100 FOLLOWERS!

I can not believe it! I have 100 followers! Woo! Hoo!

Thank you to all of my wonderful followers. This is a really special milestone for me.

YOU NEED SUPPORT

I think the most important thing we need as writers/aspiring writers is support. Whether it is family, friends like fellow bloggers that know what you are going through or just a friends in general that will listen to your whining and ranting. A support base is very important because those people are the ones that stop you from hitting rock bottom. They encourage you when you feel like you can no longer go on. They believe in you when you hit a weak point and don't believe in yourself.

Thank you to all my blogger friends that always show up to encourage and advise me in the best ways to proceed. You guys are invaluable to me.

I AM SATISFIED

I recently received a very nice rejection letter. It was addressed to me personally and the agent even gave me like a little pep talk, so to speak. I was really impressed and truly grateful. After so many form rejection letters I get a personal one. I don't know why but somehow it feels like mission accomplished.

What I mean by that is I wanted to try and get my book out there to be published. I wanted to really give my all and just maybe I would land my dream agent. Well I didn't do that, but somehow just trying and now getting some real feedback makes me feel that just by trying I already won most of the battle.

I know I am crazy, but this one agent really truly gave me more guts to try even harder. Yes, I might get more rejection letters but right now I am in the mindset of "GO BIG OR GO HOME."

WE'VE BEEN HIT

It has been a crazy month for me this far. No matter what I try there just does not appear to be enough hours in the day for me. It is Rugby World Cup time and two of my sibling are in New Zealand for 4 of the games where South Africa is playing. As a lover of rugby this is the one event you just can't miss. It is what we live for, regardless of the awkward hours of broadcasting.

While my two sibling are away, me, my sister and my Mom are left with guard duty. We live in a high crime neighbourhood and we constantly need to be on alert. Yesterday was a horrible day. They broke in by three of our neighbours and attempted to do so by us. I must say this whole adrenaline and feeling vulnerable thing...I am not liking it.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE ANY GOOD?

I am ashamed to admit this but I am still extremely insecure about my writing. I don't really know why. I still worry about my writing not being good enough. So how can I expect others to like it or even love it when I am not even sure about it?

So how do you guys know if you are any good? Do you just trust that little inner voice?

Just so that I don't seem completely whiny, here is an inspirational quote, after all, we can always do with inspiration right?

A coward gets scared and quits. A hero gets scared, but still goes on.

- Anonymous

INSECURE WRITERS SUPPORT GROUP

This is such a brilliant idea! Thank you Alex J. Cavanaugh. What it is about is...that on the first Wednesday of each month you post what insecurities you have as a writer or the progress you have made with your writing or any writing problems or questions you have and then other writers who have been through the same thing or that knows the answer will leave comments. And if you just need a little encouragement, someone will help with that too.

So head over here: http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/insecure-writers-support-group.html to sign up or to read more about the insecure writers support group. Hope to see you all there.

THANKFUL AND RICE PUDDING!

I am so thankful that all my blogger fiends safely made it through hurricane Irene. I was really worried for you guys. Wish you all the best during the hurricane clean-up and that you guys haven't suffered much loss due to this whole ordeal.

Last night I had the strangest craving for rice pudding, which is weird because I have never eaten rice pudding and I don't cook or bake. So, I decided to go whip myself up a batch.

The dummy that I am decided to cook 1/4 cup of uncooked rice in some milk with sugar and cinnamon, on a low heat. And let me tell you, I had been stirring at that damn rice for more than an hour and in the end I still ended up with crunchy raw rice, a tooth achingly sweet paste and having used about 1 litre of milk.

So next time I am definitely using cooked rice and just adding it to the milk, sugar and cinnamon mix.

Thankfully I liked it and the sauce actually tasted awesome. Shame about the raw rice in it though. Once I perfect the recipe I will share it.