Snow Days and Catching Up On Old Resolutions

I’m hoping for more snow. It’s much more fun than rain and dreariness. I love to read while glancing up every once in a while to see the snow fall. I love the excitement of wondering how deep it will get and the silence that comes along with it. Snow is magic. It changes everything, if only for a little while.

Besides, if we get buried in snow maybe I’ll be forced into staying home and that means more time for writing and revising. I love all the possibilities of a snow day so much that it makes me wonder how anyone could ever curse the snow away.

My new year’s resolutions will pretty much be the same as last year. I’m used to recycling resolutions but with some of them I actually accomplished the opposite this time around. Instead of moving more (a scaled down version of exercising more), I moved much less than usual. The only resolution I did keep was to eat more chocolate. When combined with moving much less, the results could be called pretty scary.

And so in a final attempt to move more often while finishing everlasting novel revisions, I’m going to take a little extra time for those things this holiday season. I’ll be back to my regular Wednesday postings in mid-January with more Cape Cod photos and maybe even a few alpacas or goats. I’ll also be doing some new things here like author interviews. Until then, I’ll be on Twitter @SheilaHurst11.

Wishing everyone a new year filled with laughter, happiness, and snow days!

Do you love or hate the snow? What are some of your new year’s resolutions? Is there anything else you’d like to see here next year?

Great Blogs and the Winner Is…

It’s about time to add to my list of great blogs. I’m thankful for the friends I’ve found here and this is just a small sampling of a few in alphabetical order. Many of you already know each other, but just in case there’s anyone out there who hasn’t visited these people, you’re missing out.

Carrie Rubin – Very funny observations on life, health, and writing from the author of The Seneca Scourge

Found in France – Photography and observations from a small town in France

4amwriter – Thoughts on writing and life and the balancing act between the two

I Have a Voice – Beautiful, inspirational poetry

JMMcDowell – An archaeologist and writer with serialized fiction posts and author interviews

Joy in the Moments – Posts on writing, author interviews, traveling, and all the joy that can be found everywhere from the author of Eyes of Light and Secret Keepers

LScott Thoughts – Beautiful, fun, inspirational poetry and thoughts

Milka Pejovic – Nature photography from the San Diego area

Miniscule Moments of Inspiration – Observations on life and nature from a writer and picture book illustrator living in Australia

Reading Interrupted – Inspirational posts on the love of books

The Vibes – A talented graphic artist’s collection of photos and artwork

Two Black Dogs – Photography and observances from travels through Europe and at home in Australia with two black dogs

I’ll be adding to this list with future posts. You can see others through the Great Blogs category listed on the home page.

Now it’s time to announce the winner of the $25 Amazon gift card. I plan on doing more of these giveaways in the future. I know we’re all busy so this is just a way of saying thank you to everyone.

All Twitter followers for @SheilaHurst11 were entered to win. Commenters on the last post were also entered to win. And the winner is….

Rebecca Belliston – @rlbelliston

I’ll send you a message for your gift card. As you can see from the photo, I used a very high-tech method for this madness. I printed out my list of Twitter followers, cut each one into fortune cookie strips, added commenters from the last post, and mixed them all together in a bowl before selecting the winner. Just in case you wanted the recipe.

Thank you all for visiting, commenting, and following, but most of all thank you for your friendship. I’m looking forward to laughing together through the winter.

Thank You and a Giveaway

Writing can be a lonely thing to do. We’re observers of life so it does help to get out there every once in a while, but we also need to lock ourselves away as often as possible if we’re ever going to get any writing done.

These days, we’re not writing alone. Thanks to blogging and Twitter, we can find other writers, cheer each other on, and commiserate together. If you’re doing NanoWriMo, you know what I’m talking about and I hope you’re locked away somewhere with a fresh supply of chocolate.

The road to publication is filled with potholes of self doubt. We wonder if anyone will hear our words. We wonder if anyone will care. Maybe they’ll laugh at us or think we’re horrible writers. Still, we take that risk and put ourselves out there. Because we’re hoping someone somewhere will care.

I’m amazed by the friends I’ve found here and I just want to say thank you. So it’s about time to start doing some random giveaways. If you leave a comment on this post, I’ll put your name in for a $25 Amazon gift card. If you already follow me on Twitter, I’ll put your name in again. Finally, if you follow me @SheilaHurst11 by Monday, November 11, I’ll put your name in for the gift card and I’ll make sure to follow back. The winner will be announced here on Wednesday. In the meantime, just think of all the books you’ll be able to get to last you through the winter.

November is a good time to look back at the year and give thanks. I’m thankful for the beauty of the ocean, the joy of finding and reading that perfect book, friends that are more like family, and family that’s more like friends.

What are you thankful for? Which books are you thinking of reading next? If you’re doing NanoWriMo, how’s that going so far? 

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

Seagulls don’t tweet.

I know this is ironic after my last post about the distractions of technology, but I just joined Twitter. And yes, I’m laughing at myself.

It took me this long to join because I always figured it would take too much time away from writing. There are already too many things that do that, so why add another one into the mix?

Well, it’s another way to connect with people. People who want to talk about things like books or the ocean or crazy dogs. It’s also a fun way for some quick entertainment because tweets are short. So far, it hasn’t taken up much time but then I haven’t done much on it either. I’m guessing blogging will still be my main time-sucking diversion. Unless I become a tweeting addict, that is.

So far it’s been a little like changing the point of view in a novel. Twitter can provide another perspective. As long as you open that window, all kinds of things will come flying in. Sometimes you can catch them and throw them back out into the world. Or you can sit and listen to the cacophony of other tweeters. Mostly, all I’ve done on there is laugh at myself.

If you’d like to laugh along with me, I’m @SheilaHurst11.

How much time do you spend on Twitter? What do you like or dislike about Twitter? Anything else I should know before making a fool of myself out there? Oh wait, too late for that…