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100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Steve Chandler wrote a little book with a lot of great ideas. Actually, there are 100 great ideas in his book titled, 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself. Change Your Life Forever.Photobucket

If you've ever had difficulty getting motivated to do anything I suggest you go out to your local library or favorite bookstore and pick up a copy of this little gem that packs big ideas.

For instance, from pages 60-61 Steve recommends you Find Your Inner Einstein. I've never even imagined that I could have an inner Einstein. E=MC2. Do I have an inner Einstein? I don't think so.


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But then I read Steve's pages. He says that Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Wait a minute! Wait just a minute. Maybe I do have an inner Einstien. I have imagination!
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Steve goes on to tell us about a song for teenagers that Fred Knipe wrote so that teens could visualize themselves succeeding at what they wanted to do:
"That's you/in your wildest dreams/doing the wildest things/no one else can do. If you/just love and keep those dreams/the wildest dreams/you'll make yourself come true."

I LOVE THIS! It's motivating to me. Steve goes on to say,"But the greatest thing about active dreaming is not in the eventual reaching of the goal-- the greatest thing is what it does to the dreamer."

Are you making yourself come true? How? What are you doing? How do you stay motivated?

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JUST IMAGINE.

Encouragement for Writers

Tuesday, April 23, 2013


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I sometimes search You Tube when I need a blast of encouragement, a writer-like therapy session, a kick in the pants. I can only write for so long, fighting doubts and demons before I turn to those who have more experience. We all have to find our own way to get back in the chair and do the work. Just do it. What is "it?" Writing the next book of course.

It's not a matter of what some call writer's block. I know what I want to write, I've been thinking about it for months. I don't do much outlining, being and organic writer. I know how the book starts, some of the middle, and the end. Now comes the hard part.

I'm headed to Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference next month to get some hands on work done in a brainstorming class with Lynette Eason. This will help me round out some ideas and dig deeper. I'm looking forward to the class and everything Ridgecrest has to offer. I have a certain number of words I want to get done before that time arrives. But I needed that proverbial shot in the arm this week and found some. So I'm sharing it with you now so you can get back on target if needed. Or maybe you're just thinking about writing and need to hear from others. This will help newbies and seasoned writers alike. So click on any of the links below to get a bit of encouragement, guidance, inspiration, kick-in the-pants, whatever you might need at this moment. You might want to save a favorite or go looking for your own. Build your own file of encouragement blasts and use as needed. Enjoy.

  1. Inspiring Writers
  2. Elizabeth Gilbert: Your Elusive Creative Genius
  3. Dennis Lehane
  4. Karen Kingsbury: Liberty University Convocation 2011
  5. Harlan Coben 
  6. J.K. Rowling: Harvard Commencement 2008 
  7. James Scott Bell 
  8. Beverly Lewis Interview
  9. Ted Dekker 
  10. Anne Perry 
  11. Diana Gabaldon 

What Have Your Pets Taught You?

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Yuma and Lucky

I'm one of those readers who does not like it one little bit when authors kill off animals in their stories. Life is tough enough without reading about the death of critters. Just the way I am.

In February, Jordan Dane over at the Kill Zone wrote a post I fell in love with titled, What My Cat Has Taught Me About Writing. Just love it! So today I want to brainstorm thoughts with you about what your furry friends have taught you.

Yuma and Lucky are two of the four cats living at our house. Yep, four! All were rescued. Makes it hard on the one little dog we have. But all the animals that have walked, scampered, galloped, hopped, ran, scurried, and flew into my life have left their special little instructions for living in my heart and mind. Here are a few of the many things that critters (living and dead) have taught me.

  1. Life is short so you better climb trees for the best view you can get and run wild in the field kicking up your heels just for the fun of it.
  2. It's good to have friends, so play nice, share your food, go for a walk, and if cranky take a nap.
  3. Entertainment can be cheap. Chase a ball or a pink mouse.
  4. Therapy is free! Lay on the couch and tell me all about your day.
  5. Before crawling out of bed stretch, yawn, blink, sniff the air for food, and if you don't smell anything cooking go back to sleep.
  6. Greet family with exuberance when they come home.
  7. Never hold a grudge.
  8. If you run fast enough, jump high enough, or just wait to pounce, you'll probably catch that thing your chasing.
  9. Trust your instincts.
  10. You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need.

 Okay. Your turn! I know there must be a lot of cat and dog lovers out there and probably multiple other critters in your lives. I never get tired of animal stories. So how many animals live with you? What have your animal friends taught you?


And the Winner is . . .

Monday, April 15, 2013

Pam K. is the winner of Carrie Fancett Pagels, Return to Shirley Plantation. Congratulations Pam! Carrie will be in touch.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and commented on the very important topic of Autism Awareness.

Have a great week!

Carrie Fancett Pagels and Autism Awareness Month: Our Journey Through Autism—A Glimpse

Tuesday, April 9, 2013


Hi! Jillian Kent here with Carrie Fancett Pagels who has graciously offered: A Kindle copy of her new release, Return to Shirley Planataion: A Civil War Romnace. Please leave a comment and a winner will be chosen next Sunday, April 14th. The contest will close at midnight Pacific time on Sunday and winner posted on the afternoon of the 15th. Carrie's got an interesting post that is important to many of us. Please welcome Carrie.

Did you know that April is Autism Awareness Month? And that there are many Christian authors who have children on the Autism Spectrum? Believe it or not, my son’s issues in his journey of overcoming autism (an ongoing process and he is doing great, PTL!) actually started me on the road to writing again. Early in life God called me to write. Then I went off in my own direction and I became a psychologist.

When my son was 13 months old he was given a MMR shot (I didn’t even know what shot it was he was given that day that was “different” from the others because he had gotten all of his shots and I didn’t pay any attention to what exactly was given. ) He quickly developed horrible diarrhea that would not clear up. This was right before our vacation and during the trip he was completely different than he was normally—not wanting music for instance whereas he loved lullabies and music prior to that time. He also had been a happy interactive child but became fussy and inconsolable. I had to keep him separated and quiet to have him soothed. Needless to say that was nightmare vacation. His pediatrician thought he’d picked up a virus on the trip but he’d had the symptoms before we left.

He was nursing still so we determined it wasn’t from formula (later, however, we did discover his allergy/sensitivity to milk.) We took him to a pediatric gastrointestinal specialist who ran a bunch of tests, threw up his hands, and told us there was nothing he could do to stop Clark’s persistent diarrhea. So now we are two months out with a child who is now fussy, avoiding eye contact, and behaving differently than he ever had before and with a chronic issue with his tummy. His fine motor skills stopped developing. I took him to a naturepathic medicine doctor who diagnosed his issue as likely caused by his last vaccination. She gave him drops to take that had his diarrhea stopped within twenty-four hours! And recommended he not have any more. We had improvement with his tummy . Still some issues, particularly with fine motor. As a psychologist and someone who’d worked in a hospital with neonates for several years, I was a little skeptical and worried about missing any more vaccines but we waited. I was working, had a teenager, was coping with my own rheumatoid arthritis, which had worsened, and coming home to a child who was having some continuing problems.

At two years old, at a sick child appointment, I allowed them to give my son another vaccination. Bad move. After that shot, he spiraled down into screaming fits, had staring spells, ended up doing so many bizarre things I’d rather not include them here, but needless to say, I did, then, research what did he have given at 13 months and 24 months and it was MMR vaccination. I know there is conflicting research on this but I can only say from our experience what happened. I believe there are a combination of factors that make the MMR result in a child going into autism and one of these days we might know what the exact mix is. But what some professionals say is that a genetic predisposition combined with illness (kids are not supposed to get shots when they are sick) and specific vaccines can bring on the onset of autism symptoms.

How does that affect my writing? When Clark was at his worst and I wondered how I could cope, I told my daughter that we should write a fantasy story about the stuff he did and do a story where there was, ultimately, a good resolution. So when he’d nap, I’d sit and pound out a story about a time traveling autistic baby and toddler and ultimately young man. I hadn’t written that much since I’d dropped out of grad school to write a secular manuscript--that one is copyrighted but thank God was never published. It was very therapeutic to write a story that held a message of hope for myself, my son, and my daughter, who was also stressed by her brother’s change. She babysat him and he’d been a wonderful baby, cuddly and sweet. At 9 months old he’d roll a ball, giggle, and make great eye contact with his older friend. I have pictures from 12 months, when his grandparents and family friends were visiting, right before the shots that started the change. We had a happy interactive little guy. We’ve been on a long journey. But God is right beside us. And as part of my journey, I began writing again and joined ACFW . And I just published my debut fiction novella “Return to Shirley Plantation: A Civil War Romance.”

Question: Do you have a friend who has a child with autism? If so, have you been able to do anything to help your friend, such as babysit and if so, how did that work out?



Scrivener Cork Board vs. Pinterest Secret Board

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Hugh Jackman via Photobucket
Okay. I know I'm not comparing apples to apples here. Scrivener is a software program for writers. Pinterest is well, Pinterest, and useful social media. I love using pictures to create my heroes and heroines. A picture can be worth a thousand words and a picture can help me write a thousand words. Just take a look at this picture of Hugh Jackman. I bet a lot of us could build a thousand words around this picture. It was only recently that I discovered the Secret Boards at Pinterest thanks to a Monday night chat over at My Book Therapy. If you Google Pinterest Secret Boards you'll easily find what I'm talking about if you haven't already. This may be old news to you but if not you're about to have a lot of fun!

I'm very far behind in my ability to use Scrivener. I purchased it over a year ago and even signed up for Gwen Hernandez's online class, but do to life issues that always interfere at the most inopportune times I must revisit all the online work that Gwen did because I couldn't keep up with the class. Here is a place I found on YouTube related to building characters on Scrivener. And for those of you interested in taking Gwen's class here is the link to her site The Edited Life.  Here is the link for Literature and Latte where you can purchase Scrivener.

Maybe it's because I just recently discovered the secret boards that I'm so enamoured with them and when I'm in Scrivener I'm more focused on what I plan to write. Both are great ways of utilizing our creativity when building our story worlds. If you are like me you might want to use Pinterest to build your character pictures and places, etc. You'll have a whole picture outline before you know it and that might be the most fun for those of us who consider ourselves organic writers as opposed to outliners.  This could become the best cure for anyone who thinks they have writers block. Build your own visual outline on a secret board at Pinterest and then jump over to Scrivener to write your story.

Those are my thoughts. What about you? Do you use the secret boards or Scrivener or both? What's your experience?
 


And the winner is . . .

Monday, April 1, 2013

The winner of Anne Greene's novel is Catherine Castle.

Congratulations, Catherine!