 Honeybud Chewy, gooey, heavenly delight! I had never tasted anything finer than the combination of lavender and honeycomb ice cream on my tongue. How Blacksmith Ice Cream Co. on main street in Bountiful, Utah had concocted this combination, I'll never know, but bless them for it. Bless them well.
I lifted each tiny spoonful to my lips, savoring each bite with a full held breath, closing my eyes as not to be distracted. That was where I was at this point on this date. Because my ice cream had far more taste and was far more deserving of my attention than my date did. That Honeybud ice cream was the only saving factor of a date that would go no farther than this. We had been sitting outside at a table and chairs in the very late evening, cars driving up and down main street, and that was where the date had taken its ugly turn. A car had whizzed by, a little faster than it should, and my date commented something to the effect, "And they wonder why they get targeted and shot like they do." A racist remark.
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 Here's the thing about opinions: just like buttholes, we've all got one. We do. Me. You. We have opinions for everything. For every topic. For every subject. For every person. We have them aplenty. These opinions range from which NFL team is the best (the 49ers, of course), which political side is evil, whether God exists, all the way down to who in the family knows the best way to load the dishwasher (definitely not me).
Now, there is nothing inherently wrong about having an opinion. Opinions are neither good or bad, per se. I have hundreds upon thousands of opinions pop into my head on the daily! Living in my brain is quite the crazy experience, I tell ya. But here's the thing: I don't express the great majority of these opinions verbally. They stay in my head - thank god for everyone around me, right?  We own property out in the Nevada desert, roughly an hour outside of Montello. There is very little to anything out there. Even Montello, as a town, is barely a town at all with its population of less than 100 people. They do have two bars, though, so they have that going for them. That's why we like it. No, not the bars. The quiet serene feel of the area. As my children call the night skies, "It's like our own planetarium!" Out in the middle of this desert oasis, we can look up at the stars and see it all. It's amazing! So, that's why when our security cameras (motion activated) produced a video of what appeared to be a little black dog on the property, we were confused. Where in the world did he come from? How did he get to our property which is located a good mile or more up a dirt valley road?  The first video we received came in late on a Monday night. The video was slightly fuzzy and we weren't exactly sure what we were looking at. Eventually, we figured out it was a small dog. (See pic to the left. This is a still shot from one of the videos).
Because our property is nearly four hours away, and as sad as it sounds, we figured the little guy wouldn't make it through the night (sooo many coyotes in the area). If he did survive the night, he could be long gone before we got there. The desert is huge. Tuesday afternoon, we received another motion activated video. The little dog was still there! He was sticking close by our cabin. Now, we were quite concerned. There wasn't water there. We didn't leave food outside. We tried reaching out to some acquaintances in Montello, to see if we might be able to get some help. Unfortunately, we had no luck getting a hold of anyone. My husband was out of town (he was actually sending me the security videos from New Jersey) and due to life being life, I couldn't go out there to check on the dog . We kept trying to get a hold of someone.  A writing partner, you say? Why in the world would you want one?
Well, let me tell you...if you find the right match, a person who "gets you" and your writing style, then you will have hit writer's gold. In all honesty, I'm not sure that I would be the writer that I am today without my perfect writing partner at my side. She's been there from the beginning, and boy, does she GET ME. Not only can I bounce ideas off her and get her input, but on the rare occasion that we get together in person, I can sit in my pjs on my laptop, knowing that she too, will be sitting in her pjs writing on her laptop. Perfection. Our relationship is the ultimate balance of push and pull. Enough push to get me to put my butt in the chair and my fingers on the laptop. Enough pull that when either of us make a suggestion we don't like, we feel safe to say, "Nope. You can't make me. You're not my real dad." *Book Two, ANYONE ELSE? is FINALLY here...now we CELEBRATE! #giveaway #rafflecopter #prizes9/16/2018
After a long long time (I know, I know), the second book in the ANYONE? series is FINALLY HERE! Grab your copy and continue on the apocalyptic roller coaster ride that will leave you breathless and hopefully wanting more (and more is coming)!
To celebrate this long-awaited release, it is GIVEAWAY time! I'm putting together ONE GIANT prize package, so all of the following could be yours by entering the Rafflecopter below. Good luck and thanks for helping me spread the word!
PRIZES! PRIZES! PRIZES!
You may want to read PART ONE and PART TWO before jumping right into the tips for attending a conference so you can see where I was at in my career and why going to a conference turned my attitude and my writing around.  Sticking you neck out and going to a writer's conference can be scary, especially if you've never been to one before. It can be hard to know what to expect or even if it's worth it to go. (Hint...it's worth it). In this blog post, I'm hoping to leave you with a few tips on what you can possibly expect and what you can do to make the experience the best it can be. First: It doesn't matter if you write poetry, fiction, picture books, short stories, or nonfiction, a writers conference is for everyone. Everyone is welcome. There will be people at ALL stages in their writing that will be attending. So, don't feel as though, "I can't go to a writers conference because I haven't published a book or I don't think I'll fit in" because you will fit in just as you are. That is the truth. Writers who are further along in their career love to help other writers. Do not be intimidated by them. Where else can you go to learn and ask questions of those who have been where you are? Writers as a whole are very supportive of one another.
Second: Most writers are introverts by nature. You may worry how it will possibly work to go to a conference when you're not super out-going. That's okay. The great majority of those in attendance feel the same way as you do. Take it at your pace. Don't feel as though you have to be someone you're not. Be you and know being an introvert is NOT a bad thing. (7 Reasons Why Introverts are Good at Writing). Third: Try and be a little brave and get to know other writers. The best way to do this is to simply ask, "What do you write?" or "How is your writing going?" Writers LOVE a chance to talk about their passion, and those two questions alone will even get the most introverted of introverts talking. This is how writing groups can be formed and how you might find a great critique partner or even just a great writing friend. If you find someone you feel a kindred spirit to, don't be afraid to ask to friend them on social media or get their email address so you can continue to connect after the conference is over. **If you haven't read PART ONE, you probably should. It will give you a better understanding of my mind frame and what plans I had for my writing career (psst...my plan was to quit). Then pop back here to hopefully gleam some of the insight I was given**  You're probably wondering what career saving advice I was given that turned everything around for me, that caused me to go from throwing in the towel and walking away to feeling like I've found my writer self again.
I wish I could say it was one profound thing said or done that did the trick, but that just isn't the case. It was the combination of many little things that did it for me. The first: I had believed I no longer needed writing conferences because I'd become a more "seasoned" author. I was beyond the need for learning to create dialogue or learning to show and not tell in my writing. Since, I believed most conventions were geared toward the newbie writers, I felt I'd moved on. What I found from going to this particular conference was that I had it all wrong. There were classes offered to writers at every level--from the beginner to the not-so-new-to-the-game writer. The funny thing, even though I was a guild member (published author) and out of all the guild classes offered to guild members, I went to only one. Just one. All the rest were classes open to everyone--newbie or not. They were FANTASTIC classes! I took a class on How to Write Sympathetic Villains and now, I want to write a super villainy book! So, who the heck was I to believe I didn't need to learn anything more? (A jackass, apparently). Basically, if you think you've learned it all, you're wrong.  My sixth published book ANYONE? exceeded expectations. I had written a book that went to market at the right time and readers were gobbling it up. I spent little on advertising, so all of the attention the book received came organically, and I was feeling pretty darn good about myself. I'd made it in this writing world! Finally, after five books, and experiencing some mediocre success from them, it was happening! *Release the doves!* Any other books I would write after this one would surely ride on the tails of ANYONE?'s success. So I thought. I published ZIA, The Teenage Zombie & The Undead Diaries the following year, and everything was different. It did not do what I though it was going to do. In fact, it was the exact opposite of what I'd experienced with ANYONE?. Seriously, the VERY opposite. I couldn't get this book in front of the right audience no matter how I tried. And boy, did I try! I loved this book (I still do). I loved the characters and the story, and those that had read it, thought it was one of my best works. If I had to do it all over again, I would still write this book. I have no regrets. It's a sweet book with blood, brains, and romance--my cup of tea even if it isn't for everyone else. The problem was that my readers for ANYONE? were not interested in ZIA, something I did not expect, but now know totally makes sense. I get it. But this "failure," along with some hard personal issues in my life that I was experiencing at that same time, caused me to doubt everything I was doing. Every aspect of my life went under the microscope, including my writing career. It was the making of the perfect storm. It crippled my writing and a type of depression set in. Book two, ANYONE ELSE?, was in the works. The cover had been made and promises to readers needed to be kept. I love my readers and I didn't want to let them down, but that only added pressure to my already fragile state of being.  I was struggling. Really struggling. Time and years were slipping away, and I didn't know what to do to stop it or fix it. I'd set goals, and then watch those goals flutter past me, unmet.
I wanted to do anything but write. Doubts plagued me. Horrible thoughts crept into my head every time I would put my fingers to the keyboard. Where I was once able to write a chapter in a day, I was lucky if I could write 100 words in a week. Blogging? Forget about it. My author social media? Practically non-existent. I dabbed a little here and there, but nothing like I once used to. I no longer trusted my intuition. I no longer believed that I had it in me to create good stories that people would want to read. If I no longer believed in myself, how could I possibly expect anyone else to? GUEST POST BY: Mike Johnson (Website: Mike's Gear Reviews)
It has begun, the dreaded zombie apocalypse is upon us! Grab your survival gear as we give you the DON’TS of zombie survival disguised as good and seemingly logical ideas. Zombie Tactic Fail no. 1: First stop… The Gun Store! Unless some of you have been living under the proverbial rock, we all know that zombies can only be killed by destroying the brain or removal of the head. Of course it makes perfect sense to surround yourself abundant in guns and ammo so the first thing that comes to mind is to head out for a trip to the gun store. Why it will get you killed: You arrive at the venue to grab all the guns you can possibly carry then arm yourself to the teeth with the perfect in-and-out plan. Only to find yourself with everything BUT the guns. It did not occur to you that everyone else has the same idea. No weapons, just desperate people. Solution: Before the world goes awry, own a gun, in fact, you should have your own zombie stomping arsenal ready as early as last year. Zombie Hunting Arsenal: – Handguns / Revolvers – Shotguns – Machine Guns – Grenades – Crossbow – Knife – Hatchet – Katana – Side Note: Ideal for in-laws, and ex’s (of the Zombie variety, of course) – Baseball bat with barbed wire Note: Teach your family to safely use guns.  The STRANGER THINGS Soundtrack is AMAZING! Lots of songs that transport me back to my teenage days. Oh, how I had missed the days of placing a vinyl record on my turn table and watching it spin round and round as Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson, or Elvis carted me away to another world. I had quite the collection, too: Simon and Garfunkel, Dolly Parton, Madonna, Disney, The Bee Gees, etc... Yes, my tastes were all over the place, but that was the kind of person I was. The kind of person I still am. A lot of my collection came from relatives that had passed on. Records I enjoyed because they had once enjoyed them. Good memories. But, with tape cassettes and then CD's making their debut, my records became too cumbersome and old-fashioned. I couldn't haul them to college either, and after awhile of them simply sitting in a storage box, I donated them to a thrift store. Now, I shake my head in shame, looking back on my stupid teenage self for making that decision. I had the entire Elvis Presley's Greatest Hits Collection (six albums). Now, gone. That is only one example of the kind of treasures I gave away. Foolish.  So, when I saw the above little pink portable record player at my local Marshalls store, I knew I had to make it mine. Merry Christmas to me! But, what's a record player without records? Exactly. And so began my journey to start a new collection. It's strange that this simple pink Victrola player could bring me so much happiness. There's just something nostalgic and joyful about a spinning and a tiny needle finding the right grooves, that turns my lips upward. I'm jumping into a "new" old world, going to record stores and thumbing through racks and racks of albums like I once used to, years and years ago. It's all new to me, but in a very familiar way.
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