Fire! (And the A to Z Theme Reveal)

Are you on fire?

Source

This is a question I ask myself daily. Am I on fire with my kids? With my husband? With my housekeeping? Home schooling? Writing? Promotions? Community service?

I want to be.

Some days I feel completely burned out--like everything I've got is consumed. For the last couple years I've been mostly having those days. I know it's a result of health challenges around some especially crazy times...like the publishing of my debut novel, but I've also decided it's a choice.

The aim is to be on fire, right? We want to light the torches around us, to set people aflame, to inspire others.

Today I'm on fire. By choice. I can feel it all the way from my insomniatic toes and up.

I think we all have that choice. We may face times when we're discouraged or struggling, but you are the one who ultimately decides how you'll be.

And remember, fire is contagious. Share your flame. Light your corner of the world, and burn bright.

Are you ready to meet a new author and enter to win an awesome book? 

Last week, Emilyann Girdner shared The Labyrinth Wall with us, along with two truths and one lie. Those who guessed the lie correctly were entered into a random drawing for the chance to win her eBook!

Emilyann's game:

1. A brown recluse spider bit her forehead and nearly killed Emilyann when she was three years old.

2. She met Drew Barrymore when she visited a friend at her Sony Pictures job in L.A. a couple years ago.

3. Her first language was Turkish.

And the lie is: 

#2. Emilyann did visit her friend and get to see Adam Sandler in person, but no Drew. Unfortunately the spider bite is true, and she has the scar to prove it! And her father was in the Air Force, so she lived in Turkey until she was five years old.

Way to guess those of you who got it right! You are officially human lie detectors. And the winner is:

...DRUM ROLL...

Garrison James!

Congrats!

Are you into fires? I'm a bit of a pyro, which is why Julie Musil's book title really grabbed me. (And yes, I am reading this one.) Since she's one of my amazing buddies, I invited her here to share with you: 

Manny O’Donnell revels in his status at the top of his high school food chain. He and his friends party in the mountains on a blustery night, sharing liquor and lame ghost stories around a campfire. The next morning, as a wild fire rages in those same mountains, Manny experiences doubt. He was the last of the drunken crew to leave the cave, and he’s uncertain if he extinguished the flames. Within hours, he becomes the number one arson suspect.

Santa Ana winds + matches = disaster. You’d think he would've learned that the first time he started a fire.

As he evades a determined arson investigator, Manny, a modern-day Scrooge, is visited by ghosts of the past, present, and future. He’s forced to witness the fate of his inadvertent victims, including Abigail, the scarred beauty who softens his heart. Manny must choose between turning around his callous, self-centered attitude, or protecting his own skin at the expense of anyone who gets in his way.

Pick up your copy HERE.

And now, let me introduce you to the wonderful author: 

Julie Musil writes Young Adult novels from her rural home in Southern California, where she lives with her husband and three sons. She’s an obsessive reader who loves stories that grab the heart and won’t let go. Her novel The Boy Who Loved Fire is available now. For more information, or to stop by and say "Hi," please visit Julie on her blog, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

You might run across Julie eating gooey mozzarella pizza with her family.

Julie gave me two truths and one lie to test your "lie detector" skills. Those who figure out the lie will go into my magic hat for a chance to win The Boy Who Loved Fire (eBook). Awesome, right? You have until Tuesday, March 25, at 1 p.m. EDT to guess--and be sure to come back for the answer on March 26.

TRUTH OR LIE

1.  This California girl likes to be near the ocean, but won’t swim in it.

2.  Julie met her hubby in the snack line when she was in 7th grade.

3. At 5’ 3”, Julie the tallest girl in her family.

P.S. I'm hanging out at Emilyann's place. Get the scoop behind the cheese! 

(Or should I say wedge?)

And lastly...

You may have noticed I like to blog about things that make you laugh, and things that make you think. (And hopefully some that make you want to read.) Last year we enjoyed an entire series about How to Find Happiness, so I decided to stick with the inspirational route and blog about:

TRUE HEROES

I'm going to introduce my personal heroes throughout history and life, and I invite you to share yours. (Please!) Let's get inspired by awesome people that make us want to become our ultimate selves!

Find the rest of the hop HERE.

So, friendlies, which is the lie? Are you on fire? What has you burning today? Will you be back to share your heroes? 

Faux and the Inner Fire: Never Giving Up

I recently participated in a facebook discussion on an abundance of “unfinished” works. A fellow writer talked about putting away the works she doesn’t think she’ll ever finish—essentially banishing them from mind and heart.

Ouch.

It got me thinking. See, I’ve got this hang up. After an inspiring dream or a new idea hits, I’m on fire. Can’t stop thinking about the possibilities. Can’t stop planning. Can’t stop the character’s conversations in my head. The computer is my best friend, and the pillow is my outlining board. For a few weeks it’s the only thing I want to do—writing that story. For a few weeks. Eighty pages in my foot gets caught in the web of editing, and it’s all over.

 I recently read an article by David S. Goyer, the screenwriter of The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Blade, and many many other big box shows. He says anyone can write a great first act. To quote Goyer:

“The trick is moving past Act One into the inevitable, sagging Act Two. Many writers bottom out in the middle of their scripts – the point where they actually have to start weaving the various storylines together. They get depressed, they procrastinate, they flounder. I do it as well. Even now, I frequently find myself questioning the merit of any given project when I’m in the middle of it.

“But it’s important to resist the temptation to jump back to Act One and begin endlessly rewriting it. Rewriting Act One before plowing through Act Two is just an elaborate form of procrastination. More often than not, fine-tuning Act One will simply result in further demoralizing you. And honestly, how can you be revising Act One when you haven’t even finished the rest of the draft?”

 Way to go Mr. Goyer.

SO, here I go, back to a story I started in 2005. For the next couple months I’ll be writing 1,000 to 2,000 words a day until I can slam that first draft on the desk and say, “Ha!” My official WIP is:


Faux Pas

Ugly, socially inept Faux (Fox) never hoped for more than a boyfriend by the time her seventeenth birthday rolled around. Alone—abandoned by both career-parents on her special day, she lit the candle. “Make a wish!” She sighed, blew out the cake, and exploded, literally.

Seems there’s one or two things mom and dad hadn’t been telling her—like the freaky way she could imitate the human torch, or the reaper-like creatures on her trail, or the two opposingly steamy misfits working to psychologically win her over. Now uncovering the truth about her past is the only thing that may save her from the monsters on her trail—all of them.



What do you have sitting in the attic, earning dust?