A little glimpse.....

Here is a little glimpse....a teaser for the book I am still in the process of editing.  Let me know what you think!


The Healer: First Touch (Working Title)

Eighteen year old Jacey Brindle longs for excitement in her ordinary, boring life.  Hopeful that her pending high school graduation will start her on a new path, she tries to be patient as she waits in the rural small town of Byron with her grandmother, Oma and her loyal friends Emma and Jamie.  However, when she meets Varick, a mysterious stranger wearing the mark of a Protector, a heavily tattooed left arm, Jacey discovers that her life is far from ordinary.  She is a Healer with the power to heal with her bare hands.  As Varick teaches her how to unlock her newly discovered gift, he must also protect her from the Fury, an evil shape shifter determined to destroy Jacey and assimilate her powers.   While Jacey heals the injuries and illnesses of friends around her, she finds the price of her new exciting life is too great as her healing powers endanger not only her own life but the life of her precious Oma.  With the evil of the Fury descending upon them, Jacey and Varick rely on the assistance of Asim, a brother Protector who lost his Healer to the Fury.  As Asim's shocking betrayal and alliance with the Fury is discovered, Jacey finds herself drawing closer to Varick for protection.  But as the bond of Healer and Protector between them strengthens so does their attraction to each other until it threatens to destroy them both.

The heartache of a working mama

My youngest one (2 years old) asks every morning as she's waking up....."You go work today, mama?"  When I tell her yes....she cries, only stopping when I assure her I will snuggle her when I get home.  But on the weekends, when she asks me the same thing....I happily tell her no work today and that I get to stay home with her.  She smiles brightly and cheers, "Yeah!  You take care of me!"  And she throws her little arms around my neck.

Breaks my heart each and every time!  The heartache of being a working mama.  Maybe someday.....

Away we ye Pull Ups!

We are done with Pull Ups!!  Actually, we have been done with pull ups for about 2 months now.  Which is a big deal since our two youngest are 4 and 2.  Woo Hoo!!  Right?!  Well....not exactly.

Both are 4 year old and our 2 year old still have bed wetting issues.  Most nights only one will have an accident, while the other remains dry.  But, if we are really lucky (insert sarcasm here) both will have wet the bed.  Basically, what this all means is that every day we are washing someone's bedding.  AHHHHH!!  I bet you are thinking, "Well, duh, go back to the pull ups then!"  But we refuse!  That's right!  My husband and I are taking a stand against the establishment called pull ups and refuse to buy any more!  Why you might ask?  Simply because we just don't want to pay for them.  So....that means that we will have to just get used to washing bedding everyday.

But, not so fast!  I discovered something very useful that has worked for us.  I ordered plastic panties online that my girls wear to bed over a pair of thick cotton training panties.  The combination has worked wonders!  The cotton panties are absorbant enough that they keep the wetness from escaping but not absorbant enough to keep the girls' skin dry.  This makes the girls uncomfortable, so they wake up and we use the potty.  The plastic panties keep the moisture locked in, allowing pajamas and bedding to remain dry.  It really works! 

Now....if only I can remember to actually put the plastic/cotton panty combo on them everynight.....

Boys will be Boys

I wanted to share a quick, funny story about my 10 year old son.  This is Spring Break week and he was excited about going over to Grandma's and Grandpa's for a sleepover.  Since he is 10 years old, I told him to go pack his own bag...only reminding him to make sure he packed clothes for Baseball practice.  I left everything else to him. 

Of course I did check his bag just before he left.......And just as a boy would do......he packed what he considered to be the "essentials":  Sleep Pants, Swimsuit (Grandma has a hot tub), Sweat Pants and Sweat Shirt (for Baseball), and right on top.....a zip lock baggie of plastic army guys.  So funny.  The boy made sure he packed his army guys...no socks....and no underpants.  But he didn't forget his army guys.

Boys will be Boys!

Preface

So I thought I would take a moment to give a little background as to why I have decided to finally enter the blogging community.  It was scary...to finally plunge head first into the watery depths of blogging....especially for someone like me who doesn't like to swim.  But if I'm being totally and brutally honest here....my reasons are partly selfish....ok....mostly selfish. 

I am an author.  Whew!  There I finally wrote it.  For the world to see.  The little secret that I have been carrying around for the past year is that I wrote a book and have been secretly trying to get traditionally published.  Just a select few, those that I trust, knew of my little secret.  But I'm finally ready to start talking about my book to others now.  Maybe it's because I have had a few (family and strangers) read my book and they told me they liked it.  Maybe it's because I have received so many rejections from literary agents that I have finally decided that I'm just going to somehow get my book published myself.  Maybe it's because I have a super supportive husband who has encouraged me to never give up on my dream, to trust God, and to task risks.  I am sure it is all of those things.  And I'm finally ready to take the plunge.

So where do I begin?  I kind of feel like an addict who has admitted that I have a secret addiction and I am in need of help.....but I don't know where to get it.  What do I do next?  What do I say?  Where do I go from here?  I could tell you all about the countless, form letter rejections I have received and the frustrations and doubts that go along with that.  But honestly....I am sort of passed that now.  I want to begin to share my book and the journey I took to write it.  To finally be able to believe that although I am not a published author as of yet....I'm still an author.

It took me seven months to write.  Seven long months of trying to write whenever I could squeeze time into my busy schedule as a mom, wife, attorney, adjunct professor, etc.  I gave up watching television, turning to writing instead.  Nap times, bed times, lunch hours.....were all spent penning the thoughts in my mind.  And finally, in October 2010.....it was completed.  All 117,000 words.....33 chapters.  A full and complete novel.  I did it!  But little did I know in October that writing the novel would be the easy part.  I felt like after all the hours of labor....I had finally given birth to this beautiful little gift....my book.  I was sure that the first agents I sent query letters would excitedly scoop up my book, begging to represent it.  Sure, the first few form letter rejections were surprising...and painful.  But then, as the rejections continued to plague my inbox, I became numb, casually transferring the responses into my rejection folder as easily as if I was deleting spam.  But it's April now......over a year since I wrote that first word in my journal.....and I'm ready to try this on my own. 

Curious to know what my book is about?  I'm going to leave you hanging.....with the hope that you come back for more....curious to read the next chapter.
 

Every Tale has a beginning.......and here is the start of mine.....

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

LEWIS CARROLL, Alice in Wonderland

When I read my two youngest children a bed time story, they always flip to the middle of the book and want me to start there.  I'm not sure why, but that is what they insist each time. I have tried a number of times to instruct them that we must start at the beginning, work our way through the book to the ending...to complete the story as the author intended...so the tale makes sense.  But have you ever tried to reason with a four year old?  As you have probably guessed....most nights I let her win, and we begin the story somewhere in the middle.  I let her flip the pages, dictating where the story leads us.  Sometimes the story doesn't make any sense at all and other times the story, surprisingly, does.  But at the end, when I'm closing the book to put it back on the shelf, I'm always met with two sets of bright eyes and two big smiles and the words, "What a great story, Mama!"

Of course there is a beginning to my story and the tales I intend to tell on this blog.  But, just like the tales I read my girls at bed time, I must start somewhere in the middle....at least for the sake of this blog.  My hope is that this blog will become a place where I can share some of my stories....the ones I experience as the busy mama of four kids.....and the ones I create in my imagination to write down as novels.  I want to be able to share my struggles and frustrations, my joys and triumphs in my role as a busy mama....and as a first time writer trying to get traditionally published.  And, most importantly, I want to be able to recognize God's hand in it all and accept that all of it....struggles and frustrations, joys and triumphs....are all a part of His plan.  

And with that.....there will be more to come....because I haven't come to the end quite yet.