The Irresistably Sweet Blog Award

So, I got a message from my friend Kimmydonn today saying that she's passed on The Irresistably Sweet Blog Award to me. This is very cool as this is the first blog award I've ever gotten (and based on my blogging habits, probably the only one I'll get. LOL). 

Here's what I was told was the rules of said award:
1) You link the person who sent it to you
2) List seven random facts about yourself
3) Pass the award on to 15 other awesome blog buddies
4) Contact them and let them know
Okay, first one - link to the person who sent it to you. That's done. The link to Kim's blog is above. She's got a book coming out soon through Martin Sister's Publishing. She also operates the picture prompt blog I post on. She's tres cool.

Number two - list seven random facts about yourself. Joy. I have to talk about myself. Let's see....
1. I'm left handed although I do many things with my right hand too (like use scissors...)
2. I'm very sarcastic.... to the point I sometimes have a hard time turning it off.
3. All three of my pets are rescues and any future pets will be rescues as well
4. I took the long scenic route to a college education and finally graduated with a business degree last October (with honors!)
5. I love to cook and have often considered taking culinary classes at the local community college... that and photography classes, art classes, etc....
6. Every spring I plant a garden in our backyard. I love having fresh veggies and herbs. I make a fresh salsa or pico de gallo all summer long. This year I have three types of lettuce, two types of tomatoes, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, banana pepper, cucumber, strawberries (they come in every year now), white onions, radishes, sugar snap pears, broccoli, cabbage, basil, cilantro, and rosemary. They are all outside waiting to be planted. I need to get out there this weekend and get everything in the ground.
7. I sang at Carnegie Hall in NYC when I was a senior in high school. It was a part of the Mid-American productions that had high school, college, and church choirs sing at Carnegie. It was a grueling audition process that we spent weeks practicing after school. It was worth it however. I have a picture on my wall of us on stage there. How many average joes can say they've performed at Carnegie Hall to a paying audience?

Okay for the third thing - Hmm.. I'm kinda lame with blogging so I don't have a lot of blogger buddies yet, and unfortunately, some of the ones I'd send this to have already been tagged by Kimmydonn.  So, I will update this post when I have my list together. :)

Onward...

Writing Photo Prompt Challenge - Week 53

For nearly a year, I've been participating in a weekly prompt challenge. It has been a great experience where I've learned how to be more concise with my writing and get to the point. The first several times I had to work hard to rein in my wordiness. Each week I'll post a link to my prompt for that week and a short exerpt of what I've written. Click on the link to read the full story.

This week's prompt entry is the first of an entire story arc I am going to be working on based on a young woman named Casey who finds her dead mother's journal, and begins a quest to find the answers to her mother's death and the search for an aunt she didn't know she had.

Hearts So Deep

Casey sat on a bench in that park, quite possibly the same bench that her mother sat on all those years ago, near the Penn State campus with the journal in her hand. She hoped that the journal would shed some light on her mother’s death. It all started there, in the park by the playground. Even the time of year seemed to match. The first entry in her mother’s journal was from when she was a freshman in college at Penn State, experiencing life on her own for the first time. It was filled with her thoughts, her dreams, her memories, the people she met, the people she wish she never met, and the ones she was running from.

The Writer's Challenge: What is The Writer's Challenge?

Love this. I made a vow to myself to write 1000 words a day and while I'm not always successful, it is still what I shoot for... I love the fact that she's blogged about this. It really puts in perspective what you can accomplish in a year.

The Writer's Challenge: What is The Writer's Challenge?: "The Writer's Challenge is simple, but not easy. Here is The Writer's Challenge: Write 1000 words a day - that's about 4 manuscript pa..."

The Virgin Post

I will come out and say I'm not the world's best blogger... I'm more like the worst. I prefer to read and comment on others then make one myself. However, it seems to be the nature of the beat to try to make an online presence for myself.

So here I am!  *Stands up and waves*

A little bit about me:
I began writing in high school, a mix of teenage romance shorts and one epically long science fiction story. Over the years, I have considered blowing the dust off the sci-fi story to see if anything is salvageable but, to be honest, I'm a bit scared to do so. My writing has improved vastly over the years and I shudder, literally shudder, over the thought of trying to dig through that story and all the horrible grammar, misspelling, and overall craptasticness. Plus... to be honest, it was a bit far-fetched. What I remember now was full of plot-holes...the size of which one of my husband's 53' tractor trailers could fit through.

I'll chalk it up to a learning experience. LOL

After high school, I didn't write as much.  Either there wasn't time or there wasn't the motivation to do so. Between work and dating, the draw just wasn't there. I had ideas in my head from time to time, but they never made it to paper.

Fast-forward several years as I trudged from a couple of meaningless jobs and picking through a college degree a few classes at a time. I find myself in a decent job and very close to finishing my degree (a boring business one, but a degree nonetheless) and the writing bug returns... spurred on by a story that was linked on a page I was viewing on Facebook.

There I was introduced to the world of Fanfiction. I was reading a fanfic story based on a series of books that I had recently read and greatly enjoyed. I was amazed at the amount of people from all ages who had written stories. Some were really good.... some were really bad, but they all shared a common love of writing. I was intrigued and decided to throw my hand in.

It has been a learning experience for me. It allowed me to cultivate my writing and my creativity again, allowing me to improve my writing and hone my much needed grammar skills. Say what you want about fanfiction, but borrowing from the backdrop of another writer's universe can be a good stepping stone for a beginning writer by writing new stories based on familiar characters. Some people have no desire to write professionally and just have fun with characters they love. What better compliment can a published author have then to realize that the readers can't get enough of the characters? For the serious writer, once he or she gets more comfortable with the craft, the writer can explore and create a unique universe with unique characters and a unique plot.

This is where I find myself now. I still enjoy the fanfiction environment and the great friends I've made, but now I find myself focusing more on my original work. Eventual publication is the goal, but I know I have a bit to go (not to mention finishing my manuscript would be a good idea). The support from my friends within fanfiction and new friends in the published world have been crucial and I wouldn't be here without them.

Onward...