I think I've found my calling ...

What a way to make a living ...

If you've read my recent newsletter, you know that I decided to take a job outside of my little hovel of an office. Yes, I've gone corporate. The company I work for owns oodles of radio stations and keeps me hopping.

But that's not what I'm writing about today.

What I'm writing about is the need for writers to get out of the "hovel of an office" and experience, well, life. That doesn't mean you have to get a 9-5 job, but here's the thing: it's tough to keep up the social skills when you spend most of your days talking to/arguing with/cooing over ... fictional humans.

Not only that, the publishing business is cruel. After spending months and months talking to said characters, usually in a bathrobe or maybe sweats, you're encouraged ... no, wait ... you're EXPECTED to put on nice clothes and actually talk to people. You have to do more than talk to them ~ you have to convince them to buy your book!

For some writers, that might be a breeze, but for many I know, including yours truly, it's a form of torture. Novelists are by nature curious people, but many are also shy. They like to be unassuming. They like their quiet walks to stir up the creativity when their characters won't think and act as they want them to, and they like their privacy.

And like me, they become woefully out of practice socially after spending many months alone with their characters.

I've been working outside my home office for nearly two months now (I still edit quite a bit too ... but that's a blog for another time), and one thing I can tell you: I'm learning to socialize again, to have extended conversations with real human beings, and to play nice with others in a big, corporate sandbox.

Something tells me, there's a story here somewhere ...

Meet my friend, Gina Conroy

The Five Stages of Writing Grief
by Gina Conroy

Receiving a writing rejection can feel as if a part of your dream has died. After one such rejection last summer, I realized I was going through the stages of writing grief.

When I was first told by my mentor that I should scrap my 50,000 word WIP and start over, I was in SHOCK and DENIAL. I was being asked to delete six months of my writing life! I was paralyzed for an entire weekend. I couldn't think, let alone apply any of the great teaching my mentor gave me to my current WIP which was technically dead to me at the moment.

After the excitement and the adrenaline of the weekend wore off I went through a mixture of ANGER and BARGAINING and DEPRESSION. I don't remember the anger stage being strong, but depression was incapacitating at times! I couldn't write or even read. What was the point! My story was dead, and I wasn't about to try and read someone else's story while I was grieving.

Then came the bargaining. Maybe, just maybe I could salvage the WIP. So I tried writing my historical romance in first person. I only got 113 words written before depression set in again, and I realized it was useless. If I turned my WIP into women's fiction as my mentor suggested, it would be a totally different story with a different feel and plot. Which was okay, but something I didn't have the energy to do. After all, I was still grieving.

So I started revisiting an old idea, close to my heart that I'd been afraid to write. First, I reread the 7 pages, the only pages I'd written. My heart was stirred. I felt new life coming back into my soul. So I read it again, and edited just a few lines and added a few more. Could I do this?

Then I sent it out to some trustworthy friends for confirmation that I should be working on this story. And they concurred. I should run with this one. Now, over a year later, I'm almost finished with the first draft, and I’m glad I allowed new life to flow into this story.

Where are you in your writing? Are you grieving?
Sometimes if we identify the loss, it makes it easier to move on!
Gina Conroy is president and founder of Writer...Interrupted where she mentors busy writers. Knowing how difficult it is to raise a family as well as a career, she chronicles her triumphs and trials on Defying Gravity, hoping to encourage those on a similar path. She is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, and her first novella, Buried Deception, in the Cherry Blossom Capers Collection, releases from Barbour Publishing in January 2012. Gina loves to connect with readers on Facebook and Twitter
In Buried Deception in the Cherry Blossom Capers Collection Mount Vernon archaeology intern and widow Samantha Steele wants to provide for her children without assistance from anyone. Security guard and ex-cop Nick Porter is haunted by his past and keeps his heart guarded. But when they discover an artifact at Mount Vernon is a fake, Nick and Samantha need to work together, set aside their stubbornness, and rely on each other or the results could be deadly. Will Samantha relinquish her control to a man she hardly knows? Can Nick learn to trust again? And will they both allow God to excavate their hearts so they can find new love?

Word to the wise ...

Lately, friends have been talking about the "word" God has given them for the year. Not sure if this is a fad, trendy, or something wise Christians have been requesting for years. Nevertheless, I decided to ask God for a word of my own, and he let me know that he'd already given me one.

Intentional.

The word that had been rolling around in my head even before I asked the question, was intentional. Actually, there was a phrase, too: intentional living.

I haven't exactly begun to define it, but I've already found myself doing and thinking things intentionally. Not just going through the motions, or "getting through it" but living the life God gave me consciously. Ha ... seriously, sometimes when I have to think too hard I find myself glazing over and watching the minutes tick by so I can call it a night. But that's not living!

Don't get me wrong, though. I don't think that intentional living means adding more to my schedule. That's overbooked as it is, thank-you-very-much. I think it's more of a "stop and smell the roses" kind of thing. (Or in my case, "stop and smell the sea air.") Or when life gets tough, and it does at times, I've already begun to "stop and praise the Lord" through it.

So here's to 2012 and living intentionally--and finding out more about what that means. What about you? Any thoughts on what you're going to do differently in this new year?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hope you all have a beautiful new year's weekend! If you're not on my occasional newsletter list, then you missed my latest one. Here's a copy for a brief update on Carobini doings :)

And here's to a joyful and productive 2012, my beachy friends ~ wherever you are!

Happy Day after Christmas

Hubby secretly snapped this photo of College Boy Matt and me as we walked the bluffs in Carpinteria. Beautiful day after Christmas here, so we had to get out and explore. Was impromptu, really ... and I'm so glad Dan suggested we stop.

Have a beachy week, my friends ... wherever you are!

Parade of Lights

Last night we wandered down to the park to watch Ventura's Parade of Lights. It was like going back in time for us because before we moved to the beach area, we would drive to this same park and watch the parade from there. After moving to the beach, though, we made some close friends who invited us to watch from their dock every year. Sadly, they moved earlier this year.

Wasn't sure if we'd bother with the parade, but I'm so glad we did. Rather than drive over to the crowded harbor where the event originates, four of us moseyed on over to the park and watched from a bluff. SO fun. The night was cool, and we experienced moments of rain, but no wind! Yes! Loved how one of the boats had a Happy Birthday Jesus sign on it, and how others lit stars high atop their masts.

After the parade, fireworks were shot into the sky over the water. Ahhh...does it get any better? All this was free community fun, so yes, I guess that makes it even bettah :)

As they say in the movie, The Holiday, Happy Christmas, friends!

It's beginning to look a lot like ...

The whole brood is home for the holy-days! College boy arrived today, and the girls will finish classes tomorrow. Dan and I continue to work. Isn't that the way? Ha.

No matter. I've got a list of chores a mile long and I'm not afraid to assign them. Lol

Seriously, though, there are some things that I love to do at this time of year that have slipped through the cracks, so to speak. We're busy, for cryin' out loud, but it's time to slow down. To sit by the fire and enjoy the white lights of our tree, to walk the neighborhood after dark and watch the houses light up, to wander into the local garden store that transforms every year into a Christmas wonderland. We also have plans to visit some dear friends. These are the things I want to do this weekend.

What's on your list?

Lady and the Sea

I'm beyond happy to introduce you to my cyber-friend, Sharon Leaf! We met via this blog, and since then we've corresponded many times here and on Facebook--and Sharon even interviewed me on her BlogTalk Radio program last January. Now she has her own book out, Lady and the Sea. Is she a woman after my own heart or what? She's a kick to know, so please read on ... and have a beachy weekend, my friends ~ wherever you are!

Here's Sharon ~

Since turning forty, Sharon Leaf has traveled to over fifteen countries, including living in Sweden while attending an international Bible college, traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and volunteering on a World War II ship, whose sole purpose was to transport Russian Jews from the Black Sea to Israel. She received a degree in theology at sixty, proving that it's never too late to fulfill another dream. Lady and the Sea is Sharon's debut novel. She lives in South Carolina with her husband.

Sharon hopes that Lady and the Sea will encourage readers as they struggle through their rip-tides and hurricanes of life that there is a silver lining and smooth sailing ahead as we rely on the Captain of our ship ~ Jesus!

About Lady and the Sea

After two failed marriages forty-eight-year-old Rosie Atkisson struggles through the painful process of rebuilding her life with husband, Jesse, in Southern California. But the settled rhythm of her newfound comfort is interrupted by a tug in her heart when she encounters a haunting photo of another aging lady, the World War II vessel MS Restoration.

A special mission to transport Russian Jews from Sochi, Russia to Haifa, Israel, means an adventure of a lifetime; does she dare pass up this dangerous assignment that will take her thousands of miles from her family and comfortable life? In spite of her fear of water and the unknown condition of the ship, Rosie thinks this might be the opportunity she’s been waiting for to serve God.

After surviving fourteen months on board the old ship, from a hurricane to a heart attack, from miracles to menopause, and now being held at gunpoint in the Haifa Harbor, Rosie wonders if she will ever return to her own safe harbor.

Excerpt from Chapter One ~ July 1995

Within minutes of entering the Haifa harbor, an Israeli gunboat sped from the port and circled the World War II vessel. Two soldiers aimed their deck-mounted machine guns at the MS Restoration. An Israeli soldier shouted instructions through a loud speaker in his native Hebrew.

The ship, the crew, and their special passengers--the Russian Jews--had finally reached their destination. No more troubled waters. No more hurricanes. No more delays. On this hot July morning, they were home-free, or so they thought.

Rosie had heard stories about people who had experienced close-call situations. Her seventy-year-old father once told her about the time his ship almost went down in the China Sea during the war. “At that moment, my whole life passed before me,” he said.

Now, as the Israeli soldiers glared at the Restoration through their high-tech binoculars, Rosie knew this was her moment.

You can pick up your own copy of Lady and the Sea at Amazon and other booksellers.

View of the Hudson

Teen Daughter's college apps are in, so now we wait. I say "we" because college-planning-and-decision-making has become a family affair. We sent College Boy off to LA a couple of years ago, and here we go again. Only this time, instead of a two-hour drive away, our eldest daughter wants to live in or near NY. Sigh. All but two of the schools she's considering are far, far away.

I don't know how I'll stand it.

But I do know this: she's not getting rid of us that easily. We've got skype and frequent flier miles--and we're not afraid to use 'em.

It's that most wonderful time of year ...

You’re standing on a rocky overlook, sea spray landing on your cheeks, sunlight kissing your nose—and the hint of danger in the air. That’s the feeling of standing “this” close to a 5,000 pound elephant seal basking in the sun along California’s central coast. Thankfully, viewing areas, wooden fences, and friendly docents make it easy to stay safe. Ah, but what a view!

I’m a sucker for these animals in the wild. If you get a chance to visit California’s central coast during birthing season—December through March—do! (If you have to wait until spring, however, no worries. May is peak time to see female seals and their “pups” birthed earlier in the year.)

With its dazzling seascapes, rolling hills, and gorgeous wildlife, I’ve been fascinated with this picturesque stretch of California for years—so much so that I set several novels here. In fact, the coastal area from Cambria to San Simeon is the setting (with a bit of poetic license from me) for the Otter Bay Novels.

Oh, and this is fun—when you reach San Simeon from the south, look up the long and winding hill to your right and you'll see the historic Hearst Castle overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The castle has a prominent place in my recent release, Fade to Blue. From there, drive another five miles or so north, and you’ll come upon the Piedras Blancas Rookery. There you’ll find thousands of barking elephant seals swimming, fighting with each other, or simply lying around on soft sand—not unlike your typical, beach-loving family!

I hope the Otter Bay Novels inspire you to take your own trip along California's coast someday. If you do, tell me about your adventure, won’t you? I’d love to hear from you!

Low Tide

Beautiful weekend on the coast! Summer is often foggy here, so late fall/early winter is the best. The tide was so low on Thursday that I could walk out (almost) to the end of the jetty. Sooo fun--at least I thought so. Doggy didn't seem to care for it, ha.

Ah, well, I'm back to work. Have a beachy week, my friends ~ wherever you are.