Up and Running Again!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased, relieved, and excited to announce that the Giles family move, 2015 version, has officially come to an end. I mean, okay technically, there are still about 100 boxes left to unpack, but I finally found the box with all my pants—which was truly missing for like 4 days. Also, the box with my kitchen knives and spatulas, which are also sort of important.

Pants = I can now go out in public. Hooray!

Spatulas = I can make things like grilled cheese without burning my fingers off.

The other boxes—well, I’ll get to them as I can. The goal is a box a day for now. And to be fair, I have organized every room in the house as I have unpacked, so that also takes time. I sort of feel like Super-Woman when I consider how much I have accomplished in the last month.

Me = muscling furniture into place and scrubbing hard water spots off the shower in the rental. (Who needs the gym?)

The downside is I have truly had to set aside my writing projects, which I fully expected and had planned for, but still hurt, since I am right in the thick of about four massive ones. However, I am now getting back into the saddle, and hope to crank out LEGACY and get to work on the sequel for Water So Deep.  

Me = dusts off computer and jumps into the waiting arms of my characters.

So. What have you been up to lately? 

All The Best Laid Plans, Part I

I’ve decided not to make resolutions this year. It’s not that I don’t have goals—I have more goals this year than I think I ever have. It’s more that in the last three years, I’ve learned some pretty massive lessons about how easily all the best laid plans can be derailed.

Sometimes you have to let go of your own plans and ride the waves of circumstance until you can touch the ground once again.

For instance, at the beginning of 2014, I planned to write at least three books, go to several conferences in Texas, some in Utah, and one in Kansas and work toward building my career. I planned to blog every week and spend more time at the beach and read more books.

But stuff happened. 

1.       In January, I made an emergency trip to Utah for a funeral—the loss of a dear friend’s husband, who died too young.

2.       I spent February and March finishing edits on Birthright, and got it finished just barely on time for publication.

3.       In April, I traveled to Utah for a conference, where I spent just under two weeks so I could also deal with some family issues.

4.       In May, my oldest daughter graduated high school and my husband and his officers had a homicide case that blew wide open.

5.       In June, that homicide case took over our lives until the suspect was apprehended, and that same weekend, my husband was offered a fantastic job back in Utah.

6.       By July, we listed our house, packed up everything we own, and moved across the country. Again.

7.       In August, we unloaded into our current house (a temporary rental), my husband started his new job, and I moved my oldest daughter to Orlando, Florida where she is attending school.

8.       In September, I swore my life would calm down so I could finally do some writing, but then… we discovered a leak in our kitchen.

9.       In October, our landlords finally got around to investigating the leak, which led to mold and a full-scale kitchen renovation that was not complete until the week of Thanksgiving, and was distracting enough that my writing concentration was completely shot.

10.   This brings me to December. I put up my tree and hung the garland. I began my shopping. I bought my daughter a plane ticket to come home. I was prepared for full-scale holiday celebrating. And then my father-in-law died, and there was another funeral, estate details to work out, and grief to deal with.

The thing about death and grief, and also stress, is that it changes your priorities. In the cases of several of these events, writing fell way down the priority scale. My family is more important than my deadlines, and so in all of these cases, they have taken the front seat. I didn't read more books, and I sucked at blogging, and I didn't write nearly as much as I wanted. And you know what? That's okay. I could not have planned for last year.

What about you? What in your life is more important than your personal goals and deadlines?

*This blog turned out to be pretty long, so I’ve split it into two. To be continued next week.

The Best Intentions

This summer life has clocked me in the head. Literally. As in, no matter how hard I think, my brain cannot compute where the time has gone and how it is not almost OCTOBER. So much for keeping up with my regular Tuesday blogs! Sigh.

But it’s okay. I’m coming to grips with a few things this month, and thought maybe I should share them with you.

1.       Sometimes it’s okay to not be able to keep up with everything you hoped to do. Life is a game of priorities, and sometimes the people in it get to come ahead of and above other goals or schedules.

2.       There is nothing in the world that will put a family of six in an emotional tailspin faster than a two year sequence that involves three big moves (not including my oldest daughter who added one more to that number) across a distance of 1500 miles. It is physically, emotionally, and mentally impossible to keep up with anything else—especially artistically, during this time.

3.       It’s important to live for life’s “ups” in order to make the “downs” more bearable.

4.       Sometimes even the best intentions just don’t add up to reality.

5.       Making my personal writing goals that involve manuscripts have become a much higher priority above blogging.

It’s that number five thing that has kept me from blogging. See, here’s the thing. I had big plans for this summer. I have books to draft and blogs to write, and conferences to attend, marketing to keep up on and, and, and… I’ve discovered that no matter how badly I want to keep up with all these things, the reality is that I can’t do everything, all the time.

So I let this blog slide a bit, and I don’t feel too bad about it because I have instead focused on other writing projects that I hope to see making important progress in the near future.

I very much hope that I am able to get back into a routine and keep up with blogging again this fall. But if I skip some weeks—if I don’t keep up the way I always have—I hope you can forgive me. I hope you’ll continue to come back and read anyway. Because I have come to the conclusion that it is more important to keep up with writing books than it is to stay consistent with this blog. (Though I truly do hope I can juggle both!)

Thanks for sticking with me, friends!

Stay tuned next tuesday for a report on the awesomeness that was the LDStorymakers Midwest Conference! 

Catching Up and Coming Back and Summer

Guys! You know how in my last blog I said I was going to take a two week hiatus? And it’s been like four instead. That is just how crazy moving has been for me. We have so much catching up to do!

To save time and space, here’s a quick rundown:

At the beginning of July, my husband was offered a new job that took us from Texas back to Utah. (You know it had to be good to drag me away from my beach!)

I spent the rest of the month packing and preparing to put my house on the market and move my family.

When my husband was finished with his job in Texas, we took a week to visit Orlando, FL, to look at apartments for my daughter who is going to school there (and yes, we did visit Disney and Universal, because—obviously.)

I finally got to visit Hogwarts!

Immediately after returning from Florida, it was time to move. Since our movers fell through at the last minute (their fault, not ours), we improvised. I learned to tow like a BOSS! While transporting a small zoo (2 dogs, a cat, a rabbit, 3 kids, 2 adults).

We arrived in Utah, and immediately picked up this beautiful family member—which we have missed tremendously. (Yes, I am a water person, clearly.)

A short week after arriving, it was time to move my daughter to Florida. So she and I took an epic road trip.

On my returning flight, I *finally* started editing a project I planned to have finished in June.

Last week, my kids started school, and I have been catching up on sleep. This week, I am BACK TO EDITING AND WRITING!

And on September 19-20 I will be visiting Kansas City, KS to present at the LDStorymakers Midwest Conference. There is a massive Author event at a local library the afternoon of September 19^th, so if you’re in the area, definitely stop by and say hi!

 *deep breath* That’s a lot of stuff, y’all!

I am now back to blogging, and writing, and all that fun author stuff. I’m going to stick with my current once-a-week posting on Tuesdays for now, but if you want to hear from me more often, you can always follow me on Facebook, where I post a little more frequently, but not obnoxiously so (I hope). Also, for the most up-to-date news and contests, I’d love to have you sign up for my author newsletter (sign up on the sidebar thereà).

And now that I’ve caught you all up on what’s happening with me, what did you do this summer? 

Inspiration

For the next two weeks, I am taking a short hiatus while we take a little trip and then finish our big move. I am so glad you stopped by to read, so I thought I'd share this lovely shot I took a couple weeks ago as my husband and I headed home from South Padre Island, Texas.

Here's a little writing prompt to go with it:

You have two characters, in a car, on this road. Who are they? Where are they going, and what happened earlier in the day that led them to this place, at this exact time?

Annnnddd....GO!

The Benefits of Practice

Well, actually, it’s pretty much everything. I mean, practice keeps us on our toes, right? But since this will be our third move in two years, and since two of those moves have been major, cross-country moves, I’m starting to feel like an expert this time around.

I’m getting good at packing. Not that I wasn’t good before—I’ve moved so many times in my life, that I’ve lost track of how many homes I’ve lived in. And that’s okay. But when it comes to boxing things up—yeah. I’m getting there.

I’m also getting good at throwing things away. I know it sounds funny, but this is not a strength I’ve always had. I’m something of a packrat—or I used to be. I kept everything, even broken Rubbermaid containers, because I didn’t want to have to buy new ones. But broken containers do me no good when we’re moving, and so away they go. Along with the bench I’ve kept in the garage for the last year, planning to paint it. I love it, but it’s damaged, and heavy, and will cost more to transport than it’s worth, and so…it too goes.

Since we’re selling our house in Texas, I’m getting good at quick cleaning. Not because my house is always spotless, but because we’ve learned tricks on where to hide our dirty clothes and how to load the dishwasher in record time.

Another thing I’m learning through practice is how to juggle everything else in life and still get my packing done. For instance, this weekend, my husband and I took a day off to visit a beach we’ve been wanting to get to, but that is just far enough away that we’d put it off. We were gone all day, so we didn’t get any packing done, but we didn’t feel guilty, because we have a Texas bucket list which is also important.

Even though all of the above mentioned things seem to be all about moving, I think the practice idea is true for EVERYTHING. Writing. Reading. Playing an instrument. Sports. Whatever. The more you do a thing, the better at it you become.

And now I need to figure out how to actually plant new roots and stay put, because people, I do not want any more practice with moving.

What about you? What are you currently practicing? 

Land of the Brave, the Independent, the Free

I am of the patriotic sort. The girl who wears red, white, and blue on the 4^th of July and who insists on attending parades (even though my kids think they’re too old) and planning barbeques (even though they all whine) and then finding the best local fireworks show (even if I have to go without them). I love everything this holiday is about, what it stands for, and how it came to be. And I have a very special place in my heart for The Star Spangled Banner, particularly after a few years ago when I visited the very place where Francis Scott Key became inspired to write it.

But sadly, in South Texas, there is no parade, no city carnival/festival, and only a very small fireworks show in one of the nearby towns. Instead, we got up before sunrise and drove an hour away to see baby sea turtles released into the wild. We spent the day at the beach. We had our barbeque and spent the day together, and regardless of the whining, my family remembered why the country celebrates this glorious holiday.

Because thousands of brave soldiers have fought, and continue to fight, to keep our country strong—to keep us free. Because of that freedom, I am brave enough to follow dreams of my own. Like writing. And my kids can follow their dreams.

So, you know how two years ago we moved to Texas so I could finally live by my beach (that I LOVE)? Well. Not all dreams last forever, and my love affair with the beach was to be short lived in order for my husband to chase a dream of his own. I won’t go into all the crazy exciting details about it, because you can read about it here, but the bottom line is, the Giles family is headed BACK to Utah! This means another cross-country move.

And it’s happening fast. As in, now.

So please forgive me if over the next couple weeks I’m a bit absent. I promise I’ll be back in due time. And hey, if you follow my Facebook author page, I’ll post pictures along the way.

Happy July!

A Wider View

Ever since we moved into this new house, I’ve been on a little bit of a decorating kick. Part of it might be a driving need to make this place feel like home, even though we are far away from everything we know and everyone we love. But I think another part is very much a cycle of style.

I feel myself (and my family) moving away from colors that are easy and “trendy” and moving into ones that are bright and bold. Maybe it’s because we just did a brave, bold thing, and it’s a bit of a hangover from living this new life. I’m not sure. But I find myself gravitating toward color and patterns and other new ideas that I might not have ever considered in the house where everything was normal and comfortable and…the same as it had been since we built that home.

Then the other day, my kids and I cleaned out the garage and finished unpacking a number of our remaining boxes (the ones not in storage) and as we did we found bits and pieces of our past. Things we’ve collected on vacations or that we’ve just simply loved. And we got them out because in our life of uncertainty, we have a strong need to have little reminders of the familiar and the happy things from before.

And in doing so, I realized something. Yes, we’re thinking bold and bright, changing up colors and ideas, but as I lined the tops of our kitchen cabinets with bottles of sand and sea shells we have collected from all over the world, I realized that color aside, the core of our style, the core of our family, is very much the same.

Turns out, my fairy collection goes well with our new beach-esque color scheme, and our art pieces still move us to smiles. So while our style has evolved and cycled in a big way, we are still who we were before. Just maybe more open, more conscious, and with a bigger, wider view of things.

And I think maybe that is exactly the point.

But, um, I’m still looking for a desk for my office, so if you have a great tip on where I should look, I’d love to know.

It's Moving Week and Brave by Sara Bareilles

That's right, it's here. My second moving week this year. And once again, I'm going to take the week off from blogging because of a combination of me being crazy busy and not having a solid internet connection/finding my computer/hooking up stuff and whatever whatever.

So instead, please enjoy this fabulous new music video, Brave by Sara Bareilles. I love this song, and I think we should all do exactly this. Let's all be brave and let the words fall out!

I'll be back next week. Hopefully. Happy end of May!

 

Worth the Work

I’m not going to lie. The next month is going to be crazy busy for me. Yes, the fact that my book is officially “released” into the world is part of it. I’m currently in Utah to celebrate that, and also to attend and present at my all-time favorite writing conference. Those things, along with a little visiting and socializing, will take up the first half of my May. And THEN…

Moving. Again.

Yes, yes. We did just move. Uh huh. It has only been six months. Here it is: from crappy rental house—into nice home-we-will-own.

It’s a lot of work, and a lot of stress. And a lot of brainpower. But in the end, we believe all the work and stress will be worth it. Kind of like it’s worth all the work and stress it has taken for me to see this book through the publication process. And worth what it's going to take to find time to write the next one.

I believe that all the best things require sacrifice and hard work.

So what about you? What hard thing do you believe is worth working for this spring/summer?