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Critical Reading

Reading isn’t quite the same, purely enjoyable experience any more. Heck, even watching movies with DH isn’t. I find I can’t just sit there and passively let the story wash over me. We were watching Akeelah and the Bee when DH turned to me and says, “This is a great study in how to effectively…

Comfort Zones

Yesterday’s Thursday Thirteen scraped against the edges of a few people’s comfort zones. Many commenters noted how they could never do any of them or how they would never attempt certain ones. A couple of the items were declared dangerous! Yes, impulsive behavior can lead to dangerous consequences, which is why I said I didn’t…

Thursday Thirteen: Impulsive Romantic Gestures

Ok. I give in. It’s all the Divas’ fault! Please Note: I don’t endorse rushing out and doing any of these things! Use your own best judgement!   Thirteen Impulsive Romantic Gestures 1. Kiss a stranger on the street. 2. Marry a stranger. 3. Go on a blind date, no questions asked. 4. Decide you…

Handling Tension

Once you start to study something, it’s amazing how you see the connections and draw insights everywhere. This morning while I was surfing, looking for an image, with no real topic in mind for this post, I found some awesome pictures of springs. I dug around a little deeper in the Flickr pools and found…

Schedules & Routines

I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve consistently written a thousand word or so journal entry nearly every day since the end of June. When the kids went back to school, I felt a real disruption in my daily routine. Instead of sitting down and writing first thing, I now get the kids up,…

Food Porn or Romance?

I’m an avid reader of Slashfood and am highly amused by their food porn category. DH and I are suckers for any Gordon Ramsay show on tv (Kitchen Nightmares, Hell’s Kitchen or The F-Word). I used to watch a lot of the Food Network back when they were promoting how to cook food instead of…

Building Tension

On the Romance Divas‘ forum, one of the gals, Jasmine Rowe, has been sharing some of what she calls on her blog, Jasmine’s Grotto, “Opinions, Advice and Writing Wisdom Pearls”. I love her post on Conflict, How To Get Some – The Gap. Definitely a pearl of wisdom. The idea is to take expectations and…

Brainstorm: Conflict

I’ve been looking for ways to add small brainstorming sessions into my day as I wait. With two kids, I do a lot of waiting. Yesterday, I managed to do my journal entry while I was waiting for DH’s car to be lubed. Yesterday, while waiting to get the kids from school, I sat at…

Inspiration & Birthdays!

Don’t you wish you could see the actual moment when the lightbulb metaphorically clicks on over your head? Me too. Then there would be physical evidence you could point to and exclaim, “Aha!” You’d instantly know the feeling and be able to better recognize it the next time inspiration struck and be ready to capitalize…

Braids: Pulling it all together

Sometimes I think I’ve bitten off more than I can comfortably chew. The biggest problem I’m facing with my romance novel is deciding how to structure it so it’s interesting and makes sense. Romance novels don’t contain just one story line (or at least the interesting ones *I* like don’t). The romance is the over-arcing…