Wishes for a Happy New Year - 2010

As the year 2009 is passing by, let us take a few moments to think and...

Retrospect - on what ifs and what nots,

Plan - for how we would love to be,

Remember - all that's important to us and

Take a deep breath - step in.

Welcome the new year with an open mind and open arms - embrace each moment.

Here is a list I got from a friend..and thought I'll share out here..


THE HANDBOOK for 2010


Health:

1. Drink plenty of water

2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar

3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants

4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy

5. Make time to pray

6. Play more games

7. Read more books than you did in 2009

8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day

9. Sleep for 7 hours

10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, SMILE



Personality:

11. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about

12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment

13. Don't over do. Keep your limits.

14. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.

16. Dream more while you are awake

17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..

18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.

20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

23. Smile and laugh more.

24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree...



Society:

25. Call your family often.

26. Each day give something good to others.

27. Forgive everyone for everything..

28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6..

29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

30. What other people think of you is none of your business.

31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.



Life:

32. Do the right thing!

33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

34. Time heals everything.

35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change..

36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

37. The best is yet to come.. Believe.

38. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be HAPPY ALWAYS

Ho ho ho !

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year :)

The nice thing is that, after almost two weeks of writer's block self-imposed non-writing time, I started off to write today.

And what did I do for the past two weeks? Well, I watched movies and I read books of course :)

Thanks to wonderful authors like Olivia Gates, Sarah Morgan, Michelle Willingham, Anna Hackett etc, to name a few, who pen down really beautiful books for starving readers to relish. The books are filled with so many poigant emotions, that really makes a person fall headlong into the world where the Hero/heroine reside...and take a ride - away from reality. Wonderful, isn't it?

And the result? It motivated me to create a new world of my own, filled with strong characters.. Voila.. Here I am, revisiting my very first paranormal "panther" story (that I'd abandoned for about three months) and starting to write from the scratch.. So the 14000 word 'incomplete' story is now at 532 words and hopefully it'd go up...

I was reading a wonderful post the other day on the : The 5 most common problems first-time-writers share. I've listed the points below.

• First time writers all want to write their life story in the form of a novel
• Beginners have no antagonist
• First time writers have no plot
• Beginners do not have enough dialogue
• First time writers hang on to an idea for a novel that is no longer popular

To tell the truth, I thought, "Bah, I'm above all these points. I am NOT writing my life story." The very first thing that triggered this story was THE ANTAGONIST - namely a wierd creature that I'll not name now. I'm planning a paranormal romance that's like the latest and most popular...Also, I have the story sorted out in my mind...What more do I need?

But point four caught my attention and made me pause.. as I read through my "first" piece of writing, I realized, it sounded more like an essay..with loads of descriptions about castles, the waterfall and the colorful fishes....and the hero(H) and heroine(h) are more comfortable spending time in their own heads, in their own thoughts than really conversing with each other.

Is that what I want out of a story? Obviously, NO.

I learnt the lesson the hard way, when I couldn't progress with my story. I didn't know how to make my H and h talk to each other, thereby, pushing all the other points - on plot, popularity etc, for a toss.

That's a valuable thing to always keep in mind, especially with "English" as my second language. I've got to get the slang, the accent and the dialogues right. I applied my learnings to the potential "spice brief" that I submitted and also to my other "Work-In-Progress(WIP)"...

So today I began the good "old" story with a dialogue. ;) Here's a peek :

---
“Aren’t you going too far with this, this… - ”

Sasha Alvarez supplied the missing word to her friend, with a chuckle. “Robbery?”
---

Yes, my heroine's name is Sasha. In case you wonder, MY panther's name, oops, THE hero's name is Darian :) Does that sound good? umm, alpha and sexy?

I know many writers complain about having too much dialogue in their stories and wish to cut down :) I surely would like to borrow some from them ;)

As a reader, what do you love in a story? More descriptions or more dialogues? As a writer - what is your style of writing?

Finally - the next step...

I did it at last !

After weeks of debating whether to send it or not..After days of nit-picking on my own story, After reading it until my eyes watered and I could no longer look at it, I packed it in an email and HIT the "send" button to Harlequin Spice Briefs....

Now the ball is out of my court, literally and figuratively... The automated response thanked me for the submission and said in a nice manner that my wait can be anywhere from three to six months..

I'm sure loads of lovely writers want the responses to be faster. But me, the quirk, am perfectly glad to wait three to six months.. to catch up on my nocturne bite (paranormal), and the sequel to my spice... I want to use this time to learn, write better, and polish my craft.. until it shines.. like the sun? or the moon? Or a "star" among thousands...

It was nerve-wracking for me until submission..and the prospect of getting a response is so far away that it doesn't pinch me yet.. Even if it is a "rejection" (hereafter termed as "R"), the very fact that it was read by an editor is like a boon for me :)

Fingers crossed and hoping for the best..

And did I forget to mention ?

My first ever entry into harlequin was through "Date with Destiny"..For those who would like to see, here's the link : http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/write-stuff/write-date-destiny

You can search for "Anju" or "Ju" and you can read my first ever words written :) I know, I know.. I'm an amateur compared to some of the wonderful writers out there..but the confidence it gave me was what propelled me towards "writing"..

And the next thing I did? Enter into "Harlequin presents competition"... And the results were out two days back.. and I didn't place.

What does it mean? To me, it just meant that there were 543 better writers than me..and I got to work hard to become an author - some day ! (Hopefully soon)..  Read my entry, posted in : My other blog

With my sights set firm on my "writing" and my current ongoing projects, I didn't even feel the pinch of not getting selected.. "May the best person win" is something I believe in...

Am I a saint? Of course not.. It's just that, getting published is more important and we have to go every step of the way, hoping for the light to shine at the end of the tunnel. Hence, I wish all the winners their best.. from my heart.

Here I am, plotting my next characters in my head and they are keeping me pretty entertained.. So far, so good.. :) Hope everyone is able to embrace happiness...

My DH (Dear Husband), used a term, "White Noise"..Well, I'll hold on to that for some later post anyways.

Scratching my head...

Not due to lice. I promise!

I just read an article : 'A happy writer is a lousy writer' as it goes on to describe how negative mood influence authors positively.. Food for thought, eh?

My immediate reaction on seeing the topic was like.. hmmm, could be.. since negative emotions bring about a depth of feeling that fuels the words and the emotions. There are numerous instances of some of the great works - be it books, movies or songs that depict tragedies.. So far so good. Now, coming to the point(s) what made me scratch my head..

You know minds..they churn thoughts at speeds faster than light.. So my good old mind went whirling on in its way : oh, so tragedies are needed if the work must be good? Are writers are supposed to be unhappy to produce a novel..? It rang warning bells and the thought, not boding well, sat as a lump in my throat for two things..

First being : I want to enjoy writing and not sit in misery while penning, oops, typing my story.. Why would someone embrace sadness in order to do something the heart desires? Does it make sense? To me, it didn't..

And the second? The recent tragedy at home (for those who've not read my earlier post, is that my MIL passed away), has pushed me into the dumps where am trying to balance the ripples and after effects for my DH, for our decisions, FIL and so on.. A perfect 'unhappy' moment isn't it? Then why are my fingers not flying over the keyboard, churning out my paranormal or spice- filled with colorful words, great descriptions, fantastic characters waiting to jump of the pages?

Is it any wonder that am baffled? With so many confusing thoughts, why wouldn't one be so? Now I did the next logical thing, I clicked on the link to the article... (At last!)

And realised at least some of my confusions ebbed away.. By the end, I was nodding at it (as in listening and processing). I absolutely fell for the statement : "Watching a sad movie with your spouse might do the trick; being left by your spouse probably would not." I think it says it all.

Will my minds stop its marathon now? I wish ! It hopped on to the next thought : Negative emotions does have a positive outcome (sometimes).. right? no? may be?

Checking in..

Back with a bang? Hopefully. Truth is, am back with tails tucked between legs.. waiting for some moments to recharge and shine..

After a heart-wrenching phase with DH's family since my MIL passed away, I am back trying to gather the pieces, where I left them. Physically, emotionally and professionally.

I see my FIL trying to sort out his priorities,..did I say priorities? Well, he is wondering what to do next..where does he stand and most important of all : where to go in life..? No one can plan his things.. except him.. Loss of a loved one has so much impact on life to such an extent that it is never the same again.

I've never understood how important it is to have "constructive distraction" to go through any emotional phase. UNTIL NOW !

Writing or plotting is helping me be afloat during this negatively emotional phase. I am thinking on the edits to my paranormal story that I've completed... and in meanwhile planning its sequel..hoping that the sequel will shed light on the completed story.. There are some comments I need to really work on... And my spice brief is still in works, under edits...

Do we need such things during positively emotional phase as well? I'm not sure..

What are some of the distractions you adopt to go through life? Both constructive or otherwise? Do share a few words... It helps to discuss...doesn't it?