Missed.

I don't want to say that I've made a new year's resolution. For one thing, I'm two weeks late. For another, I never seem to follow through with them.

What I can say is that I have finally gotten around to updating this thing and I feel like total crud about the fact that it's been half a year.

I have missed so many amazing opportunities to write about. The coolest being that I had a short story called Faith In Moonlight published in Conceit Magazine back in July. Yes! I missed telling everybody that. I love that story and I was so pumped about it but I let it slip by. I am so mad at myself for that.

There has also been the ups and downs of life. A new marriage, a dog that passed away, a new job, a search for a new house, a new puppy. And the list goes on.

But I've really missed writing. I think about it all the time. And I always think I should start writing again. Then I say I will start the next day and I don't. Until 6 months has passed by and I haven't written a post. I've been working on the same short story for a year. I've continued to meet with my writing group but monthly meetings have turned into more like bimonthly meetings, if that. And I have tracked my life events in the same ways I always have but even my journal entries and emails to Jenni are fewer than they used to be.

I got sidetracked by life, I guess. And I'm happy now. When my life was miserable, I cranked out the writing without hesitation.

Anyway, 2012 has started well. We continue our search for a new house and head toward completing our first year of marriage. We enjoy our dogs but struggle with the challenges of a puppy and an old dog. I continue to try to find a career that I love and can actually get paid for. So life continues and I will try to write about it more.

2011

If everything goes according to plan 2011 should be an awesome year. I will be getting married and I will be getting a story published in CONCEIT MAGAZINE.

I've been thinking a lot about my future and what I hope for. I won't make any promises or resolutions this year. I do hope to write more and to blog more.
I know the blogging universe is slowly fading. There aren't many people still reading and writing in the blogverse but I still like to blog even if it's just for myself. I haven't kept up on it lately because this blog is about my writing and I haven't written much in a while.

Also, I felt like last year my writing group met less and I had less communication with fellow writers I had worked and talked with. But again, I didn't do much writing so it's just as much my fault as anyone's.

I guess I will see how 2011 goes.

Back to writing group

I know my next post was suppose to be about Faith In The Moonlight and how that story came to be. But it's an in depth story and I just don't have the time to do it justice right now. Today is my only day off of work this week so I've tried to pack in a lot of stuff and unfortunately, a long blog post is not one of those things that made it into the final cut.

However, writing group was one of those things I did manage to fit in. We didn't meet last month due to crazy schedules so it was nice to get back in the swing of things. I brought another scene from Incognito, my former comic book script turned prose.
The last time we met I brought the final scene from my first "arc," which is really about as far as I had gotten in the comic book script besides jotting down a few ideas. So today's piece was all new writing for characters that I had not written original material for in about five years. Very weird to try and pick up where I left off, but having been converting the story from script to prose over the past year did help keep me in touch with the characters.

It was a good meeting. We also touched on the subject of NaNoWriMo, but highlights of that discussion will have to wait for another post.

The Desk

I wanted to write a little bit about the story that I just got the acceptance letter for, “Faith In The Moonlight.”
But before I can write about what inspired the characters I have to give some back story about the amazing guy I am marrying, the awesome family I will gain and one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received.

In the past years I’ve posted repeatedly about the awful gift giving that happens with my family. Also, I’ve posted a few times that my family are not very supportive with my artistic endeavors. So when I started to learn more about my future husband and his family, I was shocked by a lot of things but one of the major ones is gift giving.
They don’t worrying about keeping things even when it comes to gift giving, instead they worry about whether or not you’ll like it. In my family, if I get a crappy t-shirt, my sister is getting a crappy t-shirt too. In his family, they think of something you would like and they get it for you even if cost $5 more than what your sibling is receiving. Also, my family believes if I buy you something for $20 you better buy me something for $20. And don’t even think about a used gift, that’s just ridiculous! And who cares if you even like your gift? It’s the thought that counts.

Anyway, I have mentioned to them a few times that I write, but I don’t get into a lot of detail because I haven’t really been that successful with it. But last fall we moved into our new rental house and the future in-laws noticed that my office was pretty empty. I mentioned that I’d like to get a writing desk. (Yes, I have a computer desk but why I prefer the writing desk is another post itself.)

Three months later future husband and I go to their house to get a Christmas tree and the future in-laws are acting really suspicious but we never figured out why. A few weeks later, on Christmas day, I go to their house and noticed a large mass covered with a sheet
Later that day I was given a chair with a bow and was escorted to the large, sheet covered object. Then I was presented with my Christmas present, a vintage writing desk.
I was floored. It’s a beautiful desk and the thought behind the gift was unreal to me. A gift picked just for me and to encourage me to follow my dreams. I haven’t had a lot of gifts like that and I was amazed!

I would come to find out later that a few months back their neighbor had died and the week we came for the Christmas tree was the week they were having an estate sale at the neighbors house. They went to the sale because they really liked their neighbor and they just wanted something to remember her by. (Apparently, she was quite a spunky gal.) They saw the desk but it was priced more than they could afford. But a few hours before we came for the tree a man pulled into their sales lot and needed to buy a tree. They weren’t open yet so they were going to turn him away, but they are way too nice to ever do that. And this guy started talking about how he was at the estate sale and they had slashed the prices on everything. They ran down the road and got the desk into the house minutes before we got there.
They insisted that luck was on their side when it came to getting that desk and I believe them.

Next post: The inspiration for “Faith In the Moonlight”