Yep, that’s right.  I’ll be working with the Colorado Romance Writer chapter of RWA to present two workshops this year.

Starting next week, I’ll be conducting a 4 week workshop that will serve as a great intro to all things social media.  So if you, or anyone you know, would like to jump into the social media pool via blogging,  Twitter, Facebook, and countless other social media outlets,  in an effort to build and extend their platform, this is for you.  For more information, click here.

Then in March, I will be offering a 2 week Twitter bootcamp-esque workshop designed to take the fear and mystery out of one the fastest growing social media sites around.  For additional info on this fun and interactive workshop, click here.

I’m really excited and nervous about kicking off this new avenue in my life.  Thanks in advance for all your support.

Hopefully, I’ll see you in class

My life on the edge…
It’s simple really; it’s a long way down
And there’s no way I can survive the fall
Is there?

But it feels like the only way out sometimes…most times
Right now

If I take just one step, Gravity will do the rest

But the funny thing is even if I don’t. Even if I keep my feet firmly on solid ground
Gravity will still be there, and it’ll still do its job
Keeping all things anchored, all things grounded

Even when you don’t wanna be anchored. Or grounded

Sometimes I wanna free fall
Sometimes I wanna just let my problems
My hurts
My inadequacies

Go

Yet Gravity keeps me tethered

To reality
To the pain
To unfounded fears

I’m not sure that’s something I can handle just right now
But, it’s a long way down…

I wonder…
Is the darkness comforting?
Will it help me forget?
Will it mask  the pain of landing?

Gravity…
It won’t let me go, yet it can’t help but make me fall
If I take that step…

Will fear cocoon me in its warm, suffocating embrace
If I take that step?

Will falling grant me the opportunity to think, to reflect
If I take that step?

Or will I instead hear The Voice
The one that laughs at me, taunts me… ridicules me

The one that says:
YOU are nothing; YOU are inconsequential, YOU cannot do it

There’s only one way to find out

But damn, it’s a long way down

Image: Mirianda.com

Some detractors of the romance genre say this escape tendency causes people to have unrealistic expectations of how “real” relationships work; therefore setting them up for romance failure in their personal lives.

So, this got me to wondering (uh oh is right  ) exactly how many of us (romance readers & writers and people in general) believe “love at first sight” truly exists?

I don’t know if I believe in this concept, per se. But I do believe that while it may take someone a while to admit to themselves that they are, indeed, in love with someone; I think it takes very little time to actually “fall” in love with someone.  Think about it, what does falling in love really mean?

In my opinion, falling in love is an active thing that begins the moment you meet that special someone, whether you’re aware of it or not.  I believe the “falling” is a constant process that continues throughout the span of a healthy relationship.  It could start out small, like a snowball rolling downhill that picks up substance and speed as it travels along…  Or, it could start out like “WOW!” all big and in your face and continue to grow from there.  It varies from person to person.

As someone that both enjoys romance and writes it,  I’m interested in your opinions of “love at first sight”.  Is this a theory you subscribe to?  Or do you feel it’s just a bunch of commercialized hooey?

Another year has ended and new one is ushered in.  Every January 1^st  I’m compelled to take a look at the past year for an account of what I’ve accomplished and what I haven’t in relation to the writing goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year. It’s all in the spirit of accountability.  If I can’t be accountable to myself, then I will not be accountable to anyone else.  So, taking a look back at 2011, the goals I set for myself included:

    1. Complete polished draft of Edge of Desire (the UF) and begin submission process
    2. Complete 1st draft of WFF and get the first 3 chapters polished (for submission & contests)
    3. Outline 2 new projects
    4. Apply for PRO status
    5. Set up office

And just how did I fair with these, you may ask:

1. Not quite- I am actively still working on my polished draft of the UF.  To say I got side tracked in 2011 is an understatement.  But on the flip side, I have renewed energy for this story and I am furiously working on it right now.

2. Umm… No- I got nowhere near touching WFF in 2011.  Outside of my new outline, WFF has been in a coma… waiting to be revived.  In fact, I like to think of it as a modern day Sleepy Beauty, just waiting for its Prince to come along.  (And by “Prince” I mean me sitting my butt in the darn chair and hammering out the outline and cranking out the words.)

3. Yes, but No- I now have the next 2 stories in my contemporary romance series formulated (yay!),  but I have not put my thoughts on paper yet or made any tangible brainstorming progress. (I know, I know… There is no excuse)

4. No.  It’s a tad bit hard to apply for PRO when you are working on multiple manuscripts, yet not finishing one of  them.  But I digress…

5.  And for the 2^nd year in a row, I gotta say NO!  This really shouldn’t be this hard; I’ve YET to redo my office.  But I have a feeling I won’t have a choice but to get this one done in 2012.  In fact, I’m almost willing to bet that if I don’t do a thing else, I will definitely have a new office set up going

Now that the year-end accountability is over, I’m looking towards 2012 and the things I plan to accomplish this year.  Instead of my traditional resolutions and goals, I’m going to take my critique partner’s advice and rally around a theme.  After much thought, my theme for 2012 (In all aspects of my life) will be PURSUIT.  Just in case you are unfamiliar with this term, Dictionary.com has it defined as:

Pursuit [per-soot] –  an effort to secure or attain; quest:

I am very committed to my goals of becoming a successfully published author.  I have invested years into increasing my knowledge and understanding of the craft, improving the consistently of my writing, and the development of my voice and style.  So, in keeping with my Pursuit theme for 2012, I have two areas I want to concentrate on as far as my writing goes.

In pursuit of my goal to become a published author, I will:

1. Complete my polished UF draft, enter it into contests and pitch it to editors/agents for consideration
2. Complete a rough draft of WFF (book #1 in my contemporary romance series)
3. Complete a rough draft of book #2 in my contemporary romance series

In pursuit to my goal to develop/expand my own author platform, I will:

1. Develop  workshops centered around my subject matter expertise (social media, branding and PR) as it relates to helping authors promotion themselves and establish a web presence.  It is my hope that I will be able to conduct said workshop(s) throughout 2012 at a variety of venues.

So here you have it. You know what I’ll be working towards in 2012, what about you?

Someday I’ll fly, someday I’ll soar
~John Mayer

If interested, you can check out my personal 2011 reflections and plans for 2012 here.

Once again, I am taking on the NaNoWriMo challenge.  And once again I got a ton of stuff going on which will make it even more of a challenge for me to “win”.  It’s not going to stop me from trying though.

However, I will not commit to daily or even weekly updates this year.  I honestly have too much going on.  But I will update when and how I can–which means a lot more Twitter NaNo updates that actual blog posts about it  .

Ok, off I go into NaNo land…. It’s 11/4/11 which means I’m already running behind.  I know, I know. Not a good way to start off things,  but I still have faith!  The weekend is upon us and I have plans on churning out some serious word count.

Just WHOA!

Don’t believe me? Ladies & gentlemen, Blake Griffin.

Case closed. (WOW!)

Seriously, all ogling aside,  go check out the 2011 Body Issue.  Stunning  photography and stunning bodies.

Just got back from GRW’s Moonlight & Magnolias conference.  And as usual, it was excellent.  The workshops covered a variety of topics, and the hands on workshops on critiquing–which I had the pleasure of co-moderating– and pitching went very well.  The conference was in Decatur, GA this year and was my first time visiting.   I must say, the area we were in was very charming, had excellent restuarants, bars, and shopping all withing walking distance.

Now, on to the conference highlights:  First up, I really enjoyed the pitch workshop.  The attendees were divided up and paired with a published author for hands on pitch work.  I was lucky enough to get author Mark All, and just let me tell you, he really helped me get my urban fantasy pitch together.  Trust me when I say I needed it.  I’ve been writing, living and breathing Contemporary Romance the last 3 years and had no clue how to best pitch my UF.  Mark stepped in and shed light on it for me.  A big help as I went on to successfully pitch that day and received a submission request.  YAY!! for me and THANKS!!!! to Mark for his help.

Leigh Michaels’ workshop, Things that Stump the Best of Us was super awesome.  One of my weaknesses as a writer is that I tend to focus a lot on back story and character history, as opposed to present story action as I start off my stories.  Leigh reviewed quite a few quick tools to help eliminate this, improve pace, and fix up transitions.  Really good stuff, I can’t wait to implement in my revisions.

Of course, meeting up with friends, making new connections and the Maggie Awards are the crown jewels of M&M for me each year.  Here are a couple a memories from the weekend:  Some of the authors I met:

Author D. Renee Bagby

D. Renee was up for a Maggie for Eris this year in the Paranormal category

Jodi & author Leigh Michaels

Leigh delivered two excellent workshops this year.

Author Shiloh Walker

Got the chance to meet Shiloh at the book signing.  She was being coy

Author Gabi Stevens

Gabi gave a great workshop on themes and how they can be used to strengthen your story.

Now, on to the Maggies, we had a ball:

Me & 3 of my critique partners.  Lovely ladies in blue, black and white

Pam and & I posing with author Jax Cassidy

Chudney mid groove- LOL

No clue what Jodi and I call ourselves doing right here.  None at all

J is feeling the music I tell ya.

Nicki, Trish, and DJ Silver Knight.  He kept us on the dance floor all night long, whether we wanted to be or not!  Good times all around!

Again, another great conference put on by the members of GRW.  I’d be remiss if I left out the highlight of the conference…. I pitched to 2 editors and 1 agent and received submission requests from all 3!!!  WOOT! I’m super excited, even more so because my the editor I pitched my contemp romance to seemed just as excited about my story as I am.  This is important because my contemp happens to fall into a subcategory that makes it a bit hard to place.  But I love the story, so I’m sticking with it.

If you’re an author, published or not, and looking for a conference to attend in 2012, I’d highly recommend Moonlight and Magnolias.  It will be back in Norcross next year which means one thing… The Norcross Train Station for dinner and desert.  Personally, I can’t wait

So even though I didn’t want too, and even though I needed to go to bed within the next 20 mins,  I pulled out the laptop and tackled a brand new scene in my UF wip.  And with no plan or outline I might add, just a general thought I wrote down while doing my narrative outline last week.  Amazingly, it went well.  I’ve been so busy lately doing other things like workshop and program outlines, critiques, and brainstorming (all things I enjoy doing), that I’d forgotten how good it feels to let loose and just write.  Once I tapped into that special place, the one where the natural words, cadence, ideas and imagery lives,  the words just flowed.  Yeah, it was only 20 mins and yes, it was only 216 words, but I was enough to get me back into the swing of things. I got my mojo back, I got the jones for that feeling back, I got the excitement about my story back, I got the confidence in my words and my abilities back.  Those 216 words are so much bigger than the number seems.

I tell ya, Zen is the plane on which no inner critics exists.  As a writer, I’ve got to learn to tune out my left brain better when I’m tackling right brained activities.  There is a difference in the creative skill set needed to write vs the one needed to revise.  I’ve also got to get back into my daily writing habit, even if it’s just 216 words a day I manage.

“Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not words.  Trust movement.” ~Alfred Alder

I’ve decided to trust movement.

Image source

I love this song, and it sooo Brian and Paris, fav lines are:

    “You’ve got this look I can’t describe,
     You make me feel like I’m alive,
     When everything else is au fait,
     Without a doubt you’re on my side,”

And let’s not forget:
    “Still I wonder why it is,
     I don’t argue like this,
     With anyone but you,
     We do it all the time,
     Blowing out my mind,”

And if you read any of Worth Fighting For, you know this Brian and Paris all the way-lol.