Miss Mabel’s School for Girls by Katie Cross

I am so excited to announce that Miss Mabel’s School for Girls by the awesome and talented Katie Cross is finally available. Katie is a great person who is always there to provide kind words of wisdom and inspiration for a fellow blogger in need. Her blog is awesome and so is her personality. I just bought my copy of Miss Mabel’s School for Girls and can’t wait to get stuck in. 

Book Blurb

Never underestimate the power of a determined witch.

Letum Wood is a forest of fog and deadfall, home to the quietly famous Miss Mabel’s School for Girls, a place where young witches learn the art of magic.

Sixteen-year-old Bianca Monroe has inherited a deadly curse. Determined to break free before it kills her, she enrolls in the respected school to confront the cunning witch who cast the curse: Miss Mabel.

Bianca finds herself faced with dark magic she didn’t expect, with lessons more dangerous than she could have ever imagined. Will Bianca have the courage to save herself from the curse, or will Miss Mabel’s sinister plan be too powerful?

Miss Mabel’s School for Girls is the first novel in The Network Series, an exciting new fantasy collection. A gripping tale about the struggle to survive, it will take you to a new place and time, one you’ll never want to leave.

You can purchase your copy here:

Kindle

Paperback

Smashwords

You can visit Katie here:

Website

Blog

No A-Z for me, but I'm still cheering for you (IWSG)

I have decided not to take part in the A-Z challenge this year. I simply don’t have the mental energy for it this year and I really want to spend more time developing my writing. I think I have a unique vision and voice that needs to be channeled into a coherent thought, which at this time still eludes me, but I might find it through trying more writing styles, genres and even changing points of view. I have even decided to go back to writing my stories in longhand first, before typing it into the computer. That used to be my process before I became lazy and decided to type everything on the computer.

Just because I’m not participating in the challenge, doesn’t mean I won’t be visiting the rest of your blogs and lending support. I will be an eager cheerleader for your creativity and bravery as always.

The Insecure Writers Support Group was created by the wonderfully talented Mr Alex J. Cavanaugh, so that writers could communicate to others the fears and insecurities that they might have. You can visit Alex Here, or if you want to join us in discussing our insecurities on the first Wednesday of each month, you are welcome to join by going Here.

Pushing on

I have been away from blogging for a while mostly because I have been a little depressed and because I didn't want to spread my negativity. Why did I feel depressed? I honestly don't know. I am just one of those tortured people who feel depressed, sad and if impending doom is lurking. I have been like that since I was a kid.

I have also been busy helping my brother with his work and while I do that I get to stay home and call myself a writer. I haven't written anything new and I haven't edited in a while, but I have been putting down plenty of story ideas.

I don't know why I am not writing, because I do have the time. I just don't feel like it. Yes people, I said it. I guess I was afraid I might write more stuff that takes more time to fix than it was to write. Maybe that is why I have been putting off the editing process. There is just so much to do and I am not even halfway and it is only the first round of editing.

Please, don't feel sorry for me, rather tell me how your life and writing is going.

Exciting day

I have been feeling bummed and sorry for myself the past few days, by no fault of anyone but myself. Today all of it changed, because as my mom, my sister and I drove through town we spotted policemen/woman on horseback. Now I know it might not sound like that big of a deal to most of you, but in my town you don't see horses and having them walk around was a big deal. Cars came to a standstill and people were staring at the horses with their mouths hanging open.

Anyway, my sister is a chef at a wine estate that keeps horses and she had this idea of buying a few apples and having us feed them to the horses. I was so excited by this idea, even though I have never been up and close with a horse, this sounded like the best idea ever. My sister bought the apples and after the police agreed, we fed the horses apples. It was so fantastic, because the horses were so friendly and we didn't even need to work hard to get their attention because the horses saw that we had apples and rushed towards us. Of course at this stage my heart was pounding in my chest and for a brief moment I thought they might kill me, as they were huge, but the fear passed as soon as I realized they were only sniffing at the apples in my hand.

I was so amazed and humbled by the beauty and grace of these animals. As I held out my hand to feed the first horse I couldn't help but feel as if there was a kind of magical energy about these creatures. I fought back a laugh as the horse I fed kept taking small nibbles of the apple I was holding, as if she was shy she would come across as unladylike and eager. The horse my sister fed ate the entire apple in just one go. To me this little adventure was one of the best days of my life. It made me feel as if I was soaring in the clouds. Just to be near such beautiful and powerful animals made my day. My mom said that I had a glow about me afterwards. Maybe it had something to do with the stupid grin I was sporting for the rest of the day.

Distracted and unfocused

For the past two weeks I allowed everyday life to run off with my attention span. Very cowardly of me I know. When life intervenes I have this bad habit of putting my writing, or in this case editing on the back burner so that I could do things that are considered more important. Like What?

Well, my brother asked me to help him out at work, which I was more than happy to do. It is always fun working with him and learning something new. I will be helping my brother out for the next few weeks which should be great.

My mom got upset with me because I am still unemployed and asked me to search for new jobs more actively, instead of just sitting in front of the computer doing nothing. Unfortunately, the job market is terrible at the moment and I have been applying for several jobs, I just don't hear anything back. My mom is still mad at me for quitting my last job. The fact that I was unhappy and treated poorly was not a factor to her. My mom says that being treated poorly is part of life and I guess that is true, but I am not the kind of person to put up with it. Yes, I guess that makes me a dreamer.

I also joined Fiverr.com a few months ago to give freelance writing another go and it didn't go well. You get rated on the amount of sales you make and the feedback received from clients and the one sale I did make, the client didn't want to give me feedback for. So after two months and only one sale, I closed my account.

I had worked on a short story about my last crappy job and actually thought it was good and sent it in to a local magazine who was looking for entertaining stories and not at all surprising, it got rejected. Why did I do it? Because I wanted to get my mother off my back and prove to her that my writing is worth pursuing and the fact that they were offering a large cash amount, considering that I am broke, was a good incentive too, I won't lie. Now I am wondering what I was thinking.

I got mad at my neighbors because of their awful children who ring our doorbell and run away. That process goes on for hours per day spread over a few days, but after a while I take out the doorbell batteries and of course the parents don't want to hear anything about their kids. If that is not bad enough, one kid in particular has this tendency to run in front of cars for fun. I nearly ran him over once and on another occasion my sister also nearly hit him with the car. His parents don't see what the problem is, as he's just a child having fun. He's eight by the way and jumps in front of your car without warning. And the thing that really ticks me off is the fact that the neighborhood kids (sociopaths between 5-12 years old) have taken up the task of terrorizing our dogs by either throwing stones at them, or teasing them by kicking a rugby ball against the gate repeatedly when the dogs are outside, sometimes even connecting one of my dogs in the face. Once again the kids parents don't find anything wrong with that. Of course this all results in me getting upset and promising myself that I will never have kids. I know there are great kids out there, unfortunately, I don't have any of them in my neighborhood.

That brings us back to present time. So...because I have been so distracted I haven't edited or written anything new. I have been reading and commenting on your blogs and admiring your inspiration. Best of luck for next week!

Relaxed weekend

This weekend my family and I visited a local food market. We wanted to see what it was about and to buy some really great fruit and veggies. But in the end we ended up at the cake stand and it was like a dessert lovers dream come true. Yes, we did buy some fruit and veggies, but we ended up buying cake too.

Bee-sting and hazelnut cake

  

Other than that I didn't do much. I even took a small break from the re-writes and watched some Big Bang Theory. Because I ate so much cake, I learned to drink green tea and it didn't taste as bad as I had thought. It could actually be a drink I could drink often. Now all I have to do is become friends with exercise.

So, what are you up to?

The new year begins (IWSG)

2014 has finally arrived and most of us are wondering what the year will hold in store for us. I know what it holds in store for me. Writing, hard work and more exercise (cringe). Of all the things we become insecure about this year, let’s not allow it to be our writing. Sure, our work can always show more improvement and sure, we are receiving rejection letters by the dozens. But each of us has a unique voice and style. Our writing is unique and diverse, so when we see a fellow blogger, or friend become published and not us, let’s not be harsh and chastise ourselves. Our day will come, maybe not tomorrow, but one day.

I hope that 2014 will be a great year for all of you. I wish you all lots of success, happiness and inspiration.

The Insecure Writers Support Group was created by the wonderfully talented Mr Alex J. Cavanaugh, so that writers could communicate to others the fears and insecurities that they might have. You can visit Alex Here, or if you want to join us in discussing our insecurities on the first Wednesday of each month, you are welcome to join by going Here.