Self affirmation and the power of words.

Wednesday my DD and I went to Karate. Instead of a regular class we sparred with the instructor. It was interesting and I learned alot. I have a hard time facing a guy in a fighting situation. It freaks me out a little. My DD did really well in the spar situation but she kept thinking and telling herself that she didn't do well. Which brings me to the post subject.

I will admit I am biased but I think my daughter is drop dead beautiful. She is smart and skilled, she is a great violin player and gets straight A's in school. However, like most teenage girls in the face of what the media tells them is cool and right, she has some self image problems. She thinks she is not skinny and dumb and other things like that. Well as her mother I want her to have a positive self image and we talked about what we think of ourselves and other things like that. I asked her to tell her self a few things every day telling her if she repeated them enough she would begin to believe them.

This is her list:
I am smart
I am strong
I am healthy
I am beautiful
I am loved

I have asked her to repeat these things every day. I want her to love herself and be happy. Because even if she doesn't believe it right now, she is smart, strong, beautiful, healthy, and loved.

We as adults need to tell ourselves positive affirmations too. It isn't just for teens. My affirmation is "I will be published." But, you guessed that one didn't you. . .

6 of 6 tag. . .

I've been tagged by Tristi. I am supposed to show you the sixth picture of my sixth folder in my photos. So here it is. This photo was taken by my hubby when he was in the mountains for work. It is the picture on the first page of my website. Enjoy. PS Notice the tiny little bug on the middle flower? (Photo copywrited by V. Jefferies)

As for the people I am tagging, I choose Katie Jefferies, Rebecca Miller, Paulette Inman.

And I Bid You Adieu. . . . RIP Printer.

No not me, my readers, or my writing career. Actually that is going really well. But MY PRINTER, again. This is the third HP printer in four years that I have killed. I've posted about it before. I am hard on printers. I am one of those people who can't really edit on the computer screen. I have to have the hard copy in my hands. I am also paranoid that something might happen to my computer so I print off what I write. Last night we had to go to Wal Mart to get a new vacuume so I grabbed a printer too. My dear husband (love you!)didn't bat an eye when I said I needed a new one. So here's to a new printer and the hopes that this might be the one that prints the "publishable" manuscript.

I have created a monster. . .

Authors note. . . I am at post 191. I'll have to do something next month to celebrate 200 posts.

As I sit in the darkened lab, I mean office, and concoct, I mean write, my books I have done something dastardly wrong.

I have created a monster.

I took an old story and twisted it into something new and exciting. Something my readers are saying they can't finish because it pulls too much emotional response if they are living a stressful life. OR they think they know what's going to happen and don't want to know if they are right. OR they call me screaming and panting and tell me I'm an idiot for putting a paragraph of exposition in the middle of an action scene.

Emergence IS the best thing I have ever written. My readers confirm what I see myself. Emergence might be THAT book that gets me published. It is fast paced, full of action scenes, interesting characters, a deep and conflicted main character, and a plot that rocks thanks to my friend Paulette.

I have created a monster. Why you ask? Because now everything after this must be as good or people won't like the rest of the books in the series. Talk about setting a high standard for myself.

Well, I think I'll just go down to my lab, I mean office, and concoct, I mean write another story as good as emergence. Hopefully.

Acomplishment

It is done!!!! After months of typing and several headaches and sleepless nights Latent the second book in the series I am writing is finished. As it stands it is 70,546 words and 249 pages. (Emergence is 72,102 words and 244 pages.) I am one happy girl!!!!!! I added about 50,000 words this month!!
All I can say is GO MICHELLE!

Acceptance and sorrow.

I knew it. Right on time. I begin another writing challenge and the adversary has blown me out of the water again. No, this time my family is intact. But my book leaves something to be desired. I knew that when I began Emergence that Latent was going to be a bear to write, and true to form it has. The problem with Latent is while some of it is vastly different some of it has remained the same with very little change. Writing that mixture of change and same is difficult.

As it stands I have had to accept that Noble my MC is no longer an Agent and this changes EVERYTHING. All of Noble's adventures were based on the fact that he was an agent and now none of that is relevant. Granted the opposition he faces in books #3-#7 from becoming a good guy is enough material for me to RE-WRITE everything. But there is so little opposition in book #2 that I am feeling if I force it that it will look like I forced it. I have an antagonist and he does some pretty good damage in #2 but he isn't around every chapter and when even the writer looks at the page and thinks it is boring it probably is. I also have scenes that HAVE to happen in this book that I worry aren't the same level of book that Emergence is.

Second I have a cool character with his own book that I added into the series because I wanted the MC's to meet but in the new rewrite I can't seem to add him in without seeming again like I forced it. His story stands on its own and I'm not worried that he will disappear but I am saddened that I might not be able to add Foxproof in as Book #4.

I know everything will work out. It always does, but in the meantime I will feel a bit of sorrow at the situation presented to me.