WE HAVE WONDERFUL THINGS COMING THIS WEEK!

MONDAY GUEST AUTHOR ANNA LOUISE LUCIA
TUESDAY TAMARA DESTEFANO TAMARA AND THE THREE CRITIQUE PARTNERS
WEDNESDAY SANDY ELZIE WHO HAS MADE HER FIRST SALE
THURSDAY CALLIE LYNN WOLF WITH WILD ROSE PRESS
AN EDITOR'S DREAM MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
FRIDAY HELEN HARDT VISITS US
SATURDAY MARY MARVELLA BARFIELD WILL SURPRISE YOU!



Now don't forget to read the post below and comment!

Well, it’s finally arrived! Summer's here and not a day too soon for all the teachers at my school. Where does the time go? It seems like barely a couple months ago we were starting a new school year and now, it’s finished, over, done!

Now, to the question that is of greatest importance: what to do with the free time afforded me by the end of the school year. I plan to do several things this summer. Three are really big ones, but the most import is to complete my current wip. For those who don’t know that's writer lingo for work in progress.

I’m setting goals, making plans and lists and hoping for the best. My goal is to have my current wip completed before RWA’s National Conference in July. My plan to accomplish this includes meeting regularly with my critique partner, going to Starbuck’s several times during the week to write, but most of all, applying butt to chair and working. My list looks something like this:
Fly to Spain, cruise the Mediterranean (for real, I leave early today. If I’m absent from the fuzzies for a few days, you’ll know why!)
Return home, upload pictures of trip to the Pink Fuzzy Slipper Writers blog.
Apply butt to chair and write.
Go to Starbucks and write (It helps to stir my creativity to get away from the usual all by myself where I can wear my “writer’s persona” --family just doesn’t get this one.)
Set schedule to meet with Critique Partner. (I’m one of the luckiest people in the world when it comes to my partner. ( MM is the greatest.)
Apply butt to chair and write.
Attend National with completed manuscript to pitch.
Apply butt to chair and write.
Clean the deck and sit outside to write.
That's about it, I’ll hope for the best outcome. What about you? How do you plan to attack the lazy hazy crazy days of summer?

We can become so tied to our jobs and our families we forget to have our own lives, especially mothers. Those of us with dreams and passions beyond those others understand have to fight harder.

When I taught school I had no time for writing or friends who didn't teach at my school or know my husband through photography. As a woman born in the early 1940's, I believed being a good wife mean giving up anything that didn't help my husband, and make me a good daughter, a great mama, and a good teacher. Mama was the perfect example of the woman I wanted to be.

I graduated from college and married in time to escape the "free love" and "do your own thing" period. (Actually, my personality wouldn't have allowed me those freedoms.)

I have no complaints about helping my husband,now my EX, build his Photography business, but I regret that I didn't allow myself to branch out and make more friends. I don't know when I would have done that while taking care of my daughter, my parents, and my job. I often wondered if I did a good job in any of those areas.

Once I stopped teaching I gave in to my secret passion, writing. I'd been a storyteller all my life, the time had come for me to write stories.

A stroke of luck sent me to Georgia Romance Writers and Romance Writers of America and friends who wrote stories. I made new friends who understood the characters who interrupted my dreams and entertained me while I drove alone. Some are still my best friends.

Discovering computers led me to the Internet where I found more friends. Now my friends are people who are here for me when I feel like the world isn't working. I've belonged to several critique groups and have made lasting friends though them. When I need a shoulder to cry on because of a rejection or a personal setback, I go to my friends online and my critique partners. When I need someone to celebrate finishing a book with me or just feeling good, I call my critique partners. Writing even helped me connect with a high school and college friend.

One other friend became my first reader and my friend when I told her I wrote novels at least fifteen years ago.

If you don't think you have time to make and keep friends, re-think that. My friends, even those I made online, helped me get though the deaths of my parents and my divorce.

If you put off your secret passions or delay going after your dream, you might miss it completely. There is no better time than now.

I celebrate everyday with help from my friends.