Envy

Today I am going to blog about book envy. Everyone has it. You read someone else's work and you think, "Damn, that's good. I wish I would have written that." Or you hear about a new contract and you think, "Damn, I wish I had gotten that deal." Or your look at someone's prolific career and think, "Damn, I wish I could write books so fast."

An awful lot of "Damn, I wish..." going on in that paragraph. Envy is natural and its even beneficial in some ways. When I see someone writing great books, I focus more on my writing. I am competitive, which could be why I have book envy. I am not so much competitive with other authors (I am, quite frankly, too old for that kind of stuff) but competitive with myself. If I had two books published last year, then I want three books published this year and so on and so on.

But life gets in the way. And then I get mad at myself and say, "Is writing blood or fire in my veins?" If it was fire then I should be happy to give up another hour of sleep and write late at night. But I think I average around 6 hours now and I really like to function during the day and for me, it requires around-hey imagine that?-6 hours of sleep a night. But I am tired of making excuses for myself as well. Everyone has deaths in the family, everyone moves, everyone has kids. That doesn't make me special. It makes me a big whiner baby.

Excuse me-my computer is being confiscated by a demanding 5 year old who wants to play Go Diego Go. I'll write more later...

I'm Buffy-licious

Remember waaaaaayyyy back when, when I told you all that my publisher took an ad out in Buffy magazine for Braced2Bite? And then the magazine dropped the ball and didn't feature my ad in the June/July edition of Buffy? Well, they redeemed themselves and my book is featured in the Aug/Sept issue of Buffy. They even made it a half page ad, instead of a quarter page ad. You'll find my ad on page 45. Check it out!

Meet Lacey

I added a new writer to my sidebar. Be sure to wander over to Lacey Kaye and check out her musings about writing. Chick is insightful and makes me think, which is good because I have been a little brain dead lately.

I am spending the weekend "in the zone". That is to say I will be writing the entire weekend. I doubt I am alone in this but the best way to write a book (imho) is to delve into the story completely for days. No interruptions. I become one with the story and I get a sort of 'writer's high'. I would compare it to 'runner's high' but since I don't run I can only guess that they are similar.

So, head over to visit Ms. Lacey while I disappear into my story. Go ahead, she doesn't bite. But if it aided to her networking, she would do it. hehe.

Sokka Khan

I thought I would post a picture of my newest family edition. Meet Sokka Khan Robar. What's up with the name? Well, my oldest son (who is 5) named him Sokka after a character on Avatar: The Last Airbender and I, being the freak that I am, managed to add a middle name when I was calling him because his name reminded me of the 80's hit called "Chakka Khan" sung by the same person. So, I sing Sokka Khan to him when its time to go outside and he gets very excited. Of course, my new neighbors think I am crazy. But that's okay. 'Cause, well, you know....

Size does matter

This is a view of our living area from the kitchen. That's it folks. No hidden rooms or 'round the corner living room. What you see is what you get.

333 is half of hell (666)

So I moved the family into temporary housing. Its small. When I say small, let me give you an idea of how small we are talking about here. The new apartment is exactly 1/4 the size of my last house. And the apartment is on three floors. So all the living is done on 1/3 of 1/4 of my old house. That is 333 square feet. You do the math. And after you figure it out and gasp in HORROR that I am surviving in such small space, note that the apartment has NO air conditioning and my office has been reduced to my desktop in the corner of the miniscule kitchen. Which is where I must finish my latest book.

The laptop fairy (Aka my husband) took pity on my and bought me a Mac laptop. I have to confess, I already have a regular PC laptop but I wanted a Mac because A) I haven't used one since high school B) its so lightweight and C) I don't want to be tempted with internet so my Mac is not set up to surf the web.

I am going to try writing at our local coffee shop (no, it's not a Starbucks, gasp) and did NOT want to be tempted to procrastinate by checking email and surfing the web. Cause I will do that. Sadly, I have no self control that way.

Or I will write by the pool. The apartment has a pool and I have taken the family down there twice a day to escape the hot days. They love it here. They think we are on some really cool vacation. I think I am in hell. Hence the title of my entry. Half of 666 is the amount of living space I am sharing with 3 kids, a dog and my husband-who is compelled to spend more and more time at the office because its A) air conditioned and B) larger than the living space we are currently inhabiting.

New house is 3 weeks past last move in target of October 1st and my comedian mother joked that she needed my apartment address because she may need to send my Christmas card there. SO NOT FUNNY MOM.

At least I managed to input copyedits into Fangs and send it to my agent's foreign rights department. Who knows? Maybe Fangs will come out in French or something. How funny would that cover be?

Back again back again jiggety jig

Back from Nationals and ready to take on the world. But first I must pack up the house and move the family to a furnished apartment while we wait for out house to finish. So, I won't be blogging for the next two weeks. So sorry. When I can, I will post pictures of Nationals. Until then, go pick up Braced2Bite if you haven't already. Thanks!
-Serena