Six Word Saturday!

Digging out from under the holidays.

Oh man, y'all.. Laundry, putting away decorations, cleaning floors (Where did someone find mud??), trying to save the plant cuttings grandma gave me, cleaning up gift boxes from around the tree... I do love the holidays, but when one goes from one week with one family to another week with the other side of the family, I believe it should be required to take another full week off for recovery. Amiright? It's ok though, because we're getting it all done today to make room for tomorrow's six words: 

Taking a pregnant friend out snowshoeing.

She's 36 weeks and wants to go showshoeing! (obviously on a fairly easy trail, but STILL) This is the kind of stuff that happens in Colorado. It's a pretty cool state we live in :)

This post is part of the Six Word Saturday blog hop. Stop by showmyface.com to join the fun!

Insecure Writer's Support Group

As I mentioned on Sunday, one of my goals for this spring is to make more connections in the writing world. I think one of the better ways to do that is to make sure I'm connecting with folks in the blogging world, which I fell out of a bit at the end of last year. My summers are SO busy, and I just didn't have the energy to spend writing or reading in addition to my long work weeks. It took until about October to feel refreshed and by then I'd lost my habit of writing regularly. So I dove into NaNoWriMo (and won! yay!) and then didn't do any more blogging in December. Up and down, up and down.. Not so much with habits on the blogging front. Anyway, the hope is that I can get into a real habit, and one of the things I wanted to do to help that out was to join the Insecure Writer's Support Group - a bunch of lovely writers who help each other 'rock the neurotic writing world' haha

So here's a confession for my first IWSG post: I've wanted to join for quite a while, but never could quite make the commitment. You could say, 'well it's just the first Wednesday of each month - what's the big deal?' but here's the thing: I think it's like taking the first step in AA - you have to admit you have a problem before you can start getting better. So here I go: My name is AJ and I have a writing addiction. No, not an addiction, and as previously mentioned, not a habit either. I have a .. thing. I have a thing about writing. I love it and always have. I've gone through phases of calling myself a writer, and not calling myself one. But I suppose that since I've got a book published and another one in the works, I have to admit that I am a writer and own it too!

So this is me owning it, and waving hello to the other IWSG folks. I am looking forward to meeting all of you!

CoHosting April A-Z!

Well, it's official! I'm going to be one of the cohosts for the illustrious April A-Z Challenge this year! I had a ball being one of Tina's helper Minions for the Challenge last year and am so honored that they offered me a spot on the cohosting team for this spring's event.

April is always a crazy month for me, what with being the month before my Summer work-craziness starts, and it won't be any different this year, but I'm excited about the additional responsibilities and the opportunity to be on such a great team. Also, one of my goals for this spring is to get out there and do more networking to support my writing habit - what better way than by being heavily involved with the biggest blog hop in the 'verse?

Here's to keeping busy and making connections in 2014 :)

Check out the other members of the super-awesome A-Z Cohost team!
Arlee Bird (the creator of the A-Z Challenge!)
Tossing it Out

Nicole Ayers

Madlab Post 

Damyanti Biswas

Writing on Writing: Amlokiblogs

Alex J. Cavanaugh (self-titled blog)

Tina Downey

Life is Good 

Julie Flanders (self-titled blog)

Heather Gardner

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Jeremy Hawkins

Being Retro 

MJ Joachim

M.J Joachim's Writing Tips 

Stephen Tremp

Author Stephen Tremp

NaNoWriMo Day 27 - A Little Raw

It's the 27th. I have three more days to finish NaNoWriMo and about 10,000 words to goal. I am definitely going to make it! Pretty exciting. A bit that I wrote this evening:

"I’d picture her as if in a movie, on her knees shaking her fists at the sky and cursing god and Jesus and all his friends for the unfairness of it all. She’d have tears of blood pouring down her face, her hair loose and dramatic around her face, entire body tense with the exertion of grief. ..until she’d collapse, wrung out and intoxicated and unable to scream any more."

NaNoWriMo Day 23 - one week left!

Only one week left in NaNoWriMo! Things are going pretty well. I'm a little behind a the moment as I didn't write at all on Thursday or Friday due to choir concert stuff, but I'm determined to put some mileage in tomorrow. Today I spent a moment reflecting on some late 80s/early 90s fashion..

"We had a babysitter down the street for a bit. I got a couple hideous dresses from her (one was a button down, sleeveless flowy long dress of greys and sandy browns, with giant deep grey snails on it - yikes), and a cheap gold heart necklace. They were such treasures and I’m sure I wore that dress entirely too frequently."

I'm also pretty sure that that dress was an improvement over the sweat pants outfits I insisted on wearing every day. Some things never change - I still prefer to wear the most comfortable clothing I can get away with in any situation. Thankfully I've moved a bit beyond sweats with glittery splatter-paint on them...

NaNoWriMo Day 16 - 25,000 words!

Woohoo! I made it over 25,000 words today! I got a little behind due to a couple busy days this week, but will be caught up tomorrow. 25k is halfway, which is a major milestone. I spent today mostly writing about happy things, so here is a little bit from a remembered dream:

"Sprawling on my couch was a darkly shining alien creature. It was humanoid but every bit of its skin was sinewy and textured, as though seeing every fiber of muscle that operated its frame."