W is for Writing and Wednesday's Writing Update

*It's the last few days to the A-Z challenge. I apologize for not being as active as I hoped. Real life has that way about it. I still hope to visit blogs within the coming months.*

I’ll be the first to tell you I wasn’t always a writer. In fact, I was convinced through English classes that my writing sucked and I should even consider giving up the entire language and moving to a foreign country.

Then I found roleplaying and it slowly led to writing fan fiction. I tried my hand at a couple original short stories and the starts of a few novels (only wrote a chapter or two). I wrote nothing new for several years beyond the roleplaying. In January 2009, I sat down and decided to write a novel I had in my head for three years. I suppose the rest is history…or rather just the beginning.

On SheWrites last year, they asked writers to write why they wrote in six words. Six words, that’s it. I didn’t join in, but I thought about it and why I write. This is what I came up with: I write to breathe, to live.

It’s not easy being a writer, but if it was easy, then it probably wouldn’t mean as much. I’d grow bored of it like I did singing. Writing is always a challenge. Some days are good. Others, well, I’m still feeling that English class burn.

Through it all, though, I write to breathe, to live.

On to Wednesday's Writing Update

I took Sunday off from writing for Easter. It was a mistake, although I needed a brief break.

I finished through chapter ten in Virtuoso. I hope to get back to rewrites after this week.

I plan to submit "Mage Game" to Sword and Sorceress XXVI later this week. I have it written and critiqued. I just need to do another edit or two and submit it. The deadline is May 13.

I finished my critique assignment for PWP, and I have eighty pages left to edit for them. I have to have it finished by Saturday in order to count it on my April invoice. I'm also a new freelance editor for Hazard Editing. I'll mainly do proofreading and more mainstream edits, if that's what the author wants.

The mistake of taking Easter off comes here. I'm involved in a secret group project. I can't say much more than that, but I have to have 10,000 words written for my character by May 1^st. I can write that much, but it'll involve some quick thinking on my part to get it done. So far, I have over 3,000 words completed.

I better get back to writing.

And as a pleasurable side note: Deirdra at A Storybook World has awarded me with the Creative Blog Award. She's so wonderful and artistic. She has interviews and all sorts of things and is very supportive. Please take a moment to check out her blog, if you haven't already. Thank you, Deirdra!

I've been awarded - Best Books Blog Award

Another two posts in one day. What is the world coming to!

I had to do this quick post, though.

Deirdra over at A Storybook World had awarded me the Best Books Blog Award.

Isn't it beautiful? I absolutely love it, and it's perfect. I have brown hair, she has brown hair. I like purple and books, and she's wearing a purple dress and holding a book.

Thank you so much, Deirdra!

I've been awarded...

I've seen this award popping up on the blogs lately, and I must thank Rachel at Awkward Girl for giving me this award. Although we are new blogger friends, I'm already loving reading her posts, so please go and check out her blog when you get a chance.

Here are the rules and regulations:

Should you accept this award, you must perform four duties:
1. Thank and link back to the person to gave you this award.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Award ten recently-discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

Here are my Seven Random Facts: (And I'm really trying to find seven new things about myself that people don't already know. It's hard.)

1.  I take my Kindle almost everywhere I go. Although now that I have the Kindle app on my android phone, I'll still have my Kindle books everywhere I go.
2.  If you go to Amazon.com, go to books, click their advance search link, put "Wild Child Publishing" in the publisher information, and then click bestselling," Once Upon a December Nightmare is number one at the moment. Yes, I know this probably doesn't mean anything, but I found it to be very awesome.
3.  I haven't seen all the Star Wars movies.
4.  I once owned a large black rat named Erebus. I miss my little buddy. He was the best rat I've ever had.
5.  Although I prefer cats, I do miss having a dog. If I could get any type of dog, it'd probably be a basset hound. I love their floppy ears.
6.  I am now up to four and a half bookcases in my room. I need at least two more, but I ran out of walls.
7.  If I would create a pseudonym for my writing, it would either be Cherie Wolfe or Nicole Wolfe. Wolfe is my grandmother's maiden name, and Cherie is my first name and Nicole my second name.

That was fun, and I hope you learned something about me you didn't already know. Now I will name ten people to receive this award, so if you see yourself below considered yourself tagged.

The Winner's Circle: (If you already have been awarded this, it's just because you're that awesome.)

1. Ali Cross
2. Aubrie Dionne - Flutey Words
3. Jessica Yopp - Virtual Margin
4. Nicole Zoltack - Where Fantasy and Love Take Flight
5. Jenn Nixon
6. Lisa Rusczyk
7. N. R. Williams, Fantasy Author
8. Talli Roland
9. Holly Stacey - The Spiral Tower of Inky Doom
10. Terri Venters - Elements of Mystery

Versatile Blogger Award

Versatile Blogger Award

I have had the honor of being nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by Cher Green at Footsteps of a Writer.  http://chergreen.blogspot.com

Cher, thank you so much for the recognition. I appreciate people like you following my blog and am honored by it.

Now for the tasks at hand. According to the rules, I'm required to:

1. Thank the person who loved me enough to bestow this gift.
2. Share seven things about myself.
3. Bestow this honor onto 10 newly discovered or followed bloggers–in no particular order–who are fantastic in some way.
4. Drop by and let my ten new friends know I admire them.

So, once again, thank you so much, Cher, for this awesome award.

Now, here are the seven things I’m sharing about myself.

1. I wish I could say I’ve been writing since early childhood, but that would be a lie. I began writing in online roleplaying games in October 1999 when I was 17. I tried my hand at fan fiction between 2002-2005 with limited success. Then, I wrote a short story in 2005 and one in 2006. This was my extent of writing until January 2009 with my YA Epic Fantasy novel The Phoenix Prophetess. I haven’t looked back since.

2. I rarely watch movies at the movie theatre. In fact, I’ve only seen one movie at the theatre this year, and that was Inception. Before that, I saw Sherlock Holmes in December 2009. (Updated note: I forgot I also saw Alice and Wonderland this year...oops.)

3. Despite not being much of a movie theatre watcher, I have seen all the Harry Potter movies in the movie theatre and some more than once. If everything works out, I’ll be at the midnight showings for the next two. *crosses fingers*

4. I love animals. At my family’s house, we have two fish, a guinea pig, a mouse, and three cats. I’ve had an arrange of animals from a dog to hamsters to rats, and there are many more types of animals I would like to have. Unfortunately, the ones we have right now keep us busy enough.

5. I work as a library assistant, and I enjoy it. I hope one day to be able to get my Masters in Library Science.

6. Although my title says I’m a library assistant, it seems like it can’t be my only job at work. I also act as secretary, receptionist, and I’m a certified proctor for various examinations, including the MAT, CLEP, DANTES, and others.

7. When I was young, between the ages of 4-7, I used to run wild on our block. I would climb trees and telephone poles, enter the sewer (or be thrown down there in the sewer by older children), and ride my bike and run faster than any boy on the block. Oh, and I mustn’t forget the fun we had jumping off people’s roofs.

And, now, I must bestow this fantastic award to ten other bloggers. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Christine Rains, http://christinerains.livejournal.com

2. Aubrie Dionne, Flutey Words…A Writer/Flutist's Ramblings About Words and Music, http://authoraubrie.blogspot.com

3. Lisa Rusczyk, A Blog Dedicate to Writing and the Daily Activities of Cats, http://lisarusczyk.blogspot.com

4. Nicole Zoltack, Where Fantasy & Love Take Flight, http://nicolezoltack.blogspot.com

5. Jessica, Virtual Margin, http://virtualmargin.blogspot.com

6. Melanie, Mortal Corkscrew, http://melanie-mortalcorkscrew.blogspot.com

7. Nicole Ducleroir, One Significant Moment at a Time, http://nicoleducleroir.blogspot.com

8. Roland, Writing in the Crosshairs, http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com

9. Angie, Notes From the Writing Chair, http://notesfromthewritingchair.blogspot.com

10. Ali Cross, Writing YA & MG that transcends the ordinary, http://alicross.blogspot.com

Since I have picked my ten people to bestow the award, I am now off to their blogs to tell them how much I appreciate them.

A New Award!

Aubrie gave me this fantastic new award today.

This Award should be given to any blogs that promote the genres of Fantasy and Science Fiction, whether it be through author interviews, reviews, your own writing, etc. The rules are: you must state 5 of your favorite fantasy/sci fi books and or movies that inspired you.


These five include:

1. Harry Potter books
2. Lord of the Rings
3. Mercedes Lackey's books
4. Stargate
5. Jurassic Park (I'm not sure if it would be considered science fiction, although we don't have any dinosaurs created and running around yet, but it's one of my most favorite books of all time.)

I bequeath this award to:

Anyone who enjoys fantasy and science fiction and who follows my blog.