In Which I Compete With Myself (and lose)

So there I was, happily lost in my story, grinning at my characters’ antics, my fingers click, click, clicking away at the keyboard, when it happened. Out of nowhere. Right between my computer screen and me with its deafening demands and ludicrous responsibilities. LIFE. NOOOOOO!!!!!! How could it? Doesn’t it know it’s NaNoWriMo? Does it not understand I’m far too busy destroying my characters’ lives to deal with my own life? How can it not see? The nerve. I’ve tried to ignore, I have. So hard. But it keeps wedging itself between my NaNo and me and refuses to leave…

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Beautiful Books #2 – The Day and the Life of a NaNoer {November 2015}

GUYS.We have survived the first week of NaNo and are halfway through week two! How is this even POSSIBLE?! My NaNo has slowed down considerably because apparently there’s this weird thing called Life that you actually have to do when you grow up. I thought that was just a myth! I didn’t mean to grow up, it was an accident! Where’s Peter Pan? I need him, quick! Despite Life being rude and trying to wedge itself between NaNoWriMo and me, I’m still surviving (. . .I think?) and continuing to absolutely love my NaNo and spend what time with it…

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That Time I Painted a Pumpkin, Accidentally Got a Job, and Didn’t Have Fun Adulting

Sometimes very unexpected things happen in life. Some are good, such as accidentally getting a job even though I wasn’t exactly looking for one. Some are bad, like getting stuck on the side of the road. My week was filled with both kind. But hey, at least it wasn’t boring. It all started with this adorable little secondhand bookstore in our town that we frequent often (because we all know I have an obsession with secondhand bookstores). Recently they moved locations and were so busy with that, Mom and I thought it wouldn’t hurt for me to ask if they…

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Why I Believe in the Power of Happily Ever Afters

Way back in April I wrote a post about why I believe we enjoy dark and gruesome things in our fiction. Today I want to share with you my completely opposing thoughts on that. You should know, I’m a paradox. As in, I somehow manage to be two totally contradictory things at the same time and have utterly contradictory thoughts on basically any subject. Seriously, I could make an argument for both sides for almost anything. It’s ridiculous. And confusing. (But also sometimes useful because I often can serve as a mediator.) Anyway, you might want to read that first…

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And They Lived…

On July 13th of last year (2014), I started a Beauty and the Beast novella called Tossing Roses with the intention of entering it in Rooglewood Press's Fairytale Contest. Halfway through writing I retitled it Burning Thorns, deciding it fit better with the theme. Two months after starting it I finished the 20k novella, later jumped into editing, shared it with my critique partners, edited some more, did NaNoWriMo somewhere in between there, yet more editing, and then in December sent it off for the contest. On February 1st I learned Burning Thorns was not one of the winners for…

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Who Am I?

Do you ever have those days where you feel like nothing? Just. . .here, and that’s about it. I sure do. More often than not I examine myself and think, “What’s the point in me? In Christine?” I’m just here, not really making the world worse (hopefully), but not really making it better either. Just here using up empty space for no reason. It’s a hard thing wondering why you’re here, what your purpose is, what you’re supposed to be doing with your life. These are our years that we supposed to be figuring these things out, right? While we’re…

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In Which I Write a Lot of Words Rambling About Writing a Lot of Words

“30 days, 30k words. Yeah, I can do this.”That was my ever optimistic (if not a bit impractical) self at the beginning of June. “I can’t do thisssss.”My much more realistic side kicked in come mid-June. “Maybe I can do this?”Nearing the end of June. Hopeful? Wishful thinking? Anyone’s guess. “Nope, not gonna make— Wait. Did I just hit my word goal?”Last days of June. Too exhausted to even realize that I HIT 30K WORDS. Ahem. So yes. June has been a bit of a hectic whirlwind of words and life and other stuff I probably don’t even remember at…

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The Greatest of These

Not too long ago I was doing my Bible reading and going through the book of Romans when a particular passage jumped out and halted my progress. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour:therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”Romans 13:10 (KJV) I’ve passed by this verse many times over, seen it numerous times. It’s a rather popular verse after all, obviously not a new concept, but on this day it grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let go. In chapter 22 of Matthew, Jesus said the greatest commandment was to “love the Lord thy God with all thy…

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That Time Christine’s Brain Went Missing and Other Odd Tales

This morning I woke up to a note on my pillow— Gone to Hawaii for the week. Have fun without me.                                                                 Signed,                                                                         Your Brain It could have given me a week’s notice or something. Sheesh. So here I am, brainless, trying to write a blog post. It’s obviously not going well. Or I may have contracted a minor cold and am a little out of it today, but I still think my brain went off on vacation without me. Do you know how trying it is for a writer to be left brainless? I have all these character running…

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“While things that are uncomfortable…may make a good tale.”

Writers are notoriously cruel to their characters. Our job description is practically, “Killing and torturing people for a living.” An embarrassing amount of hours in our days are spent thinking about how we can make our characters’ lives worse. And yet we turn around and claim they’re our “precious, adorable babies whom we love ever so much!” Because, ya know, they are. You may walk into a bookstore and pick up the mildest, sweetest looking book out of the thousands, the cover glittered in pink and flowers and a girl with every tooth showing in a wide grin, white ribbons…

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