This is me.

This is who I am. What this means as a mom varies on the level of your child's dedication. I have two boys who travel; one is U14 this year (currently STATE CHAMPIONS!) and one rejoins his old team as U12. Both boys will play for the middle school team as well, which requires practice 3 days a week with games the other 2. Then we practice 2 evenings a week for travel with games as far away as two hours on weekends. And oh yeah, there are tournaments over every holiday. And I love every minute of it.

What this means for me as a writer...I spend a LOT of time in my car. Waiting. I decided three years ago to put that down time to good use. I was armed with my notebook, mechanical pencils galore, a very large coffee and some wild ideas about the whole thing. I wrote a pretty intense prologue (which was eventually hacked and chopped to pieces) and walked in the house immediately after practice and did a Google search on "warrior princess". (Go ahead, do it. You know you want to.) The ideas sprang to life from the research. They wrote themselves. The story was there, on the internet, in tiny bits and pieces, spread all over the globe. All I had to do was weave them together in such a way as to do them justice. And I failed.

Oh, I did finish the first draft. And I absolutely adore the main characters. And, although I am still in love with the story (I did post chapter 1 here on my blog), it still sits unfinished. Every now and then I hear Shivari whisper to me. (He is very needy sometimes) Unfortunately, HIS story, the second book in the series, is more compelling, and as of yet, unwritten. And I have moved on to another idea that has been plucking at the back of my mind since January. (I posted that first chapter also, FYI). There is so much to be written but there are so few moments in which to write. In addition to all the writing, there is still so much to LEARN about fine tuning the craft. I could literally spend hours pouring over the internet doing research. (and I have)

So for now I remain in the very deep and dark canyon that is writing. With each new achievement, I get one step closer to daylight. Use your moments. Every single one of them. There is no greater feeling than that of accomplishment. I will be there one day. One strong foothold at a time and I will see my goals become reality.

Just like my state champion.

What are your moments? Where are you when you take 5 or 10 minutes to make notes, research or write new words?

What I hope to accomplish

There are a lot of goals on my plate. Happy /healthy kids. Happy husband. Good, strong members of society. My oldest is a musician. #2 is a soccer player. They both have huge goals for the future. These are things you will see me talk about...OFTEN.

But, one thing I forgot about a way long time ago...happy mama. I used to be all about the kids when they were younger. Exclusively. When they were younger...and they needed me more. Along with age came more mommy freedoms. And I started writing. Three years ago I started my first novel. It still isn't finished. And then I started the sequel to the first. And then life happened. In January I started a new idea, which has been my focus lately. So, I will also be writing a lot about...well...writing. Or at least my journeys in learning all I can about the writing process. Everyone has their own process, and there is so much to learn, it'll take a while before I feel comfortable doing anything with the words. Nonetheless, it's my time. My ME time.

So, I ask you...what is YOUR me time? What are you doing for you? More importantly, what are you LEARNING? Because life is to be lived, and stuff is meant to be learned.

Welcome to the new beginning

Hello first Monday in August.

I am here to officially reintroduce myself to the blogosphere.

I haven't been completely faithful and I'd like that to change. There are a lot of things that have been happening in my life this summer, but the one thing that I've been missing is my communication with the internet. Yes, I Facebook. Yes, I Tweet. And I've even explored the G+.

What I miss the most is my old message board. Several years ago, I stumbled upon a message board while Google searching the show Extreme Home Makeover. I found the message board and never found the intended post. I did, however, find an amazing group of friends. I have been fortunate enough to meet several of my imaginary friends IRL and I am grateful for their friendship. I have done the same on Twitter and Facebook, and that is my intention wherever I surf. So I'm reaching out to you, my potential new imaginary friends turned IRL friends. Say hello, come and see me sometime.