Make it a great week. You can, you know. It’s all in how you decide to play it out.
Until next time,
Ann
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I don’t know if Mother Teresa actually said this, but I sure do like it.
May it inspire you as it does me.
Until next time,
Ann
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Interesting fact: I always learn something from the characters in my novels.
A good story is filled with conflict and problems, and I usually throw such terrible obstacles in my characters’ paths. (I love to make them suffer!!) Yet as the true heroes and heroines they are, they always figure out ways to overcome and succeed.
How they do this depends on who they are and the story. I’m never sure how they will triumph, but often, a willingness to learn and a can-do philosophy helps.
It can’t be done? Of course it can, if I just tweak the picture a little…
And so, when I came across this, I thought, Aha… This humorous and positive spin on gray hair is a metaphor for overcoming the trials and challenges of life.
My characters have taught me that no matter how painful or difficult life is, there is always a way to put a glittery spin on life. Finding the glitter may take some digging and hard work to find, but the reward is worth the effort.
Until next time,
Ann
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If you constantly compare yourself to others, you’re at the wrong party.
Truth: Your party is strictly about you, and begins and ends with you. I know this, and yet time and again, I catch myself chasing after someone else’s success and happiness, and wishing it was mine.
Yes, I’m multi-published author. I worked hard to attain this dream and I love sharing my stories with others. Readers often email to let me know how much they enjoy my books. As wonderful as I feel when I hear from fans, I still catch myself in the ugly trap of comparing myself to others. I’m not as good as this writer, or as successful as that one.
This is not good for my self-confidence or my happiness, and certainly does nothing to improve my writing.
Which is why I like this sage advice:
This makes perfect sense. Because, let’s face it, the only writing skills and output that I can control is my own, and the only person I can control is myself. The same goes for you.
Of course, I can learn a great deal by reading a particular author and noting how s/he crafted their masterpiece. I can learn new ways of promoting myself from others’ successes. I’d be crazy not to do these things.
But ultimately, my party is inside of me. Just as yours is inside you.
Food for thought…
Until next time,
Ann
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I got this recipe from my mother and although I always loved it, I haven’t made it in years. Recently, I pulled out the recipe. I’m glad I did!
Enjoy!
Until next time,
Ann
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I am hard at work, finishing edits on a recently completed novel. Wahoo!!!!
Until next time,
Ann
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The other day, I came across a quote by Jeff Goins (http://goinswriter.com/good-writers-read/) that mirrors my own belief: Nothing inspires a writer like reading someone else’s words.
If you want to be a decent writer, ya gotta read. Read anything and everything, and not just in your chosen genre. The more you read, the more you learn about the craft of writing. Grammar, sentence structure, story development, description, and so on.
Obviously, reading alone won’t get you there. Writing is a craft. Like any skill, becoming a good writer takes hard work and practice. Classes and workshops help, as well as finding like-minded people and forming a critique group. Most important, plant your behind in the chair and do the really hard stuff: the actual writing.
Writing isn’t for sissies, and don’t I know it. I’ve been writing for years, including seven long years as an unpublished author. Eventually persistence and my willingness to grow paid off. To date I have published over 25 novels (for a list, visit www.annroth.net).
You’d think that by now, writing would come easy for me. And in many ways, it does. But as I get better at crafting stories, some things only become more challenging. My growing skills push me to dig deeper into a character’s psyche, an often painful and difficult process.
Why put myself through this? Because my character demands it. Usually the payoff is worth the effort. Unmasking hidden depths and richness that I had no idea existed leaves me awed and excited to share the treasures with you.
Until next time,
Ann
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Tonight I’m headed for the Seattle Opera, to see Tosca, one of my all-time favorite operas.
I wasn’t always an opera lover, although my mother was. She studied voice in college, but didn’t have a strong enough voice to make it as a singer. Saturdays, she listened to the Metropolitan Opera on the radio. Sometimes she cajoled me into listening, too. But I never appreciated it.
As an adult, I attended a few operas with my husband, who was equally non-wowed. Then, a good 15 years ago, I found out that one of my writing friends was crazy for opera. At her urging, my husband and I joined her and a few other friends for monthly “opera night.” An evening we now look eagerly forward to. We take turns hosting these nights, which include a DVD of an opera and the synopsis which is read before each act, plus a main course provided by the host, with the appetizers, drinks, salad and dessert contributed by the other members of the group.
During the performance, we often pause the action in order to get seconds on food and drink, laugh, answer questions, discuss the intricacies of the story and plot, learn about the composer or the conductor, and so on.
I have become a true opera fan. The beautiful music, exquisite voices! Between the melodrama, hatred, true love, passion, loyalty, betrayal, murder, heroism, tears and laughter, what’s not to love? It’s all the stuff of drama, fiction and reality. The stuff of life.
Until next time,
Ann
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“Are you talking to me or yourself?” my husband has been known to ask. That way, he knows whether to listen or not. Smart man.
The thing is, I talk to myself a lot. When I’m in the process of making a decision. When I think through a plot idea for a book or cook or search for a recipe in one of my many recipe boxes. When I decide what to wear to an event or pack for a trip. Occasionally, even when I read. Because, face it, I really pay attention to myself. 🙂
Sure, there are times I grab a pen and notebook (or scrap of paper–whatever I can find), and scribble my thoughts on paper instead. That works, too.
I don’t know where or how the habit of talking to myself started. I’ve tried to stop it, but sooner or later, it always creeps back.
I try not to do it in public. I don’t want people thinking I’m nuts or something. 🙂 But from time to time, it does happen. If someone is within hearing or seeing distance, I make a joke about talking to myself because know I’m truly listening. People usually smile. Some admit that they to it, too.
I’m pretty sure there lots of folks out there who do the same thing. Why else would the comic above be so popular?
Until next time,
Ann
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I like Mondays. New week, new beginnings! Even if I am in the middle of revising my current rough draft. It’s part a new series I’m writing, and I’m loving it.
More later– I’m eager to get back to work!!
Until next time,
Ann
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