Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

A Secret About Running & Writing



That meme up there is absolutely true, and the same goes for a writer... The most difficult word a writer writes is often the first. 

Butt in the chair, right?

But there's something more. Nobody tells you when you're first starting to run that it takes a few miles before you warm up and hit your stride. For years, I hated running and never went further than two miles. Because they sucked.

Well, guess what?

The first two miles still suck. But I put my head down and soldier on, one step at a time. And amazingly, around Mile 3 or 4, almost without fail, it suddenly becomes easier. 

(Side note: That easy bit crashes and burns around Mile 8, but ignore that for the sake of the awesome analogy I'm building.)

Yesterday, I stared in agony at my blank page in Word for half an hour (while writing a battle scene, no less, which should have been easy). I desperately wanted to quit, to throw in the towel with an epic daily word count of... 26. 

But I didn't.

And slowly but surely, the words started to come. It took another half hour to get the four pages I told myself I had to type before I could watch an episode of Doctor Who, but it didn't matter, because those four pages had suddenly gotten easy.

So, yeah, running is hard. And writing is hard. Sometimes they both downright suck. But often, if you just keep at it, you'll hit your stride. And although I'm not promising the miles or the words will ever come easy, sometimes they just might.  

And regardless, when you've finished that long slog of a run or the chapter that almost killed you, you feel really, really damn good. 

And then you can eat ice cream cake and watch Doctor Who.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Mother, Wife, Teacher... Oh yeah, Writer Too...

Let's start this with a confession: I'm jealous of other writers.
  
Specifically those authors who get to stay at home and write all day. Those writers post their daily word counts on Facebook and Twitter and I cringe a little, knowing that mine will never compare.  

But that's okay. 

It took me a while to come to this realization, but I'm a busy gal.  Here's a peek at the not-so-glamorous life of this particular author:

1. Teach five classes of high school students, everything from Psychology and AP European History to Economics and U.S. History
2. Squeak in a run (because I'm a glutton for punishment and signed up to run two half-marathons this year) or volunteer at my daughter's school
3. Help with homework & piano practice
4. Clean/squeeze in social networking/cook dinner/hang out with the husband (who is often sadly neglected, especially if there's a looming deadline)
5. Ferry the seven-year-old monkey to her various activities or otherwise generally entertain her with a round of Clue or Doctor Who Yahtzee
6. Get the seven-year-old monkey to bed
7. Wish I could collapse from exhaustion 

But I can't because...

Becoming a writer means having homework every night for the rest of your life.

Someone posted this on Facebook this weekend, and it's absolutely true. Because every night, no matter how bleary my eyes are or how I want nothing more than to go to bed, I pull out my laptop and plug away. 

Three pages every night. 

It's not much, but little by little those pages add up, and eventually I can type "The End.

(And then celebrate with an ice-cream cake.)

In the meantime, I have to ignore the evil green monsters that rear their ugly heads when people post celebratory messages of writing a novel in two, three, or even four months. I have never, and will never, write that fast. 

But that's okay, because I have plenty of other wonderful things I get to do every day. 

So, what does your writing schedule look like? Are you speedy like the hare, or like me, the dependable tortoise?   

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Goodreads Giveaway: 10 Signed Copies of Daughter of the Gods!



 
 


    Goodreads Book Giveaway
 



   

        Daughter of the Gods by Stephanie  Thornton
   


   

     


          Daughter of the Gods
     


     


          by Stephanie  Thornton
     



     

         
            Giveaway ends April 23, 2014.
         

         
            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
         

     

   

   


      Enter to win


I'm thrilled to have 10 signed copies of Daughter of the Gods up for grabs on Goodreads! Best of luck to all who enter!

And on a related side note, I can't believe May 6th is almost here. Ack!