. and once things become more stable maybe I will get back to posting about more then just baby stuff.

Baby Update:week 16

so yeah, I'm not so good with these updates, that is probably because I'm not always good at posting on my blog regularly  but each day is new, with no mistakes. at least that is my favorite quote form Anne of Green Gables- at least the movie I can't remember if that was in the book, it's been forever sense I read it.

any way Baby Mog is has now leveled up at the expected rate, he or she is now the size of an Avocato. (seriously who thought up these comparisons.) we were at the doctor's office last week and the heartbeat is nice and fast, 152 actually.

as for me well I'm still getting sick on a fairly regular basis. how dumb is that! I mean I'm in my second trimester, the nausea is suppose to go away right? well not for me. oh and you know what has been making me sick these days? Mexican food, how fair is that? other then that there isn't much going on here. Allergies are still killing me but I am sleeping so it's not that bad.

but that is all for now till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

Advantageous by Jennifer Phang

Advantageous is a Short film that has done very well in different film festivals, so well that director and co-writer Jennifer Phang wants to make it a full length feature. So she is using kickstarter to rase the money she needs to make it happen.

I found out about this kickstarter through twitter and after watching her video on kickstarter and then going to the website to watch the short I am convinced that this needs to happen. If I wasn't currently unemployed I would probably give to this.

Here is the synopsis from thier site:

Gwen is the spokesperson for a radical technology allowing people to overcome their natural disadvantages and begin life anew. But when her job and family are in crisis, will she undergo the procedure herself?

That is just a bief overview of the film. First this movie is a Science fiction dystopia film, and it is about what a mother would go through, what she is willing to do to see that her child has a chance to succeed in a very competitive world. Gwen is a relatable character  she is beautiful, smart, and loves her daughter sacrificially.

Here are the reasons I think a) you should go watch the short film (seriously it is like 25 minuets long) and b) why I think it should become a feature film:

1. I'm also a sucker for a good mother/daughter story. (as can be seen by the fact that I own every season of the Gilmore Girls) it is important for us to think about what sacrifices our mothers made for us to get where we are, what they would do to make our dreams come true. I really don't think there are enough of these stories. In all honesty I don't think there are enough stories about mothers out there period. Moms are important, and to me this film incapsulated the verse: Isaiah 49:15a "Can a Mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?"

2. the film is beautifully made, the music the sets all give the overal feel to the movie that is strain of hope in a world that is out to destroy you. the music is beautiful I would love to have the soundtrack of this film to listen to over and over again. the artwork that the child draws is inspiring. I really can't gush enough or find words to describe how pretty I find this film both in the way it tells the story and in the visuals it uses.

3. Today coming out of hollywood is more and more of the same old same old. the popular movies are reboots of films that succeeded in the past and the companies hope to make money on again. this is a refreshing story that is new and different from everything else.

4. This movie takes a long look at what the future for women might look like and what the future of education might look like. These are to topics that seem to be everywhere right now, (though maybe that is just me). but the are important topics to look at through the eye of a possible future.

5. there is a wonderful line in this movie that I love: "It's good to be humble but you have to know your worth." Something that is so important for all of us to know.

So go take a look at the movie, if you can go to the kick starter page and help make this film a reality  then tell everyone about it.

Till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

I love my WIP, but....

So I talked a long while back about how my current WIP. I love it quite frankly, it has a lot of potential and some fun characters, or at least I think they are fun. I'm not sure anyone else will like them. There are three reasons for this:

One is that one main Female character is a mix between the 'traditional' Disney princess, Fanny Price, and Sansa Stark. Strange mixture, I know and not at all what people say they want to see in a female protagonist. Let's face it most people Prefer Mireda to Snow White, Lizzy to Fanny, and Arya to Sansa. For the most part I agree. it isn't that she is inactive but rather that the dangers are far from physical. For her the danger is navigating a world that plays by it's own set of rules and she doesn't know the rules.

Second there is no big battles, no beheadings, and no demon bears. it's fantasy and the back drop is court life but not necessarily political intrigue. I've been focusing on the relationships in the family.

third the Father is the second protagonist, and there is no love interest. I don't understand why every story has to have some kind of romantic twist. I get it I am a female writer and so that means that there must be some kind of romance but that is not this book this book is focused on the rebuilding of a relationship that was destroyed. Dealing with the wreckage left behind by neglect and abuse, are there going to be inklings of romantic entanglement? sure but they aren't important and let me state here for the record none of them get the girl. (honestly I hope to do something like this is most the books I write, I find the romantic triangle humorously amusing and would love to mess with all their heads by saying, ya'll should have been on team Cossette not team Rupert or Leopold.)

So it's different, If it gets published it will probably be self cause I'm not sure I could ever sell an agent or publisher, I could be wrong on that. Either way it's still my WIP. I like it, I'd love to have other people like it too, but I'm not sure if they will. I'm going to keep working on it till it's done, maybe something else will come out of it. at the very least I will learn something as a writer.

That is my ramblings for the day, Till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

Knitting: It is finished!!!!!!

So like I said a while back I was almost done with with my Velvet Morning Cardigan  well Guess what Last night at Knit night I finished it!!!!!

I am so proud of this piece it is my first Color work cardigan and it turned out so good. any way you can find the pattern at Knitty, and the yarn I used is from Knit Picks but it seems that they have discontinued the line. it's wool of the andies tonal. the color ways are Nevermore (main color) Blue violet tonal (the light blue) Wine tasting (the red) and Thunder head (grey).

in other knitting news I am not doing so well with the baby knitting. I can't seem to find projects I like.

till next time God Speed and Open Roads.

Invida

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H,

Invida waslked through the castel to the great banquet hall. her Skirt Flowed around her movements and her train filled the coridor. The banquet hall was filled with draping fabrics and flowers all in different shades of violet. servants hurried to get everyone but when Invida entered everyone stopped and genuflected. Queen Envida observed the room with a satisfied eye and Clapped her hands. At the sound the room was instantly alive with action.

"your majesty," One of her ladies came up to her. she curtsied. "the prince has become obstinate."
Invidea Smiled as she touched the girl's shoulder, indicating for her to rise, "really and what does he say?"

The lady stood and walked just behind her queen, "He says that he will not marry while he is grieving for the one he loves."

"Hm..." Said the Queen, "Well then I best remind him who is in charge." She went to the prince's room, at the door she were announced and quickly admitted. Prince Charles stood when she entered. he was a young man of barely eighteen.

Your Highness." said Invida, "what is this about you wanting to council your wedding?"

"I don't love Marsella, and I am still morning Cynthia."

"I see." said Invida stepping up to him, "Let me remind out of something. weddings are not about love, they are about alliances, wealth and yes progeny. you will Marry Marcella and never mention Cynthia again. Otherwise I will kill you sister Roselyn."

Charles's face hardened, "You wouldn't dare."

"Oh wouldn't I?" she smiled at his attempt at intimidations, "Look in the mirror."

Charles Turned and saw his sister Gwyn laying on a bench, in a garden.

 "I've already Killed your sweet Gwyneiva what makes you think I wont kill Roselyn as well."
Charles was pale.

"Now," She brushed his banges out of his forehead and kissed it, "get a good night sleep, you have a big day tomorrow." She left him knowing every thing was going according to plan.

ISWSG: June Edition

As an unpublished writer I sometimes feel that it is little more then a pipe dream. Sometimes. I must say that lately I have thought more about how things that are not directly related to being a writer effect my ability to follow that dream. Mostly, my day job, which is really not much of a day jod. I wish it was more then that. it is one of those businesses that some people are able to make work so well, but me? well I have come to the realization that I need a different day job, probably one that requires me to punch a clock on a somewhat regular basis. I know I know how could that be something that can help me get closer to my goal of being a writer? well simply it provides a regular pay check, my current day job doesn't do that, and it doesn't seem to be getting me closer to that goal.

this is almost disappointing because I have always thought that when I have children (which will happen come december) I would be a stay at home mom. but then I, like so many my age, am saddled with student loans. so it is necessary for me to get some kind of day job, preferably one that will not force me to also take on the expense of child care, come December.

So those are my thoughts about my writing insecurities. I believe that I will be published in that nebulas time period of 'soon' not today not tomorrow but soon. till then I find away to continue to live and continue to pursue my dreams.  For more Insecure Writer's Support Group Post head over to Alex's site.

Knitting: LACE!!!!

I love knitting lace. it has been the dominate theme in my knitting lately. here are the two projects I have been working on the most:

Shipwreck Shawl with
Chroma Midwinter

This is some of my birthday yarn, given to me by my mom, this shawl is going to be huge and it is my special mommy knitting project. depending on how much I have to worry about spit-up once the baby comes I hope to use it as a nursing cover.

Japanesse Waves Shawl
yarn is from a tangled Yarn

this is the yarn I got for my self having written 50,000 words during November for nanowrimo. this is my first shawl and is a simpler design  I actually have this pattern memorized and can easily work on it anywhere. which is fun because i love the effect of this color, and there is very little more fun then having someone ask about my fiber art. I have gotten more compliments on this project then any other I have worked on out in public.

there are other projects I am working on. I am almost done with my cardigan  and I have gotten a few baby projects done though not many. I also need to get some more dish cloths made, the ones I was given as a wedding present are starting to wear out.

13 weeks....

So baby Mog is now the size of a peach. He or she just keps getting bigger. I guess that is what they are suposed to do.

Lately I have had bad allergies that have caused me to cough all night long. well that was the last two weeks. I'd have a runny nose, some coughing but nothing too serious till I laid down to go to sleep. then it's all cough cough cough. but with a little prayer and Benadryl everything may be looking up. I did actually sleep last night.

one thing that I this is funny is to watch people's reaction when my husband and I tell them that we aren't finding out what gender the baby is till it comes out. some people can't believe it. some think it is cool others can't understand why we are doing it this way.

we have a name picked out for each gender. (sorry internet world as far as I am concerned the only name I will be using on this blog to refer to my kid is Mog.) we have made the decision about circumcision if it is a boy. (and to keep from listening to people argue about my choice again I will not be sharing it here.) right now we don't room for an nursery so there will be no need to decorate just yet, and if we do it will be something geeky so gender is not important. as for cloths? well before the 1950's it was customary to put girls in blue and boys in pink so conventions don't matter to me. so really I don't see the big deal.

that is all the baby talk I have for today, in other news, I really don't like the Ipad. Till next time God speed and open roads.

Hope Restored

(so remember how I was trying to do that a-z challenge well I'm still writing it cause it is fun and I hope you still enjoy it.)

A B C D E F G

"Cynthia," said a soft voice, "Cynthia, wake up,. There isn't much time."

Cindy Opened her eyes. The fire cracked in the fire place and her small dungeon was full of light. beside her stood a beautiful women dressed in blue, she glittered. "who are you?"

The women smiled, "I'm your fairy God mother."

Cindy pushed herself to a seated position and rubbed away the dried tears. "Why haven't i seen you before?"

"You have." She offered cindy her hand and helped the girl to stand. "After your mother died and your father married that horrible women I had no choice but to disguise myself in the shape of a dove."

"You're the dove? But she..."

The fairy nodded, "And your tears aloud me to take my true form again." She walked around Cindy and shook her head, "Now we've got quite a lot of work to do. we can't have you showing up at the wedding like this."

"what?"

"Prince Charles's wedding tomorrow we are going to crash it." The Fairy said.

"Charles is getting married?" Tears filled cindy's eyes.

"Oh child you weren't told?" The fairy put her hand on the girl's cheek, "Do not despair dear, there is still time to set things right."

Cindy took a deep and wiped her eyes, "Okay, what do we do then?"

the fairy smiled mischievously.

Next I is For Invida 

(My hope is to post a piece of this every friday.  I hope you all still in joy it even if it isn't really Part of the A-Z challenge.)

Review Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon

I love old books. they are so much fun. I love the language and the style everything about them. this book by Jules Verne was particularly fun. I don't know much about Astronomy,  I don't know how it is that we actually put a man on the moon, but I know we didn't put them in a hollow bullet and shoot them out of a cannon. But what i really enjoyed about this book was listening to the arguments about space travel as they were being discussed in the 19th century. I found it completely enjoyable.

However I would not recommend this book to many people. First it is not plot, story, or character driven. It is concept driven. the idea is let's put a man on the moon, and that is what the book is about. there is conflict. Captain Nicholl would like nothing better then to see Barbicane fail. there is suspense  can they actually build a cannon big enough to should a projectile at the moon? But is a almost completely Narrative. there are a few places where the character converse but most of these are in the form of monologue. Mostly Mr. Verne is just going to tell you what happened as it unfolded.

I loved that about this book. I find my self often growing weary of the current trends of modern writers. things that People say you just can't do anymore. a book like this refreshes me, even if it mostly means that my brain has worked a little harder then normal.

So if you like reading books from another era give this one a try. Oh and for fun Check out this old Silent film adaptation. (the book ends about about 6:00 and really look at the man in the moon it is pretty cool)

writer's confession

So lately on Facebook I have been lamenting my lake of studies. by that I mean that I frankly miss school, I miss classes and papers and lectures and research and everything. See 3 years ago I graduated from Asbury Theological Seminary with a Masters in Theological Studies. Before I met and fell in love with my husband I was planning on going off to PhD land (My dream was to go to Notre Dame) study Christian history focusing on the middle ages (about 500 AD to 1517) then I was going to write about church history and teach church history and help students keep from getting lost the vast maze of church history. (I think I said church history too many times.)

while I love writing fiction and that is the main passion of my life, I feel sad that this other passion has wained. or rather been neglected. So I have a confession to make. Do to the wonderfulness that is writers branding I have a second personality on the internet. It is a secret personality that I created so I could have anonymity online a place where I could talk freely about things. well I've decided that I need that personality for something else.

it has become clear to me that though I do love writing fiction I want to write non fiction too. and as much as I would love to have my real name on both of these it will be hard to establish a brand that is both Fantasy writer and theologian. (yes I know C.S. Lewis did it that one that was a different time and publishers are very interested in branding authors these days) So one of them needs a nom de plume. I don't really care if people know that I am writing under two names. Which is why I'm letting people know here that yep I have a second identify. She has her own twitter and her own blog. Hopefully this doesn't cause problems with my credentials being under my real name- or rather my maiden name.

Oh I guess you all want to know who it is? my pen name is Georgianna R. Stricker, the blog is Georgi Writes there isn't much there yet, but I will start posting there on saturdays. maybe only twice a month for starts till I can get the research done and really start doing what I want to do with the site.

any way that is my confession, what are your thoughts on pen names?

as always God speed and open roads