Hellos and Happy Holidays from a writer turned photographer!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and all that jazz! How are you all doing? I wish I could say all these months that I have been hiding out were spent in the depth of a fabulous new novel...but sadly, I have not been anywhere near either of my manuscripts or a new one for that matter! Maybe the real reason behind the name of this blog was not after the intended trilogy The Forever Series, but after howe long it was actually going to take me to finish it! :)

I somehow found myself with 4 jobs! Yes count them FOUR!!!! YIKES! Plus add the 2 kiddos into the mix and I was crazy busy! I have got it down to just 2 now, so lucky for me I now have a moment (however brief it may be) to say a quick hello and update you on a new and exciting twist my life has taken!

Some of you may know that I have spent the last 17 years working for a wonderful couple at a photography studio. They have decided to retire to Mexico (SO JEALOUS!) and they have very kindly, pretty much handed me the business. So it appears that I am suddenly a professional photographer, with a very well-known photography studio! I am so excited (and petrified!) I have started with a few senior portraits this year, but as the weather turns cold and rainy (or rainier here in Oregon) it will most likely be put on hold until the spring, but I look forward to starting the next year of seniors and hopefully by then I will have found the perfect location!

Wish me luck! As I wish you luck and love on all your endevours next year, whether they be in writing or not!

Old and new and a hello to you!

Hello all of my lovely ladies! How is everyone? I have been too long gone from my blog and I feel like I am missing all my friends! :) I have nothing important to talk about, just wanted to catch up!

I have taken a break from Chasing Forever. I'm not feeling it anymore. I feel like it's not where I want it to be and I'm not sure how to get it there. So, I have done nothing. Nada. Zero. I have been reading up a storm though! Wowzers! I have finished 3 books recently and am halfway through the 4th. They were all good so let me know if you are in need of reading material!! I haven't updated my reading list on here, I will soon!

Good news though, last night in the middle of reading, I was hit with a story idea. It was totally random, and I just started writing away...and away...and away, but I literally mean "writing" the hubby was hogging my laptop and I had to actually use a pen and paper! EEK! My hand was cramping so bad! Anyhow, I'm really excited about it and it just flowed, it was so great. I have no plan, no outline, but once it got going it was just coming out! LOVE those moments and I can hardly wait to see where this one goes, now having learned so much more than I knew when I started Chasing, maybe there is hope! Can't wait to share some of it with you!!

See you all real soon ;) (In cyperspace) MUAH!

Girlie Wisdom!

1 A friend of mine confused her Valium with her birth control pills... she has 14 kids but she doesn't really care..

2. One of life's mysteries is how a 2-pound box of chocolates can make a woman gain 5 lbs.

3. My mind not only wanders, it sometimes leaves completely.

4. The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes.

5. The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don't know what you are doing, someone else does.

6. The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat are really good friends

7. Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today...

8 Sometimes I think I understand everything, and then I regain consciousness.

9. I gave up jogging for my health when my thighs kept rubbing together and setting fire to my panties.

10. Amazing! You hang something in your closet, for a while, and it shrinks 2 sizes!

11. Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like...'You know sometimes I forget to eat!'.....Now, I've forgotten my address, my mother's maiden name, and my keys, but I have never forgotten to eat. You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat!

12. The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing -- and then they marry him.

13. I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are eating too much, impulse buying, and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That's my idea of a perfect day!

Being a mother...

Well, I've finally come to the conclusion that I will not be winning a Mother of the Year Award. It's a hard thing to come to terms with, but I'm sure I'll manange because I may be scatterbrained and impatient, but my kids are happy and healthy (Not to mention BEAUTIFUL).

So, there may be days I sit at the computer all day and never even take a shower, but they are always fed and cared for. So there may be times I lose my temper and scream things I really probably shouldn't, but they are, for the most part, not wild and crazy, disorderly heathens. And there may, possibly be one single day out of my kids whole life where I forgot to pick one of them up from the bus stop, but she has recovered though I have not.

Yes, I may not spend every second playing with them and I may let one of them play on the Wii far longer than he should. I don't do crafts and make smiley faces out of fruit for their snack, or take them to play group every week or even the park when it's finally sunny out. But does that make me a bad parent? No I suppose not, but I may never reach that Mother of the Year status.

Oh, well, they love me and I love them more than life its self! There's nothing more I could ask for!

What's your worst parenting moment or habit? Do tell...

Getting to know all about you...

I see that I am becoming quite popular...11 followers!!!! YAHOO! I couldn't be more excited (ok, maybe I could be a little more excited if I had more) but the point is, I really don't know some of you and I would really like to!!!

Ok, I do know pretty much everything about my beloved sister, Crystal and my best friend for pretty much my whole life, Wendy, but for the other 9 of you, I would love to get to know you.

Comment me and let me know a little about yourself. Where are you from? Why do you write? What do you do when you aren't writing? What do you do for a real job? Do you have kids? What's your sign ;)? How did you hear about my teeny, tiny little blog? Anything you want to share, I would love to know you!!!

Can't wait to hear from you all ( All 9 of you :) )

Reading...

So I have been a major reading kick. I am obsessed with all YA paranormal, thank goodness for Borders rewards or I would be broke!! Ok, well maybe I am anyway, but whatever, I have a ton of new books and can't seem to stop reading.

So I started a series, I will not mention the name here. It was a fairly decent book, enough to keep me reading, but about halfway through the author uncovers a secret about the female MC that I did not see coming, there were no hints, no leading up to it, no nothing and frankly, it almost ruined the whole thing for me.

I had a mental picture of her during the first half, and it was all blown to heck when this secret came out. I don't like that!!! It makes me feel different about the character that I have come to know and feel for. And maybe the author was trying to make you feel how the male MC would have felt at that moment, but darn it, I just didn't like it!!!

How do you feel about sudden plot twists that change everything you knew about the main character?

Author Maggie Stiefvater

I have recently discovered the world of Maggie Stiefvater. I laughed, I cried, I loved. Shiver was an absolutly wonderful story of a girl, Grace who falls in love with Sam, a boy that leads a double life. In the winter he is wolf, and summer he is human. But he struggles to stay human to be with Grace.

*Sigh*

It was love at first paragraph for me. I immediatly ordered her 2 previous book about fairies, Lament and Ballad and am impatiently waiting for them to arrive at my doorstep.

She has a contest to receive the newest of the wolves of Mercy Falls-Linger, before you can buy it!(and frankly, I'm dying to read it-July is a long ways away. I don't do well with patience)



In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other.  Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack.  And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.

Enter to win an advanced review copies of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie's blog.