Life in progress


40 Comments

Aaaaaaand….. One More

My turn.

And it probably won’t be as entertaining as the others.  But, you’ll get to know me a bit anyway :-).

When Linda asked for SoCS help while she was out this month, I went back and forth in my head over whether to volunteer or not.  I wasn’t (am still not) certain I’m up to the task of contributing to a blog with such a following as this.  I mean, I’ll be honest: I was thrilled when my followers reached 100 a couple of months ago.  Ultimately, I decided to take the plunge (obviously, since you see me writing here now), and I hope that I don’t lose her any followers in the process ;-).

So.  A bit about me, just so that when you see my SoCS post in a couple of weeks, you don’t think I’m just some crazy person who hijacked Linda’s blog.

Like many others around here, I’m a writer.  I wrote (and illustrated) my first book at the age of 6.  Okay, it was really a short story by definition, but to a six year old, it was a book – bound and everything.  And by bound, I mean put in sheet protectors that were tied together with yellow yarn.  I digress.  When I saw that finished book, all tied up and pretty, I got a thrill like no other I had experienced up to that point.  I ran with that awesome feeling and never looked back (except for the illustrating part – I don’t do that anymore).  I have been writing ever since and loving it.

In middle and high school, I became addicted to writing poetry and short stories with twist endings.  My favorite authors were Edgar Allan Poe and O. Henry.  I tried my hand at a novel when I was 14, and though I was quite proud of it at first, the eyes of wisdom (a year later) saw that it was utter trash, and it has never since seen the light of day.  However, I wrote my second book when I was 15 and 16, and that book was revived and revised earlier this year, and published as a juvenile fiction book.

I continued to write through college, and though publishing was always like stars in my eyes, I saw it more as a pipe dream.  I didn’t get serious about writing something publishable until 2009, when I participated in my 3rd NaNoWriMo challenge in 4 years.  Even then, I hesitated to attempt publishing for four years.  This past year, I finally decided to jump in, feet first, and self-publish.  It has been a fun and exciting – and scary! – experience, and I wouldn’t change a thing.  I now have 4 self-published books, and am well into my fifth.  My main writing genre is Young Adult Fiction.

I am also a wife of an extremely successful and wonderful man, and the mother of five amazing children who have all survived the foster care system.  Four of them are adopted, and we are hoping to adopt the fifth soon.  In addition to writing and parenting, I try to make time in my schedule to play the piano and run.  When I find myself with free time (extremely rare), I like to read.

If you stuck through this entire post to the end, thank you for reading!  Please check out my website if you’re interested in learning more about my books or reading my blog.  I always respond to comments and love to discover new blogs as well.

Thanks for reading!  See you again soon for SoCS!


28 Comments

Get Ready

Over the next few days I hope you’ll all join me in welcoming our Stream of Consciousness Saturday hosts, who have graciously accepted the task of taking over while I’m away. These three wonderful bloggers will be writing posts here at Life In Progress starting tomorrow, to introduce themselves. They’ll be coming up with the Friday prompts and visiting all of your upcoming SoCS posts during the next three weekends.

I know they’ll do a fantastic job and I hope you’ll all visit their blogs and follow them if you haven’t already.

Just so you know, I’ve pre-scheduled both of the One-Liner Wednesday posts that I’ll be absent for, as well as all of the “Second Seat on the Right” posts over at my fiction site, Inspiration in Progress, so you won’t miss a thing!

I have to say, it feels really weird to just end a post without a shout-out to someone after a month of participating in NoBloMooglyWoo and Mr. Fantastic’s Team Pepper Mystery Tour. Really awkward.

So visit your hosts when you see their posts. You’ll be happy you did!!


35 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS November 29/14

Guess what? It’s time for your Friday Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! This week’s prompt came to me completely out of the blue – I love it when that happens!

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “sense/scents/cents,” with a bonus word this week – “sent.” Choose one, use them all or simply write whatever comes to mind- it’s up to you!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use the SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

socs-badge

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. Have fun!


38 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS November 22/14

Welcome to the Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Here you will find fun and excitement in blogging excellence all in the comment section… But first, we need writers!

This week’s Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “in-” Find a word that begins with the prefix “in” or use the word itself anywhere in your post. Easy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use the SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

socs-badge

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. Have fun!


36 Comments

Update on my WordPress Woes

It’s fixed! The lovely Alex G. on staff at WordPress started off his note to me by promising not to eat me, as per my concern in the last post. He then informed me that the problem was with an image in one of my articles which had an errant “/” within its coding. Something that I, in a million years, would not have suspected. He fixed it for me, and voila! Problem solved.

I’d like to give a shout out to Sammy D. and to my darling Belinda for going to great lengths to provide me with possible solutions to my woes. Thank you both. 😀

The moral of the story: if you have a problem, go to support and/or post about it. And don’t be afraid – WordPress doesn’t eat bloggers. At least Alex G. doesn’t.


33 Comments

Nano Poblano – Day 14: Missing Posts

How could I possibly go a day without having something new to love WordPress for? Today I have (that I’ve found so far) four posts missing from my page. They’re still accessible from the links made to them and I can still find them internally. On top of that, I can’t see my sidebar from my computer when I look at my home page, though my lovely friend Belinda says she can see it from hers.

Here are the missing posts:

One-Liner Wednesday – Grissom

Clever Mathematics 😉

WordPress view stats all over the place

The Nano Poblano Oddly Specific Gratitude Blog Hop

Note that one of them is a complaint over the view stats.

If I go missing completely, it means WordPress ate me for posting this. In the meantime, you might want to check out your own blogs and see if anything is missing from your site.  I’m waiting for support to get back to me on mine.

Edit: The Nano Poblano Oddly Specific Gratitude Blog Hop post just showed up but the other three are still missing.

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NaBloPoMo_1114_465x287_blogroll


44 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS November 15/14

Friday, Friday, who doesn’t love Friday? Those who have to work weekends, I suppose. Like me. But the good news is it’s time for your Friday Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! Whoopie! As I sat in a Tim Horton’s the other day, sipping my coffee, I came up with a few ideas for prompts and jotted them down. Therefore, I’m now going through a list. From the top:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “element.” Choose one of the four: air/water/earth/fire or use the word “element” however you wish to define it. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use the SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

socs-badge

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. Have fun!


85 Comments

WordPress view stats all over the place

I just checked my number of views for the day – 72.
A few seconds later it was 66.
I wondered if I was seeing things so I refreshed the page. 73.
Now it’s back down to 66.

Am I the only one this is happening to?


31 Comments

Nano Poblano – Day 9: 10 Random Whos

1. Who let the dogs out?

2. Who puts the holes in donuts?

3. Who do they put all those warnings on labels for – you know, the ones that are just common sense?

4. Who was that masked man?

5. Who are you? Who? Who? Who? Who?

6. Who goes moo when they see a cow?

7. Who was the first person to ask which came first, the chicken or the egg?

8. Who likes lima beans? I mean, seriously…

9. Who makes my day brighter? You do! Who makes yours?

10. Who has woken you up more in your life than anyone else?

 

1 Point for every question you answer – 10 points for one “who” question back at me. The winner of the funniest answer (decided by me) gets their answer posted on One-Liner Wednesday. Go!

 

These whos are brought to you by the letter M (for Mr. Mark):

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and the number 9, as in the 9th day of:

NaBloPoMo_1114_465x287_blogroll


26 Comments

Nano Poblano – Day 8: A Pickled Pepper

It’s so tempting to drink and blog at times. Some of my best (at least I think so at the time) ideas come to me when I’m less than my regular sober self. But like with anything we humans do after a couple of ounces of alcohol, our bravado goes up as our inhibitions go down.

One of my most memorable (to me, then again I was drunk for all of my drunk posts–there aren’t many) less-than-with-it posts was this one. The lyricist/singer in the picture is known for his liberal drinking habits, though I’m not sure this particular photo wasn’t staged. But I think that tiny post pretty much says it all. Some of the best things that have been written are by well-known drunks.

So what’s the difference between, say, Hunter S. Thompson or F. Scott Fitzgerald and your average blogger? The time it takes to publish.

I need to remember that next time my finger hovers, swaying over the mouse as the cursor rests on that lovely blue button.

So now that I sound like a total alcoholic (which I’m not), I ask all the casual drinkers out there the question: should a pepper post before it’s pickled? Or is a peck of pickled posting perfectly proper?

This post brought to you by Team Pepper:

 

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And NaBloPoMo:

NaBloPoMo_1114_465x287_blogroll