ROWmodels: The Lessons Learned From You
Hello ROWers and Readers! It’s December 5th and this round of ROW80 is wrapping up (pun intended) this holiday season! And I am sooo impressed with the hard work you all have done!
I think there are several of you deserving of a round of applause, so let me introduce this week’s…
ROWmodels!
Kat Morrisey had me giggling with delight at her very upbeat post about completing NaNoWriMo – I Didn’t Win the Lottery, But I Did Something Better! That girl is a dancing fiend now that she’s finished her novel draft! And she’s inspired me to create some new goals for myself this ROW round. Thanks, Kat!
Nicole Nally is another NaNo winner! She completed her novel draft and is anticipating the edit process. I’m excited for her and the thrill of completing such a powerful word goal! Go rock those edits and keep us posted, girl!
I hope all of you have come to know Ryan King because he has been a fabulous ROW Sponsor! Seriously! This guy has been leaving many comments of support and I know how much a kind comment means to me on my posts, and Ryan leaves aplenty! Kudos to you, Sir, on your successes with writing projects and weight maintenance during the holiday season. I am envious.
Ruth Nestvold’s post about her plights and processes as an indie author is post you CANNOT miss! She’s got some interesting info out there about our industry, what she’s tried, what’s she trying, and shares the successes she’s achieved along the journey. I found this post particularly interesting and really appreciated her sharing. Thank you, Ruth!
My ROW Goals this week:
Inspired by many of you, but knowing I’m COMPLETELY strapped for time, I’m making my end goals very manageable. I hope.
- Clean my desk. Find the wood underneath it.
- Clean my room. Find the carpet underneath it. 🙂
- Finish reading The Language of Flowers, On Writing, Football Sweetheart, and Geek Love this month.
- Journal at least twice a week.
A Couple Announcements:
Long overdue is the announcement of the comment/twitter winner of a free copy of Come Sunrise, reggae album by TUGG. Thanks to all who left comments and tweeted for my musical guests !
The winner is Jenny Hansen!!!
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And it’s another edition of the Holiday Yum blog fest today featuring Natalie Hartford’s French Lace Cookies! What are you waiting for?!
Announcing the 2013 TBR Pile Challenge and other ROW News
(amazon.com)
Hey ROW80 friends! I hope all of you enjoyed your Thanksgiving! Mine was short but sweet since my parents came up for the holiday and spent it with my honey’s family. Everyone hit it off splendidly and I was happy to have a bit of home before starting my midnight shift for Black Friday. I did an 11 hour shift that day and worked through the weekend, which equaled about 7 days in a row. Today was my first day off, and I admit it, I didn’t write on my novel. I had a Downton Abbey marathon. It felt good to be a bum for a day. Real good.
But…exciting things are happening!
ROWmodel Awards are back!
ROWmodel of the week goes to Jessica Fritsche and her post, Know When To Fold Em. After struggling with her WIP finding hole after hole, she set it aside to go back to a different project and is a busy writer bee using this new project for her NaNo novel. She cracked out 4,000 words in one day and sounds like she’ll keep going strong! Go Jessica, we’re all rooting for you!
Honorary ROWmodel of the week also goes to Myndi Shafer for Making It Happen: Work How You Can, When You Can. You’ll never guess where Myndi sometimes goes to get her writing done. This girl’s got gumption; and she’s using it to make her dreams come true!
The 2013 TBR Pile Challenge has kicked off!
So exciting!!!! Adam at Roof Beam Reader has launched the 2013 To Be Read Pile Challenge! Haven’t participated before? You must! I love it! The challenge, should you choose to accept it, involves picking 10 books (plus 2 alternates) off your bookshelf that have been sitting there for at least a year. Books with a publication date of 12/31/11 or before all qualify. You have the course of 2013 to read your 10 books and link back a review of the book along the way. Complete the challenge and you could win a $50 Amazon gift card! I’m working on my book list now!
What titles would be on your list?
A Reggae CD Giveaway!
Looking for some new jams? I’m hosting a music giveaway with Wisconsin Reggae band, TUGG, for a FREE copy of their full cd, Come Sunrise. All you need to do to enter is comment or tweet one of the interview posts I did with the lead singer, Andrew Hughes. Part 1 is about the changing music industry and Part 2 is about social media and the music business. Chime in! We’d love to hear your voice!
Last, but not least, The Redhots are back!
Tune in this Friday for another FIERY edition of The Redhots! Marcia Richards and I are back introducing you to two REDHOT ladies you’ll want to know on Twitter! Want a hint for who it’ll be?
- The first is going to tell you how to feng shui your house!
- And the other is the founder of the largest book club in the world!
Two Redheads. Two Opinions. Keeping it REDHOT.
Share with me, my pretties! How was your holiday? How is ROW80 going? What books are on your TBR list? Could you use a new reggae cd? And who do you think our Twitter guests will be?
I Was Thinking of Throwing a Pity Party, But What Would I Wear?
Ever feel like the only days you have are ones where your relationship’s rocky, everyone at work takes you for granted, and no matter how you style it, the hair you’re trying to grow out is going to look like a mullet for awhile?
That’s how I’ve been feeling this month. And I hate it.
When I started this writing journey 2 years ago, it was the hardest thing I’d done in a long time. I hadn’t written anything in so long, writing a book seemed like climbing Mount Everest. And the disappointing thing is…I’m still on Everest. The reality of it is: I’ve made bad decisions.
image courtesy flickr CC – Mrs. Inman
The hardest piece of being a writer I’m still struggling with learning is what Writer Social Media Jedi, Kristen Lamb, describes as this rule:
Feelings lie.
If I come home exhausted from work, I don’t write. If I planned on journaling or blogging, but my honey wants to hang out, I don’t write. If my sides hurt because I’ve done a triple back flip, ribbon dance and glow stick original performance just to get into my “cute butt jeans,” then I may not write…because physically sitting down in those pants is painful, and they don’t allow me to eat chocolate.
What have I been doing all this time?
My biggest dream in the world and it’s the first thing I’m always giving up.
I think I’ve officially hit my rut. I’m four years past graduation. The “I’m an adult” now highs of a salaried job and better clothes are starting to wear off. When I think of my future, I see this:
image courtesty Flickr CC – Mrs. Inman
Whatcha think of this look? Is it the right dress for my party?
Don’t get me wrong, there are things I’m thankful for everyday. I’m thankful I have a job. I’m thankful for my family and my honey’s family who are supportive and loving and who always make me laugh.
I am also so grateful to this blogging community who’s come along with me on this raggle-taggle journey.
You guys are amazing! And I whole-heartedly call many, many of you dear friends!
My biggest problem is that I’m still wishing more than I’m doing. And facing that reality is one of the worst self truths I’ve had to come to terms with. I’m going to blame Walt Disney. Thanks a heap, Walt, for making Ariel the only other redhead I knew!
When I become a real writer, I’m going to wear THIS!
image courtesy flickr CC – Mrs. Inman
I wanna be where the writers are…I wanna see, wanna see ’em scribbling!
I’m taking the week off from highlighting ROWmodels in an attempt to whip my own goal list into shape. Wish me luck, everyone! Tell me your success stories! What helped you transition to more writing time?
The Incredible ROWmodel Mash-up
It’s another phenomenal week of ROW80 ROWmodels! These ladies are making me ROW with envy! What a talented and genuine group of ROWers we have!
Suzan Butler is a writer All Star! Have you been keeping tabs on this lady? Wow! She’s really got some writer stats I’m envious of. She’s got a holiday book coming out, is participating in NaNoWriMo, working on a cover for a client, blogging consistently, and budgeting just right. She even got her first publishing check! Woohoo!!! I highly commend Suzan for her commitments and follow through on her goals. If any of you are looking for ideas to kick start your ROW goals, I think Suzan’s set up is a phenomenal example of how to do so!
Carrie-Anne Brownian shared a topic I’m sure many of you feel strongly about in her ROW80 update. She faltered on whether or not to set a story aside when she was struggling with where to go with it. I had this similar concern some time ago when I was trying to make a story work, and I thought the time away was helpful to get new perspective and energy around it. But what are your suggestions? What have you tried and what’s worked well?
Other writing struggles relayed to us from New To Writing Girl in NaNoWriMo 2012 – The First Few Days. Writing Girl got to thinking about her book’s opening line. She had always been a no editing while writing writer, and now NaNo’s got her tongue! What writing struggles are you dealing with? What are your tips for opening up your novel? Do you find that after you start writing, you end up moving the start somewhere different than you first thought?
Deniz Bevan links us to a really interesting challenge for this time of year called the 100 Things Challenge. Have you heard of this? Really interesting idea for any ROWers and readers who are looking for ways to cut back or re-organize their lives. I will definitely be implementing this somehow. My room needs an overhaul! Plus she shares her latest book picks of the new and old Sherlock Holmes stories!
I’ve got book and word count envy of Em at Loves to Read, Wants to Write for her AH-Mazing results in both categories! She’s on book 73 of her 100 book challenge this year, which I think is incredible and I DEMAND that she share with us her favorite titles for a recommendation! 😀 And her NaNo word counts are totaling up to 6, 670 as of Sunday. Go, Em, Go!
Congrats to all our ROWers! You’re some successful, talented peeps! Thanks for letting me toot your horn!
Image courtesy Creative Commons – Mrs. Inman
And now a little update on my ROW80 goals:
- Books for November: Olive Kitteridge (must be read by next Tuesday for bookclub) and Football Sweetheart.
- Set up two future interviews for the blog! One that I’ll be doing and one I’m hosting! Done! Stay tuned!
- Participated in the WANA International class Good Fences, so I’ll be practicing my new buzzword “Boundaries” Sing it with me! Too many get togethers recently, this hasn’t happened. Keeping it on the list for next week.
- Use my days off to blog ahead and/or (as time permits) plot and work on the WIP. That’s the plan for today!
- Clean my room. I organized more of my clothing piles and did laundry again. Still no sign of the missing pants, but I took 2 pairs in to get hemmed, so I guess I’m good now.
What are you most proud of this past week? Who else do you think should make an appearance as a ROWmodel? What’s the best goal you’ve set for yourself this season of ROW?
Happy Halloween! Meet this week’s ROWmodels!
Hello fellow ROWers and Writers!
I’ve got some exciting ROWmodels to showcase this week!
Kicking things up Charleston-style, is the lovely and talented Julie Glover who shares with us The Roaring Twenties and #ROW80. There’s a fabulous photo of Julie and her hubby getting ready for a 20’s themed party, which is my favorite period of history. And she shared with us some awesome hit films and books of the 20’s! But the reason Julie is truly awesome, and a ROWmodel this week, is her stellar dedication to her goals and follow through! Julie has been working on her novel, blogging consistently, even did some plotting work on a new project, and has been working out zumba style! Way to go, Julie! You’re my idol!
Also on this week’s ROWmodels Hall of Fame is Jeff Clough with There’s No Such Thing as Free Time. Jeff tells it like it is when it comes to the many hats a writer has to wear nowadays to be successful. There’s the actual writing cap, but what about all the work you do researching, editing, marketing, coding, designing, etc. We’re busy people! While he wasn’t working on as much writing this week, he made some headway on his reading goals and will have some web changes to look forward to so keep your eyes peeled!
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair…
Happy Halloween Everyone!
I hope we’re all getting to celebrate by dressing up, trick or treating, or handing out candy today! I’ll be in costume at work most of the day, but plan on watching scary movies all night tonight!
What’s your favorite scary movie?
In Honor of Halloween, Marcia Richards and I are announcing the winners of the Halloween Contest today!
Thank you to all those who submitted photos, commented, tweeted, and Facebooked the contest love! Marcia, Fabio, and I had so much fun with you all!
The Five Winners of the Kindlegraphed copies of Fabio Bueno’s new release, Wicked Sense are:
- Gene Lempp
- Rhonda Hopkins
- Natalie Hartford
- Diana Murdock
- Julie Glover (who submitted the winning photo of Halloween decorations “Ghost in the Attic”)
Ghost in the Attic by Julie Glover
And the Grand Prize Winner of the Print Edition of Wicked Sense and Halloween Goody Bag is…
Isn’t she pretty?
Another beer, Frauline?
She takes winning seriously! Very seriously.
Congrats, Renee! Well deserved!
Thanks everyone for playing and to all the winners, enjoy Fabio’s new book! Marcia and I certainly did!
Last but not least, my ROW goals:
- Finished reading Wicked Sense and Little Bee this week. Started reading Olive Kitteridge and Football Sweetheart.
- Set up two future interviews for the blog! One that I’ll be doing and one I’m hosting!
- Participated in the WANA International class Good Fences, so I’ll be practicing my new buzzword “Boundaries” Sing it with me!
- Use my days off to blog ahead and/or (as time permits) plot and work on the WIP.
- Clean my room. The search for the missing pants continues!
Have a very happy Halloween Everyone!
Jess Witkins' Happiness Project 