PHASES

As a writer I must admit I have found that my life and writing goes through various phases all the time. My life is either stable or changing continuously. Because I tend to be a little obsessive compulsive, ever changing circumstances and surprises and things like that are my personal idea of hell. I can do repetitive things over and over and life is fine. Change something and my day or life is ruined. I don't know why I am like that. I just am. When it comes to my moods, I am either in my content phase or my tortured phase, most days I am in my tortured phase, as that is just how I am. I am not an overly happy person, but I am not the kind of person to be mean or rude to someone else unless you did something to offend or upset me. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt at our first encounters. Offend me or be rude and your chance is out the window. 

As for writing. I am either inspired to write or not. If I am in the writing mood then I can knock out a first draft of a book in two to three months. If I lack inspiration or the desire to write, it can take me weeks or months to get out of this mental slump and get back in the writing saddle. At the moment I am in the writing slump phase. At least I am going through some of the other books that I have written and editing here and there. I am not really sure about their potential, but it doesn't hurt to take a look again. I am not really feeling very enthusiastic about the editing, but at least I am doing something.

I am also more in the reading phase than the writing one. I am totally loving Janet Evanovich's writing and wishing that I could have her brain. To think, I would never have read any of her work if my sister had not bullied me into reading her books. I had been sure that I would not like her work and I now love it. So, I was wrong and Janet Evanovich rocks! I am obsessed with the Stephanie Plum novels and finding myself wishing that her leading men existed in real life, because they sound so sexy and I want someone like Morelli or Ranger for myself. Yum!

I think that it is great that I at least understand myself and my phases, unfortunately, most people don't get me. My mother is always asking me why I can't be more like the other women my age and I just shrug my shoulders. Apparently I look like the sweet and innocent girl that never does anything wrong. Unfortunately, I  don't see myself like that, I don't think like that at all and most importantly, my personality could not be further from that stereotype either. I like wearing black, I love wearing biker boots with studs and buckles, I love tattoos, even though I only have one and rock music speaks to my soul.

What are your phases like? Do you have any?

FREE E-BOOK, THAT SADIE THING

That Sadie Thing by Annalisa Crawford is available for free download today here. Please, guys, show her your support and download your free copy. If you do not have a Kindle, you can get the free Kindle reading application here.

You can even visit  Annalisa over at her blog, here.

I AM JUST STUPID

You guys know how I hate my current place of employment, right? And you guys remember how I did not fit in there and people were, or should I say are mean to me? Well, my contract is expiring at the end of this month, so my boss brought me a contract of renewal and I signed on for another year...

I just could not say no, at least not until I have another job. Please don't be mad at me. I am going to give in my resignation as soon as I find another job, in the meanwhile, I will still get paid. I need the money, even though I believe my co-workers are the spawn of satin, out to destroy anyone with free will and who can think. Though, today I felt like telling my boss to stick his job where the sun don't shine and I called my co-worker a mediocre human being. It was not nice, but she deserved it, honest. My boss actually told me that I had a perfectionist mentality and that I had to lower my standards to be able to work at the company. Can you believe that? All I am telling myself is, "get a new job and until that happens, save as much of your salary as possible." 

Another things is, in two months my contract with my agent will expire too and unless my book sells in the next few months, I will be back in the query trenches or back in the writing another book to submit mode. Still too early to tell. 

Not doing much on the creative front these days, just reading. I love reading, but I wish the writing would kick in. Most people would use their crappy experiences as writing inspiration, me...I just feel sorry for myself and I don't have the energy to use it. Besides, I don't want to make them feel special by writing about the meanies. 

What are you guys up to?

FOLLOWERS BLOG HOP

My name is Murees Dupé and this is my blog. Most days my blog posts are about my life as a writer and other days I talk about the everyday happenings in my life while seeking publication, or I just write about everyday things that happen to me. I tend to be like a magnet for crazy people (the dangerous kind) and I tend to be accident prone. It also does not help that I have no luck at all.

If all of this sounds interesting, then please follow me. Thanks for the visit.

FOLLOWERS BLOG HOP AND PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

I know this is very last minute, but I needed to tell you guys about the followers blog hop, which will be hosted by the awesome and funny Melissa Chesley over at writings, musings and other such nonsense on 10 June 2013. Yes, I know it is on Monday, but there is still time to sign up.

If you want more followers or simply want to help other individuals gain more followers then this is the blog hop for you. All you have to do is sign up at the linky list below and write a post on the 10th of June and include all the links that you want your new followers to follow you at. Of course, you have to disable Captcha in order to make leaving comments easier. As usual with a blog hop, you visit the other individuals on the linky list, follow them and leave a comment of you doing so. Easy right?

On to the pineapple upside down cake. As you know, I have started to read the Stephanie Plum series and have now become an addict. If you read those novels you are always hungry and salivating at the wonderful food descriptions and the fantastic cuisine the main character is always exposed to. Not to mention that the men make you want to drool too. Well, I emailed Ms Evanovich and told her about how great she was and how I loved her books (because I honestly wish that I had written these books) and in response, her assistant provided me with a recipe for her pineapple upside down cake, which also happens to be the favourite of the main character in her Stephanie Plum novels. Of course I baked it myself and it was delicious. You can find the recipe here. It is easy and delicious and not even I could make this a flop and I am not a baking type of person.

THAT SADIE THING BLOG TOUR WITH ANNALISA CRAWFORD

I am so excited and honoured to have the awesome and talented Annalisa Crawford over, visiting my little blog. Welcome Annalisa and enjoy!


Thanks for having me over today, Murees!

Open Windows is a peculiar story for me to talk about, because I don't really remember writing it. That's quite strange, isn't it? I do remember that the first thing I wrote was the part where Michael's ghost asks Jackie if she has a pencil, and she throws it into the empty room. For ages that small passage stayed in my notebook.

I wrote this story in 1994 - you might see me mention that year a couple more times during this tour because it was one of my most prolific years for short stories. I was unemployed at the time, and between applying for jobs and opening letters telling me I hadn't been successful (back when they used to let you know you were a failure rather than just let you forget you'd applied in the first place), I wrote a lot.

Open Windows originally won third prize in a competition called Little Acorns, held by a lovely man who would hand-write one or two sentence critiques. For that reason alone, I entered almost every single monthly competition he held, because just having someone take me seriously as a writer was a huge boost. On a couple of occasions these critiques came with a cheque attached - you can probably imagine my joy!

A couple of years later I entered the story into another competition, a local writer's circle comp, because Little Acorns didn't publish winning entries, so I could resubmit. This time it was published - yay!


About Annalisa
I live in Cornwall, with a good supply of beaches and moorland right on my doorstep. I live with my husband, two boys, a dog and a cat. Despite my location. I neither surf nor sail, and have never had any inclination to try. I much prefer walking along the beach and listening to the waves crashing over rocks. For this reason, I really love the beach in the winter!

Buy That Sadie Thing here (this link should take you direct to your local Amazon)
Follow Annalisa here, or Like her here
Read her blog here

BE BRAVE (IWSG)

I have always been the kind of person to think things through and plan things ahead. Of course, when I decided to become a writer, I took a similar approach and do you know what? I am not any closer to my dream of being a successfully published author.

My point? Sometimes you just have to take a chance. Submit that book proposal. Talk to a person that knows more about that career path that you want to follow. Ask that cute guy or girl out on a date. Be brave, live.

I feel like I have been planning and planning and I still end up disappointed. So if you are like me and have been getting the short end of the stick, lets be brave and dare to do something different.

Annalisa Crawford will be stopping by my blog tomorrow to talk about That Sadie Thing. If you want to, you can come over and say hi to her. I know she will appreciate it.

The Insecure Writers Support Group was created by the wonderful and talented author and blogger, Alex J. Cavanaugh. You guys can visit Alex over at http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com.