IWSG: Don't Stop Believing

The first Wednesday of every month is Insecure Writers Support Group Be sure to stop by and lend your support to the other writers participating!

I decided to go back to Book #1 for yet another rewrite. I am plagued with the idea that maybe I'm wasting my time.

I finished a book I love a couple months ago. I wrote it with such ease and I love the finished product. It needs some work, of course, but overall, I feel like it was a huge victory for me. It was the first NEW book I wrote in years, and it felt liberating and amazing.

Why, then, would I go back to the book I've been writing for upwards of 8 years, on and off? The book that has caused me so much stress and anger and frustration and pain? The book that has seen at least 10 different rewrites and is STILL not all it could be?

It's a waste of time, right?

But the thing is...I can't give up on it. With my newest book, I learned things about myself. I learned to be a better writer, a more confident writer. I believe I can finally give the characters in that first book the story they deserve. And, in the words of the incomparable Journey, "Don't Stop Believing."

So, back to the drawing board, I go.

Will this be the time that I finally get it right?

What about you? Have you ever worked on the same project for years and years? How did it turn out? Do you ever feel like you should just give it up?



The Strangest Thing (Or, What I Bought at the Bookstore)

I got a gift card for Christmas. Fifty big ones to spend at a local book store - my favorite kind of gift to receive. I finally made the trip on Tuesday to use it, and I found myself scooping up titles that, this time last year, I never would have considered. I love to read all kinds of books, but my fallback has always been Romance. I fell in love with this genre years and years ago, and I still love it today. But Tuesday, I only bought one romance. This one:
Believe It Or Not by Tawna Fenske

I LOVED Tawna's first novel, Making Waves, so I HAD to buy her next. I can't wait to dive in! Other than that, all my other purchases were from the Young Adult/Teen Fiction section:









 Like I said, these are very strange purchases for me. I steered away from this type of book when I was a teen, and, well, pretty much always. Until The Hunger Games. Now, I'm curious. Now, I'm excited. Now, I just may be in love. This most certainly doesn't mean I'm going to join the ranks of Young Adult writers out there. No, I'm still madly in love with the Romance genre and I simply MUST write it. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy other genres, right? 

  So, what about you? Have your reading habits changed? Your writing? Have you read any of these books? Do you have any recommendations?













Happiness is...

I woke up in a pretty good mood this morning. I'm not sure why. Yesterday wasn't the greatest of days. Maybe it was the wedding I went to on Sunday. My cousin got married in her backyard, and the moment she started down the "aisle" it started to rain. Regardless, she and the groom were so happy to be getting married they had smiles on their faces. They rushed the ceremony because they were the only ones under a tarp and the rest of us were getting soaked, but they were in such good spirits that my heart filled with happiness. I'm really happy for her. And it did my heart good to see that love like that can exist in this world and not just in books.

Anyway, I don't have much time -- or much patience, for that matter. I've got a cat attacking my fingers and chewing on my ring as I type. So this post is going to be quick. I just wanted to capture my good mood by listing a few things that make me happy.

1. A real, live copy of MY book!

2. Jewel (particularly at the moment, Ten by Jewel)

3. Friends reruns

4. Driving (turns out I really like to drive -- who would've guessed it?)
5. The feeling of a nice pen across a sheet of paper.
6. My dog

7. My cat

8. Audrey Hepburn movies

9. The beach. Or any body of water in general.

10. Flowers from Dana for finishing yet another draft of my book




2010 Reading List

I was browsing the web this morning as a way to procrastinate from my writerly duties when I came across this, which may or may not be a good idea for me. Not only would it force me to read, but it would force me to write. And although it would just be a review of the book I just read, writing is writing and, let's face it, I need all the help I can get. So, after going through the books on my long-abandoned shelf, I've compiled a list that I want to read this year. Although I'm already nearly two months behind, I'm still gonna give it a shot. So, without further ado (because I just know everyone's on the edge of their seat waiting), here's my reading list for 2010:

1. Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner
2. Paint It Black by Janet Fitch
3. Atonement by Ian McEwan
4. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
5. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
6. Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
7. The History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
8. Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
9. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
10. Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult
11. Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
12. The Last Time We Met by Anita Shreve

These are all the books I've purchased over the last year or so that I haven't gotten around to reading. They taunt me from their places on my shelves. Along with about two dozen more. There are, of course, easier reads among them that I want to get to this year, but I figured if I included them, I wouldn't get to the others. I'm an avid romance/chick-lit fan and would love to simply fill my list with them, but I'm determined to expand my reading horizons. Should I make it through this list, I would also like to read these:

13. Faking It by Jennifer Crusie
14. Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie
15. Good Grief by Lolly Winston
16. Talk Nerdy to Me by Vicki Lewis Thompson
17. Skin Tight by Susan Andersen
18. Baby, I'm Yours by Susan Andersen
19. My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson
20. Doing Good by Pamela Morsi

There used to be a time when reading twenty books in a year would have been easy. Heck, forty books would have been easy. But somewhere down the line, I got lazy. I'm reading less, writing less and becoming less intelligent by the day. It's a travesty. This is the year, though. This is the year that I pull myself back together and immerse myself in words. Just like I used to.

...as soon as I finish the Carly Phillips novel I'm about half through.

Edit to add: I haven't been ignoring the comments on my posts intentionally -- I didn't know they were there. I think I've figured out how to be notified when I get a comment, so I won't ignore you guys anymore. I'm sorry!