Update on the PonyTails Front

*Some of this was posted on the PonyTails Book Reviews Blog*

First let me apologize for the radio silence.  The past few months have been more than a little trying.  Shortly after my last post, my work had me working an insane amount of hours as we prepared for the holiday season.  Then I got sick.

And of course with me, it is never as simple as getting a cold or flu.  I thought I got the crud that everyone else had but with in 36 hours I was in the emergency room with a massive kidney infection.  Since November 16th, I have been in and out of the hospital 6 (or 7) times.  The first two times were for treating the kidney infection.  After the second stay, I went home with a long term iv catheter (called a PICC line).  6 days later, I was back at the hospital because my arm was swollen and hurt to move.  I ended up with blood clots in the arm because of the PICC line.  Because of the dangers and pain associated with the clots, I have been in and out of the hospital since.  My most recent stay was last week.

In the next week or so, I’m hoping to start doing my Tantalizing Thursday and Friday 56 posts again.  In January, I did start writing with the Daily Picspiration blog again.  My posts go live every other Thursday.  I hope you will go over and read all of the wonderful entries by some very talented authors.

Thank you for your support and patience.

Writing Tips For National Novel Writing Month

I originally wrote this post for Revolution Publishing and decided to cross-post it here.

National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo or NaNo) will be upon us in just 4 short days. For those who don’t know what NaNo is, it is a 30 day challenge to write a 50,000 word (approximately 170 page) novel. Thousands of people worldwide take part with varying degrees of success. Some just get the satisfaction of having written their “great novel” and others actually get published (i.e. Water For Elephants was a NaNo novel).

I personally have not “won” NaNo the two years I have participated. My first year, I did no planning and jumped right in. It was my first attempt to even write a novel and I managed about 5,000 the entire month. Last year was my second year. I did a little more planning (still not enough to help through NaNO), told my husband I wanted to do it, posted about it on my personal blog and twitter accounts, kept a white board with my total word count on it, and ended the month with just over 30,000 words.

One would think that writing a minimum of 1,666 words a day for 30 days wouldn’t be a big deal, however it’s just like exercising. Some days, you don’t want to even look at your writing and other days, you can’t stop writing. Due to other commitments this year, I’m not going to participate in NaNo but here are some links to pages (and some of my personal writing tips) that you will find useful in your quest to write the next great novel.

First off, you need to go to the National Novel Writing Month homepage and sign up. They have great resources there and you will find the forums with people at all stages of writing. Don’t be afraid to ask questions on the forums. Those lovely people don’t bite (unless you ask them too).

Planning Tips:

StoryFix.com has a wonderful series on planning your NaNo book. They have been posting a tip a day the entire month of October.

Nathan Bransford (former Literary Agent, now Author) has a wonderful blog on writing. I went to his blog last year for how to tips and they have really being helpful! Bookmark his series on How To Write A Novel, because you will be referring back to it.

The Writer’s Knowledge Base is a wonderful site that is a search engine on everything to do with writing.

The Snowflake Method presented by Bubble Cow. I have not used the Snowflake method for planning but many people swear by it.

Just Keep Writing:

Sign up for Fictionista Workshops’s WitFit Prompts. Every day, Fictionista will email you a prompt. Use it to get your creative juices flowing. You never know, you might end up using the section in your story.

Every Tuesday at 12:30pm ET, Leah Petersen hosts 5 Minute Fiction. Right at 12:30pm, she posts a prompt (along with a pretty picture to help inspire you). You have 5 minutes to write. It is a fun fast paced writing challenge. I’ve used a few ideas from 5 Minute Fiction in my current WIPs (works in progress).

The one tool that I use all the time (which was introduced to me by the wonderful Shiloh Walker) is Dr Wicked’s Write or Die. This wonderful free web-based application (or you can download the desktop version for $10) allows you to choose your word count goal, the time in which you want to have it written in, and how strict you want the program to enforce your writing (ie you stop writing for a certain amount of time and the program changes color and starts playing ANNOYING sounds). After you set your goal, you are taken to a blank distraction free page with a word count counter and a countdown clock. Keep typing! If you stop for a long amount of time, you will be heralded with a badly played violin, honking cars, and other sounds. Even though I could easily write 800-900 words in 20 minutes, I set my goal at 600 words for 20 minutes. Most people tend to type a little slower when they have to actually think about what they are writing. If after I do a Write or Die session, I get up from my chair and go do something, come back about 10 minutes later and start again. However, there are times that I just keep writing after the clock has ended. The program will keep timing you even if the clock has expired. Then post your word count and time on Facebook and Twitter. You will be amazed at the number of people cheering for you.

Writing Platforms:

I use a white board to jot down my ideas, but do all of my writing in Open Office or MS Word. I have my entire WIP in one file. Some authors do a different file for each chapter or scene. Many others use programs like Scrivener ( Mac or Windows) and PageFour to do their writing. I have played a little with PageFour but not enough to know if I like it.

Literature and Latte has a great links page with writing software for both Mac and Windows computers.

I hope all that information helps. Just remember that it is okay for your first draft to suck. What you are writing for NaNo does not have to be perfect. Just turn off that inner editor. You can fix things (and do your serious research) in December.

Most importantly, write the book you want to write. Don’t try to write what you think might sell. Just write for the fun of writing, even if it is Fan Fiction. Have fun and let your imagination soar.

If you have any suggestions for your fellow authors, please share them in the comments!

A Small Change In The PonyTails World

As some of you may know, I have been unemployed since last June. Because money has been tight around here, I have signed up to participate in the Affiliate Programs for Amazon and Barnes And Noble. From this day forward, anything to do with an author or an author’s book, I will be putting up links to both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. When a reader of my blog clicks on those links and purchase that item, I will get a small percentage (less than 10%) of the sale. I’m not doing this to get rich, just to supplement my husband’s income so we can more easily pay our bills. I am also considering putting a PayPal donate button as well. But please, don’t feel obligated in anyway to use the links I have posted, especially if you have a different retailer you prefer. I am exploring options of other affiliate programs with other retailers. If I add other retailers, I will let you know.

Thank you everyone for your support of my blogs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

My move….

Since Blogger will no longer be allowing FTP post of blogs, I decided that it was time to look around and see what I could find for a new blog site.  After looking at Life Journal, Tumblr, and a few others, I found that I liked the interface for Word Press.  So here I am.  I will definately try to post a little more often than I have been.   

 

 

Update on Everything!

Hi all!

Things have been hopping around here!

Andy is still on the Dream Squad at Animal Kingdom. He is currently a Relief Trainer for the team. He has also be selected to facilitate “The Story Unfolds”. This is a class for all new cast members who are working in Africa or Asia at the park. It tells the story of Harambe in Africa or the story of Anandipur in Asia. He is very excited about that. He finally starts training for the Dream Squad Roadshow (the Dream Squad facilitation team) on Friday. And to top it all off, Andy will be starting the Traditions Audition process again tonight with an info session.

I am still at the reservation center working in Guest Services. It has been interesting working here, but I’m ready for a new challenge. I’ve asked my leaders to get me trained on a couple of new systems so I can start taking Grand Gathering Guest Service calls. I am also working with some horses right now. I’m working on my Level One certification for Parelli National Horsemanship. There is a very nice lady name Pam who is Level Three Certified. She owns 5 horses and needed someone to come play with the 3 ponies, so I go out there as much as possible (which is only once per week right now) and work on my level one tasks and just spend time spoiling them. Abby is a Welsh Pony and she is 8 years old. Cameo is one of Abby’s babies. Cameo is a Welsh Pony mix and is 5 years old. Penny is the white and tan paint mix. She is 3 years old.

This is Penny and her mom Abby. Abby is the smaller one.

This is Cameo. She is the primary one I’m working with right now!

She likes to lick things……..

We have gone to The Bay Area Renaissance Festival this year and had a lot of fun. Andy enjoys the ladies who are “busting” out all over, and I have my eye on one gentleman….. Malcolm …..

Once I get the ren faire photos organized, I’ll get a slide show posted here….

Our babies are doing good. Diego has recently started playing with lizards. I don’t know how they are getting in to the house, but they are. A week and a half ago, I came home to Diego playing with a lizard. Next thing I know, I hear a crunch crunch crunch sound! He had eatten the tail and 1/2 of the head!!!!! I had little lizard brains on my bathroom floor! But Diego looked so proud!

A couple of weeks ago, a friend at work brought me a plush Stitch with a hole in his arm. I took the Stitch home and fixed him up. Well, this Stitch decided to write a letter back to the friend who bought him……

Well, that is just about all the news for now. Here is a little slide show I put together of some cute pictures…….

What’s in a name…..

I’m sure many of you have been wondering where Ponytails came from. While in college, I had to do many projects involving a business. For a little while I used the name Windrunner, the name Melissa and I planned on using for our own barn. After a while, I decided I needed a new name. A name that to me showed a maturing side of me. There was a company in Fort Collins that sold pure bred puppies called Puppy Breath. I thought it was a cute name and it really conveyed what the business worked with. So drawing on that, I came up with Ponytails. A friend in college drew the picture of the 3 babies for me.

Ponytails soon became the embodiment of what I wanted to do. I wanted an equestrian center that was open to everyone. I wanted a place for people to come and enjoy their relationship with their horse. For those who didn’t or couldn’t own one, I wanted to have “center” horses that people could learn to ride and play with. I wanted to do a loan type program so everyone could enjoy and gain the benefits that come with the human equine bond.

At some point, I lost my way. I allowed myself to listen to the naysayers that kept saying that there is no money in having Ponytails. I allowed myself to be drawn in to a different direction. After graduation I spent 18 months working at the Disney Store and then spent the next 5 years working off and on as a veterinary technician. For the msot part, I loved working as a veterinary technician. But I now realize that it wasn’t my calling in life, nor is my working for Disney.

I was reminded of my true calling in life when I went to Jacksonville in October. I went to the Pat Parelli Natural Horsemanship Tour Stop conference. Talk about an enlightening weekend! I was reminded of the joys that come with the human equine bond, when two creatures are communicating and working together. Due to this reminder, I’m working toward a plan to make Ponytails a reality. I don’t need to be a famous performance horse trainer, that was a childish wish. All I want to do is provide a place for people to interact, learn, love, and play with horses.

Part of my road to that is to provide myself with little reminders. Naming my blog after my future destination is like a talisman or reminder of what I’m working toward. I wear a black Parelli wristband daily for the same reminder. There are many steps for me to go through before Ponytails will be a reality, but I know that I will get there and it will happen.