Counting Your...

Blessings?

I'm one of those super grateful people:

• Grateful for my incredible family.
• Grateful for all the people in my life--especially the ones who overlook my brainless moments and love me anyway. 
• Grateful for an amazing editor. 
• Grateful for the opportunity to share my writing with the world. 
• Grateful for a life so full and complete, I have no room to complain. Ever. 
• Grateful for my almost complete blog tour and everyone who has kindly helped out.

I LOVE YOU PEOPLE!

What are you grateful for today?

TODAY:

Jane Eyre meets Supernatural.

Alexia’s nightmares become reality: a dead baron, red-eyed wraiths, and forbidden love with a man hunted by these creatures. After an attack close to home, Alexia realizes she cannot keep one foot in her old life and one in this new world. To protect her family she must either be sold into a loveless marriage, or escape with her beloved and risk becoming one of the Soulless. 

Goodreads | Buy Now

Excerpt #8 in the Mystery Sentence Game with Suzanne Furness. Unravel the mystery of the Moonless night! Hidden in each of the 8 blog tour excerpts is a single word. Gather all 8 and figure out the sentence to win a free copy of Moonless. Send your mystery sentence to crystal (AT) crystal-collier.com with the subject MYSTERY SENTENCE before December 10, 2013, and you will be entered to win one of 10 copies of MOONLESS—just in time for Christmas. Happy hunting!

Meet my amazing coach from Pitch Wars 2012, Sharon Johnston, and see what she and her buddies think of MOONLESS. 

Katharina Gerlach pries free truths about the secreted world of the Passionate. Get the insiders scoop!

Are you playing the Mystery Sentence Game? What are you most grateful for?

Happy Thanksgiving--now go enter for a chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cheese Begins with "G"

What? You don't believe me? Well YOU'RE wrong.

Image courtesy of Fiorre

After a whole week off from the blog-o-sphere (almost), I'm back! AND I'm starting up a new set of memes: Motivational Mondays--come get your weekly dose of awesome, and Fun Fridays--because everyone needs cheese. Occasionally I might throw in a Wednesday for my writing friends/book reviews that are amazing fruit and deserve a bright, shiny spotlight.

And now on to business...

The other day I took a look through my facebook friends. I sat there, one happy memory after another bursting over me as I viewed face after face. I can't even remember how I became friends with some of them, but I love them all. My heart was filled with gratitude. =)

For those of you who were with me through the A-Z challenge (*waves*), you get that cheese is imperative to happiness, right? And that was my theme for the bloghop--How to Find Happiness from A-Z. (Check it out if you haven't. It was awesome.)

G is for Gratitude, and I issued a gratitude challenge to record 5 things a day you're grateful for, for 1 month. Did you try it? I did!

There's my list. =)

It seems I'm most grateful for family/relationships, technology, and cheese. (Surprise, surprise.)

What is it you found/find yourself most grateful for? And what are you grateful for today? 

How to Find Happiness A-Z: G

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Which is it? Half full or half empty?

In my first post on happiness, we talked about attitude. Well, this is part two.

The Attitude of Gratitude.

One of my favorite books as a kid was It's Not Easy Being a Bunny. Even if I didn't love rabbits (which I did), I would have loved this story. PJ Funny Bunny is so fed up with his life--his hundreds of siblings and having to eat cooked carrots every night--that he decides to hit the road and find a better family.

He joins a family of bears, moose, possums, birds, beavers, and finally skunks before realizing none of them are right for him. At the end of the story he gratefully runs back to his family, embracing all their eccentricities and foibles.

I think we're often like PJ, too close to the wallpaper to see the amazing pattern. If we can step back to appreciate the unique beauty that defines our lives, we'll find the insight to appreciate even the difficult times. In an effort to find the good during rough patches, I often rely on my journal. At the end of each day, I take ten minutes, think about everything that happened, and find a few things to be truly grateful for. As with all good habits, gratitude takes training. It really is an attitude, and practice makes perfect.

AND, a little known secret, the grateful ones are the ones who receive the most.

At least in my family, the kid who's the most grateful is the one who tends to get spoiled the most. Writers who express their thanks for a follow or book purchase are viewed in a brighter light. Friends who thank me for my time are the ones I'm inclined to invest the most time in. Think about it.

Gratitude really is one of the key proponents to finding happiness, so are you brave enough to take the challenge? Will you join me for the next month, recording 5 things you're grateful for each day? Meet me back here on May 6th to chat about our discoveries! *rubbing hands in anticipation*

And in the meantime, go eat some cheese, eh?