Monday Motivation - Billboard edition

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Iced In, Day 2

Well, I'm still iced in.  Literally.  There is a thick case of ice surrounding the house, making leaving impossible.  Since it's not supposed to get above freezing for the next few days, I don't anticipate this changing any time soon.  Fortunately, I've been keeping busy...

The puzzle is done:

The tree is trimmed:

And most of the gifts are wrapped:

I'm going to finish up my Christmas cards, and then I may move on to <gulp> cleaning.  Hopefully it won't come to that. ;-)

Hope you're having a good weekend!  What are you doing to keep busy and stay warm during the winter weather?

Celebrate the Small Things - Staying warm edition

We finally have winter weather here in Texas!  My classes were canceled last night, and today--let's celebrate!  This hop is organized by VikLit--stop by her blog to sign up and join us!

This week, I'm celebrating the fact that I'm all snowed (well, iced) in. It's so nice to hunker down, eat soup, and hang out.  I'm also very grateful that we still have power. I know a lot of people in my area have lost power, but so far, we haven't <fingers crossed!>

What are you celebrating this week?

Photo Friday - Winter Wonderland edition

The view of my backyard:

Stay warm everyone!

IWSG - December edition

It's time for the last IWSG post of 2013!  For more information on IWSG, check out Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog, or the IWSG website.

One of the nice things about being a writer is that I always get to ask 'What's next?'  What is going to happen in the next scene?  The next chapter?  The next book?

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The anticipation of not knowing exactly what is coming around the bend is one of the things I like most about writing.  On the flip side though, the uncertainty of working without a net can be stressful.  How are my characters going to get out of this scrape? How can they overcome these conflicts? What am I going to write after I finish this story? And most distressing of all: will I ever come up with another decent story idea again?

I think most writers are plagued by a surfeit of ideas.  The problem is picking one that you want to live with for any length of time, to really dig in and explore.  The insecurity comes from worrying that none of your ideas merit such examination.

So what's a writer to do?  I think the key is to keep writing.  Pick an idea and play around with it.  Maybe it will work, maybe it won't, but at least you're trying.  You may find that a tiny seed of an idea sprouts into a fully-developed story.

What about you?  Do you have the same worries?  What's your approach to overcoming the stress of the unknown?

Books Go To The Movies - Catching Fire

I read The Hunger Games trilogy a couple of years ago, and for the most part, I enjoyed it (as much as one can enjoy a series of books about a dystopian future in which children are forced to kill each other for the entertainment of the masses). However, in my ranking of the books, Catching Fire was the book I liked the least. It felt like a re-telling of the first book, and I didn't think that the overall story moved forward much.  It seemed like more of a placeholder book, to get us from book 1 to book 3, rather than an important chapter of the story in its own right.

Based on my impressions of the book, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the movie.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It could be my expectations were unusually low, but I thought the movie did a great job of adapting the book.  We missed some of the smaller moments in the book that acted as breadcrumbs for the reader, but that's rather expected--the movie can't portray everything in the book, and I thought the scenes they did choose to show were done really well.  The actors have come to embody the characters for me, and they make me care about these people all over again.

Finally, the costumes were wonderful!  Katniss's dress--amazing!  I may have to see the movie again to get another look.

Overall, I quite liked this movie, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they adapt Mockingjay for the big screen.  What about you?  Have you seen Catching Fire yet?  What did you think?

Deadly Contact Release Celebration Winners!

I'm a day late in posting this, as the holiday weekend got away from me. Sorry about that!

I'm excited to post the winners of the DEADLY CONTACT Release Celebration! With so many great photos to choose from, there was no way I could pick winners. Fortunately, I didn't have to--a random number generator did the job for me. :-)

Congratulations go to...

S.P. Bowers

Zan Marie Steadham

Thanks to everyone who entered!  This was a fun contest, and I enjoyed seeing all the entries!