Tag Archives: daydream

Uncivilized is finished!

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At least the first draft is. And what a draft it is! 133,600 words when I was aiming for 100,000. So I have my work cut out for me in the cutting out department.

While I’m working on the edits and sending documents off to my wonderful editor, I’ll be plotting the next series of books. What will they be about? I don’t know.

Really, I don’t know. Yes, I have so many ideas, but don’t know where to start.

The American West series of historical romances?

The Love’s Travels series of historical romances?

Or the Needing a Title set of murder mysteries?

Maybe the several stand alone story ideas, aka free range books?

They all sound appealing, right? That’s my problem. Where to start? This is like a chocolate buffet and I want everything right this minute.

If you’re reading this, what do you think? Tell me! What setting do you think is woefully missing from the literary world. I can’t guarantee I’ll write about it, but will consider it!

Too ADD for #MondayBlogs! #RT15 bound!

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Hi everyone! I’m going to be at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Dallas starting tomorrow. There are so so many Facebook friends who are amazing writer and superstars. It’s going to be tough to not be shy and all shucks when anywhere near them.

But, I’ve promised to be my usual outgoing self, so, ok!

What value added substance can I give you on a day where I’m too excited to think straight? Easy!

My daughter turned me on to sleep helping tunes and hypnosis. Sounds freaky and new agey, but it’s totally not. I love to go to Ipnos Soft for my fall asleep to tunes. While the binaural beats sound interesting, I’m not sure they’re effective. Hypnosis to fall asleep to or just listen to on a sleepy afternoon? Glenn Harrold and Amy Applebaum have wonderful and free apps. The additional sessions are super reasonable too. Sadly, you can’t learn by osmosis when asleep, but these do knock me out when I can’t take hours to fall asleep.

Why the Ipnos? Because you can mix and match sounds. Like in my case, when I want to daydream about wagon trains and the old west, they have an app for that. I can add in song birds and flowing rivers to wagon wheels and get the perfect background noise for my novels.

Why Glenn and or Amy? Because every writer has an insecurity about their work. You’re creating something from your imagination. How much more nebulous and personal can you get? Then to put it out there for people to hopefully love, but probably laugh at? Yeah, it’s hard! I love their confidence hypnosis. I don’t know how much it helps, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. Then for the readers, there’s all sorts of sports performance, healthy body attitudes, stop procrastination, and a host of other affirming hypnosis scripts.

I’d want to warn anyone who tries these out to NOT and NEVER do so while driving or operating heavy machinery. I’m a person who has a really tough time falling asleep and yet these products knock me out cold. It really is a never do. So go, try them out while not driving anything and see what you think.

I don’t mention Mike Mandel, THE greatest hypnotist, because he’s more of a teacher and serious therapist. He’s who you see when needing serious mental help and a general script can’t help you. He and Chris Thompson have a Brain Software podcast that is serious, silly, and always entertaining. I also don’t mention Joseph Clough because while I love his podcasts, I personally can’t listen to his hypnosis. He whistles his s’s and x’s, and I can’t take it. But that’s me. You’re mileage may vary and probably does.

Boredom and Writer’s Block.

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First of all, I could do links in all this to substantiate my words.  But I’m not.  I’ve had migraines off an on for the past six days and am not up to it mentally.  So, google for yourself and if I’m wrong, please comment.  Otherwise, come along and read something fun.

We live in a world of constant mental stimulation. Or maybe it’s just me.  With internet, TV, books, video games, being outside, work, gym, kid, cats, husband, friends, and crafts, I am only  bored in one place, bed.  I was, anyway, until my family teamed up and bought me an iPod touch for Christmas.  Now, even just before sleep, I’m not bored.  It’s my Words with Friends/self-improvement hypnosis time.  Which is both good and bad.

Why both?  Because electronics are infringing upon my “I’m bored but am fretting too much to sleep” time.  It was the one uninterrupted part of my day where I could imagine what if’s based on the day’s information.  Like, what if a couple made a deathbed promise to be married?  What if the one time a bride thought her sister would leave her guy alone, she doesn’t? My latest is what if someone could literally buy the sun?  How would that impact the world’s population?  Another is what if there was a world where eyes evolved in air? And another, how would we communicate with a species who lives in a place where we’d freeze solid? Or instantly burn into vapor?

All of these are fun ideas to ponder.  A few are already books.  What I think a lot of people call writer’s block is actually a lack of being bored.  Lives are so full of distractions, it takes away the time to just daydream and speculate.  We need that time to fill in our own blanks, not let others putty it in for us.

Bottom line? Boredom is not something to be feared.  Instead, it’s a good time to use the quiet to bust up that writer’s block.  There’s not a lot of chances to be bored in a world where even the stores’ checkout lines have televisions. So do yourself a favor and schedule in some daydreaming time and see how much fun your mind can have on its own.