And the Winners are...

So! As I mentioned earlier this week, I was bestowed with the great honor of the Versatile Blogger Award by the great Lyn Midnight who indeed has her own blog you should definitely check out. Also, she just so happens to be @lympha13 on Twitter, and is indeed an amazing Tweep to connect with. Plus she’s a writer (of COURSE) which makes her doubly cool in my book. 

NOT ONLY THAT, but she’s a Harry Potter fan (like me) and an Avatar fan (like me) and likes sci-fi (like me) AND is just an all-around nice person. Can’t go wrong there.

So check out her blog and follow her on Twitter.

ANYWAY! Awards make me pretty happy inside. But I also like giving them as much as I like receiving them, so here we go!

Oh wait! First there are rules. *sigh* After all, with every gift comes a great respon…yeah ok here they are:

The rules:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.

2. Share 7 random facts about yourself.

3. Pass the award on to 5 new-found blogging buddies.

4. Contact the winners to congratulate them.

I’m personally going to say don’t feel obligated to do so…because that makes the whole award thing…not as fun. And I’d rather this not look like spam. Spam is no fun.

Spreading the love however, is lots of fun. So HERE WE GO!

Oh maaaan! Seven whole random facts! Alright, alright, here we go:

1. Aside from being a crazy writer-person, I’m also a Photoshop nut. I love Photoshop. It’s unhealthy really, my love for such an expensive little piece of software. But like reading and writing, I will never abandon it.
2. I love technology way too much. I love living in an age where new tech comes out every few years and I get ridiculously excited when the newest iPods/iPads/Macbooks/TVs/Cameras come out. It’s probably a good thing I don’t have the funds to buy big-ticket items or my wallet would cry every time the newest thing was released.
3. I have a dog. He’s a Yorkie and his name is Tye. I tweet about him from time to time, but the spambots tend to attack when I do, so I try not to mention him too often. He’s also insanely adorable.
4. I suspect I might be a little OCD and I’m definitely a perfectionist. This makes editing kind of hellish since I never know if I’ve made it “good enough.” Part of the problem is that “good enough” is never good enough for a perfectionist. Ay, that be the rub.
5. I like to read serial killer novels and I’ve even ventured into a haunted house horror novel with a crazy murderer and creepy tenants and the whole nine-yards. However, I’m a HUGE coward when it comes to movies. I’ve never watched a horror movie in my life and I never will. I haven’t even watched The Dark Knight because the Joker always creeped me out.
6. If you haven’t noticed already, I am an enormous Ted Dekker fan. I own every single one of his twenty some-odd novels and pre-order his books before I even know what they’re about. If you like excitement, thrillers, or awesome fantasy, definitely check him out.
7. I don't like long paragraphs. Not when I'm writing and not when I'm reading. Long paragraphs = evil.

     YAY! Glad that’s over with. *phew*

Anyway. The reason you’re here. THE SUPER-FANTABULOUS WINNERS! YAY!

Confetti! Party horns! GLITTER! (Hey I’m not cleaning it up. Make whatever mess you’d like).

THE WINNERS! In no particular order! 

1. Ara Grigorian— Ara is another one of those really awesome people I’ve been fortunate enough to meet on Twitter, where he goes by @araTHEwriter (*hint hint*). He is also, as you probably guessed by his awesome Twitter tag, a fantabulous writer. His blog, The Rookie Scrivener is well-written, informative and occasionally has awesome pictures of the French Opera. Check it out to see what I mean.
2. Jessica Lei—Jessica’s blog is beautifully designed (something that attracted me to it right from the beginning), she’s a writer (of course!) and she just so happens to be a wonderful follow on Twitter (@leijessica). She has just over a hundred followers on her blog and they are all well deserved. I love her blog, her writing, her style and her competitions. Yes. There are competitions. And prizes. I’ve yet to win one, but I am determined. 
   
   
   Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that. You might be my future competition. Hmm.
   
   
3.       Tammara Webber— So Tammara is yet another very awesome Tweep. Seriously, Twitter is bursting at the seams with amazing people. Follow her on Twitter (@TammaraWebber) not just because I told you to, but because she’s a super-nice person with a lot to offer.
   
   
   Her blog, A Room of My Own, is also very nicely designed and especially informative if you are even considering self-publishing. Tammara’s book Between the Lines is up on Amazon and B&N and she talks about her experiences with self-publishing on her blog. Very useful information awaits!
   
   
4.           Joseph Eastwood—Joseph is awesome. Period. He’s a great writer, an aspiring author who plans to self-publish this Fall, active on Twitter and always, always encouraging. I don’t know what it is about Twitter, but it’s chock full of amazing people and Joseph is one of them. His blog has some great content worth frequenting.
   
   
   Plus he writes poems, which is pretty freaking cool.
   
   
   Definitely follow him on Twitter (@Joe_Eastwood) and while you’re at it take a look at his blog. Seriously, you won’t regret it.
   
   
5.       Mia Hayson—Something I love about Mia’s blog is her graphics. She has the funniest little graphs and pictures she includes with her blog and make me smile every time. You should follow her because her blog has a lot of pretty colors. JUST KIDDING! Her blog DOES have a lot of pretty colors but beyond that, her posts are interesting, funny and insightful. Definitely worth checking out.
   
   
   And coincidentally, she TOO is on the Twitter! Follow her at: @MiaHayson

So congratulations winners! Go forth and spread the love!

My (Short) Review: The Priest's Graveyard by Ted Dekker

FIRST! A quick reminder that FRIDAY will be the day that I announce the winners of The Versatile Blogger Award! YAY! *party horns* Stay tuned to find who these awesome people are!

SECOND! The Priest’s Graveyard.

As I have mentioned and will make abundantly clear in the future, I’m a huge Ted Dekker fan. 60% of my bookshelf is comprised of Dekker books, and (fun fact) my little profile picture over there is indeed a stack of Dekker novels. SO that being said, some of you might consider me a little biased and others might assume I’d be extra-critical since I’ve read so much of his work.

Well, I wouldn’t say I’m either. I enjoy each one of his books the same way I would any other novel by someone else and if I thought the book was terrible, I’d let you know.

The Priest’s Graveyard, however, was anything but terrible.

The story begins with Danny Hansen, a vet from the Bosnian war who was left irreversibly scarred by the horrors he witnessed there. A teenager at the time of the war, Danny learned what it means to lose everything, what it’s like to kill and the ways of a tactical soldier. After leaving Bosnia he became a priest.

A priest who judges the sins of others with a shot of tranquilizer and a gun.

Then there is Renee Gilmore, a strung-out heroin-addict who is plucked off the streets and nursed back to health by wealthy lawyer Lamont Myers. But when her savior disappears, Renee is haunted by her lover’s would-be murder, and she will stop at nothing to avenge his death.

Two people with completely different stories collide, and when their lives become intertwined, they will take you on a thrilling journey where every twist will take you by surprise.

I loved The Priest’s Graveyard so much I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads and Amazon. Between the personal connections I made with Danny and Renee and the pages dripping with excitement, I highly recommend this one.

So! What books are YOU reading this summer? 

Finding the Time: A Challenge

First and foremost, a million thanks to the amazing Lyn Midnight for presenting me with The Versatile Blogger Award yesterday. YAY! I feel like I just won an Oscar. I’d like to thank the Academy…

Kidding! On a more serious note, I’ll be passing it along myself later in the week to three fantastic bloggers. So more on that later!

Now on to the main attraction.

Many of those who’ve never written a novel like to think that those who have must have all day to just sit around and write. “How nice,” they think. “I wish I had the time to sit down and write a book.”

Truth is, we don’t have any more time than anyone else. As much as we’d like it, writers aren’t gifted with the ability to cram more hours into the day (though if anyone figures that one out, totally let me know).

This is no secret to us writers. Finding the time to get words on paper isn’t an easy task. If you’re a student, it means writing before (and sometimes during) class. If you’re working full-time, it means getting up early to get some words in that WIP, or staying up late in the night to finish that chapter. When your friends are going out for the weekend, sometimes it means staying home to edit yesterday’s writing.

Fact of the matter is, we all have lives. We have friends and family and work and school and a million other responsibilities that compete with the time we have for writing. Some days it’s impossible to get anything in, and that’s ok.

The best writing advice I ever read was simple: make a writing quota and stick to it.

For me, it’s writing 1,500 words a day or 10,500 words a week. If I miss a day, which happens, it’s fine because I know I can make it up another day. As long as I make 10,500 words a week, I’m happy. And if I don’t? That’s ok too; I can make it up the next week.

The daily/weekly writing quota has helped me finish many a manuscript. It keeps me honest, and it saves me from the guilt of wondering whether or not I wrote enough that day.

Even more recently however, I discovered something that changed the way I approach writing completely. There used to be a time when I’d sit down and write until I met my quota. This was painful. Some days it’d be easy and I’d be done in no time. Other times I’d sit at the computer for hours, checking every five minutes to see how many words I’d written. This led to screaming in frustration when after an hour I only wrote 500 words (or on really rough days, even less *shudder*).

It turns out, you DON’T have to write it all at once. Whoa.

Let me say that again: you DON’T have to write your quota all in one sitting.

My new method was stemmed from a little beauteous Twitter hashtag known as #wordmongering. I intend to write a full post on this later (because it’s just THAT amazing), but it’s basically a thread where writers get together at the beginning of every hour and write for a half hour, then compare word counts. We cheer each other on and there’s virtual confetti.

Ok, a LOT of virtual confetti. Like an ocean of virtual multicolored strips of paper. Though that may be partially (read: completely) my fault.

Anyway, its effectiveness blew me away. Writing in spurts, it turns out, is much less stressful than trying to get it done at once. With just a few half-hour rounds a day, I’ve been able to get my word goal down without a problem.

So. If you haven’t assigned yourself a word count, I challenge you to do it. Try it for a week. It could be a 100 words a day or 5,000 words a week or 15,000 words a week. Whatever it is, stick to your guns and get it done.

You just might be surprised by how rewarding it is.

So let’s see it! What are YOUR word count goals this week?