What Color Should Your Writing Room Be?

Guest post and Book giveaway by Cat Larose

WinThis Book!

Color has a profound psychological impact on our lives. It’s used every day to stimulate our senses, excite us, calm us and, yes, induce us to buy products. Each color family has its own set of characteristics that trigger certain responses in us. With that in mind we should tread carefully when adding color to our space, especially our writing space.

There are trend colors, those colors du jour that we fall “in like” with. Be careful here because this relationship is a bit like infatuation. Color fatigue sets in quickly with trend colors. And before your know it, it’s time to move on to something else.

Then there are colors that last a lifetime – those are your favorite colors, the colors your intuition chooses. These are the colors that you feel close to and comfortable with. These are the colors that already appear in your closet and in the most comfortable rooms of your house.

When it comes to choosing color for any room, keep in mind that you don’t have to have an all red or all green room. Sometimes a dash of color is just enough to stimulate your creativity or get you in writing mode.

What follows is my take as a color marketer on color and how it can affect us as writers. Keep in mind that if you’re seriously engaged in the writing process, your focused and so you don’t see any color – it’s actually the absence of color, i.e. black type on a white page.

Red is a very stimulating color; it is the color of heat, passion and warning. It’s used a lot in fast food restaurants to move people in and out quickly.  Use a dash of red to jump start your project.

Purple is a mystical color. It promotes healing and meditation. Leonardo da Vinci said that the color purple can increase meditative powers tenfold.  A purple room is good for contemplating plot and structure.

Blue is a very relaxing and calming color. If you’ve put yourself under the pressure of deadlines, then blue is the color for you.

Green is Mother Nature’s favorite color. And just look how creative she is.

Yellow is a high-energy color that stimulates the mental process of thinking and activates memory. If you’re writing a memory a little yellow will go a long way.

Orange is a color you either love or hate. It’s also a high-energy color and encourages socialization. It might be a good color to use in a room where writers convene to discuss their work.

Whatever color you choose for your writing room it should be a color that enhances and promotes your personal well-being – as you feel it. Color like everything else in a room should disappear after a while as you engross yourself in your story. At that point your story’s own color will jump off of the page.

Cat is eager to chat with you and hopes you’ll have lots of questions for her!

One lucky commenter can win her book! But, post TWICE and you can win a whole Book Club Prize Pack!!

See details below…

On Monday,December 19 at the end of her WOW Blog Tour, Cat Larose will be awarding a special Book Club Prize ! The prize includes 10 copies of her memoir Any Color But Beige, a guide on how your book club can enjoy Any Color But Beige, a virtual visit from Cat Larose, and several other surprises. If you want to enter this contest just leave a comment after this post with the words “Book Club Contest” in the message. You can enter to win both the individual contest for one copy of Any Color But Beige and the Book Club Contest but you have to leave two different comments. Don’t forget to tell everyone who belongs to your Book Club to enter the contest!

For more about Any Color But Beige, and more chances to win, follow the rest of her tour!

Friday, December 9 @ Kritter’s Ramblings

Learn more about yourself and color with a fun quiz from color guru Cat Larose. You can also enter to win a copy of Cat’s memoir about embracing a colorful life: Any Color But Beige.

http://www.krittersramblings.com

Monday, December 12 @ From the TBR Pile

Are you brave enough to bare all? Your soul that is…to write memoir! Cat Larose writes about baring all and gives away a copy of her memoir Any Color But Beige.

www.fromthetbrpile.blogspot.com

Cat Larose

About the Author:

 

Catherine is one part hot blooded Latin and one part wild eyed Celt. She’s the oldest of seven children raised in a large Irish/Italian family – Catholic, of course. But family and friends think of her as the gypsy. She’s spent her life studying, living, and working all over the place.  Cat is forever destined to wander incessantly as a person currently without country(CWC), or with no fixed address(NFA). Blessing or curse? Grandma V had her pegged long before she ever left Clevleand, Ohio when she gave her red-headed Italian granddaughter this advice , “All you need is a place to hang your hat.”

As she was traveling the world, Cat managed to acquire a husband. A rather beige husband. Not a good match considering the fact that Cat sells color for a living. What does that mean? When you go to a home improvement store  and to choose a paint color, those little color chips are made by Cat’s company. They produce color chips for the automotive industry, cosmetic industry and of course your local Home Depot.  While in Paris on business, Cat decided that life was too short to be beige. Her memoir is a record of her escape from the beige tinge of her marriage to the wild colors of singlehood.

 

Author’s Websites:                                                  

Catherine Larose’s book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9vh0IkE3YU&feature=related

Catherine Larose’s blog:

http://cafegirlchronicles.wordpress.com

Cat also has two fun videos you can check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9vh0IkE3YU

http://vimeo.com/31352868

Win this book! Hospice Tails: The Animal Companions Who Journey with Hospice Patients and Their Families

Win this Book!

Leave a comment or question by midnight on Tues. Nov 22 for a chance to win this sweet book! (Why not purchase a few for those on your holiday shopping list!)

<Scroll down for the guest post>

About Hospice Tails:

Told from the perspective of a hospice social worker, Hospice Tails is a baker’s dozen of stories about the animal companions of hospice patients and their families.

 In these pages you will meet King, an abused pit bull fiercely loyal to his rescuer, Fizzle, a teacup poodle who guarded his human in death as well as life, Io and Oi, two cats who facilitated a beautiful conversation between their owners, and Lightning, a horse who helped a widower find the strength to go on.

Uplifting, matter-of-fact, sometimes funny and never sappy, Hospice Tails will change the way you think about the animals in your life.

Only 24 Hours in a Day? Making Time for Writing

guest post by: Debra L. Stang

I’m afraid I have to start this post with some bad news. There is no way to increase the number of hours in your day. Much as we might wish for a 26-hour day, or even a 46-hour day, we are stuck with 24 hours.

Now for the good news: Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Jonathan Kellerman, and Margaret George are stuck with the same 24 hours, and look what they’ve managed to do with their time!

If you’re having trouble carving out time to write, you’re not alone. Almost every writer who ever lived has struggled to make time for his or her craft.

You’ll notice, by the way, that I said make time, not find time. You’re unlikely to stumble across a cache of extra minutes. If you want to write, you’ll need to schedule time and then fight for that time as fiercely as a mother bear fights for her cubs.

When I was writing Hospice Tails, for instance, I wrote in the evenings after I got home from my day job as a hospice social worker. I tried to explain to my friends that I actually was working during this time, but they kept calling, and I finally took the phone off the hook during my writing sessions.

I’ve developed a few other secrets that have helped me make the time to develop my writing career.

Schedule your writing times to coincide with your peak creativity. If you’re a morning person, get up half an hour earlier to write; if you’re an evening person, stay up half an hour later to write.

Commit to writing during your scheduled time whether you’re in the mood or not. Train yourself to sit down for the scheduled amount of time and write or type, even if all you are typing is, “This is stupid. I can’t think of anything to say.”

Don’t be afraid to write badly. I’ve been at this for ten years, and my first drafts of anything still stink up my apartment, though not as badly as they used to. Writing is like a muscle, and the more you work it, the stronger it will get.

A short block of writing time is better than none at all. If you only have ten minutes a day to write during a morning commute, so be it. Even if you only write half a page a day, within two years you’ll have a 365-page book.

Find a writing buddy. It’s much easier to stick to your writing goals if you know you’re accountable to a friend. A writing buddy is also a great person to turn to when you’re feeling hopelessly stuck.

If you’ve tried all these steps and you still find that you can’t make the time to write, check in with yourself about your motives. Do you really want to write, or are you doing it because you feel that you should or because you think you’d be letting someone down if you don’t? If you find that you really don’t enjoy the writing process, there’s no shame in that. Put writing aside for now, and move on to an activity that you really do enjoy.

If, however, you do enjoy writing and are still committed to making the time to do it, grab your calendar right now and block out ten minutes a day for the rest of the week. Just ten minutes. You can do it, and it will be productive time.

When are you going to schedule the time to write?

About our Guest Author: Debra L. Stang

In addition to her parents and two sister, Debra’s family includes four cats. The current crew includes a grouchy nine-year-old named Achilles; and orange tabby and alpha male named, appropriately enough, Alexander; and a black and white long-haired cat with attitude named Leroux. Then there’s the foster cat named Pumpkin. Of course, it all started with a three-month-old brown-and-gray tabby named Calypso who had strong feelings about most people. And not warm fuzzy feelings. Calypso even had the dubious honor of being banned by not one, but two vets.

When not caring for cats or writing, Debra spent many years as a social worker. She worked with AIDS patients, emergency room patients, and those with Alzheimer’s. Her final years as a social worker were spent with hospice patients. Although some would view that as a depressing job, Debra chose to view herself as a catalyst helping people make their final hopes and dreams come true. Sometimes it was making up with a family member after a decades long feud or leaving behind the stress of the office to reconnect with another aspect of their personality.

Debra took a clue from her patients and recently decided her writing–for years a part-time career–couldn’t wait any longer. Worried she would become one of those people who would one day say, “I wish I had…” she handed in her resignation and is now living her dream as a full-time writer.

Author Website: http://www.debrastang.net

Author Blog: http://debrastangfreelancewriter.typepad.com

 

Don’t forget to leave a comment or question for the author to be entered in the book drawing!!

6 Ways to Use Twitter to Promote Your New Book

When it comes to writing styles, Twitter and book writing are about as far apart as an author can get.However, Twitter can be a very natural way to promote a book. Not only is the
Twitter audience a reading-friendly one, unlike, for example, YouTube,
but many of Twitter’s features naturally lend themselves to promoting a
book.So, if you’re interested in promoting your book or eBook on Twitter, here
are a few tips that can help get you started expanding your readership
140 characters at a time. Short Username, Short Book Title

One of the defining characteristics about tweets is that there isn’t a lot
of room. Since you know you’re going to want to include your book’s
title and retweets/mentions will include your name, you need to keep
those as short as possible to leave more room for the message.

Short one-word book titles work best, but any title that can be abridged to
under 10 characters is a good start. The same goes for your Twitter
username, which should be short, but clearly representative of you.

Find Others and Engage With Them

It’s important to note that Twitter is not a purely promotional medium.
While you can easily promote on it, since others get to choose what
messages they want to hear on Twitter, you have to make sure that you
are engaging with other users as you are promoting.

Use the Twitter search function to find people who are tweeting about
topics related to your book an engage with them. Follow the, @reply them
and generally interact with them. Build a solid follower base and
continue to engage them even as you promote your work.

Being a marketing-only channel is a great way to ensure no one listens to what you have to say. Some suggest following a 20-to-1 rule for tweeting to avoid being viewed as a spammer.

Use Hashtags to Build Community

Hashtags, which are keywords prefaced by the “#” symbol (EX: #ebooktitle), are
short terms used to “tag” a tweet. They are instantly linked to the
search results for that hashtag, making them an easy way to build a
connected series of tweets.

When promoting a book, your title might make a great hashtag if it is short
enough. Failing that, you can abridge your title in a way that is easily
understood. The idea is to find a tag that is unique to your book and
that those who talk about it can easily find others who are talking
about it and further participate in the conversation.

Find Tweetable Content

Odds are your book has quotes and short phrases that, on their own, are
provocative, interesting or discussion-worthy. Tweet those quotes out
along with your hashtag and a shortened link to your book’s landing
page.

The idea isn’t so much to turn your tweets into advertisements for the
book, but to get others talking and thinking about what it has to say.
That will help spread your book’s message, along with its link, all over
Twitter and encourage your audience to promote your work for you, even
if they don’t realize they’re doing it.

  Hold a Contest or Promotion

Contests and promotions, generally, do very well on Twitter and are a great way
to get retweets of your posts and spread your message to a new audience.
All you need is a good reward, a tweet for others to share (retweet)
and a way to determine the winner or have others redeem their reward.

If you’re promoting your book, you can easily give away an autographed
copy of your book or something related to your book such as an hour of
free consulting or a free DVD.

Alternatively, you can also offer a discount to anyone who retweets your post, for
example, 15% off a copy of the book for those who send out a notice to
all of their friends.

The better the prize or the better the discount, the more people who will participate. Just be sure to follow Twitter’s guidelines for holding a contest to be sure you aren’t shut down.

Track and Monitor Results

Finally, as with any promotion, it’s important to track and monitor results.
This means setting up a landing page just for your Twitter efforts,
tracking visits to that page and sales from it.

This will enable you to understand how your efforts are going and how you
can adjust them moving forward, enabling you to continue to improve as
time goes on.

In the end, Twitter can be a tough environment for a marketer as it
involves a lot more than merely blasting a message out to the masses.

However, with a little bit of effort, some planning and some creativity, you can
find a very receptive audience on Twitter that may be more than happy
to buy your book.

This post was written by Lior Levin, a marketing adviser for a cancer center that specializes in  targeted cancer therapies, and who also works for the international MA in political science department at the Tel Aviv University.

Thankful Thursday

Big Smiles!

Shout from the rooftops! Sing in your car! Dance in your kitchen! Be grateful. Fully. Every day.

“I do not think of all the misery, but of the glory that remains. Go outside into the fields, nature and the sun, go out and seek happiness in yourself and in God. Think of the beauty that again and again discharges itself within and without you and be happy.”
– Anne Frank

Today, I am thankful for…

A very unique tool with coaching: The Image Center. Check out the fab coach, Michelle Russell I worked with this week.  Ask about 30 minute “session.”

Heather Sellers. I bow down to you, oh wise one. You read my mind and sync my soul. Read her book to know what I’m talking about >> Page After Page

Though it’s raining a bit more than my liking, I LOVE FALL!!!

Trying to open my mind, my soul, my perception of self and others.

The unexpected “a book you requested has arrived!” from my library. Do you HEART your library?

What/who are you thankful for today? Tap into the gratitude and see how it frees your mind for creativity. Share!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m so thankful for my readers!! Please SUBSCRIBE and be part of my secret inner circle ; )

Wicked Good : An Interview and TWO Contests!

As part of the WOW! Women on Writing Book Blog Tour, please welcome authors (and sisters!) Joanne Lewis and Amy Lewis Faircloth as they share the journey of researching and writing a beautiful novel about a mother and her son with Asperger’s syndrome.

After the interview, please leave a comment or question for  Joanne or Amy for a chance to win a Kindle version of Wicked Good.

Details of the second contest (to win $100) follow the interview, as well.

Amy & Joanne

Bio:

It was a chilly day in Maine when Amy received the call from her sister, Joanne, “Wanna write a book together?” Amy said yes and the journey began.

Amy is the older sister who loves her 2 sons and nephew, dogs, volunteering at the Bangor Humane Society, running, hiking, snowshoeing, surfing the web, her brown poodle Teddy, Lola, writing, reading, cycling, going to bed early, spending time with her friends and family, being outdoors when it’s nice outside and indoors when it’s not, and editing Joanne’s writing. She is a pescatarian and a lawyer in Maine.

Joanne is the younger sister who loves her 3 nephews, her grey poodle Frisco, writing, hiking, snowshoeing, kayaking, cooking, traveling, Florence, Italy, anything to do with the Italian Renaissance, Michelangelo, spending time with her friends and family, and being edited by Amy. She a vegetarian and a lawyer in Florida.

Two sisters, both attorneys; as sisters, Amy and Joanne have learned to play to each others strengths—an important lesson for any co-authors.

Website: www.amyandjoanne.com

Blog: www.wickedgoodthebook.blogspot.com

Interview by Mary Jo Campbell

1.     How did the idea of this story emerge and develop?

Joanne had written several novels and was between books. Amy had never written a book nor even thought about writing one. One day, on a whim, we decided to write a novel together for no other reason than we figured it would be a fun thing to do. The initial idea was about a mad scientist who seeks to extract DNA from a boy with Asperger’s syndrome in order to cure cancer. It didn’t take long before we realized that was a dumb idea. Over time and through many drafts, the story of a mother (Archer) and her adopted son (Rory) who has Asperger’s syndrome and searches for his birth parents began to emerge.

Win this book!

2.     What was the research process like? Please share how you began, who you reached out to and how many notes were “left on the cutting room floor?”

As we developed the plot, we researched the issues that came up. We don’t out-line since we like the writing process to be organic. As we plotted if there was something we needed more information on we would stop writing and do the research until we felt comfortable continuing. Also, after we finished a draft that we felt good about, we would fill in gaps with additional research. To research, we used different processes. We used the Internet and books. For example, Rory loves lawn mowers and gas globes in Wicked Good. We knew very little about both. We learned a lot about them by researching on the Internet and reading books. We visited actual locations for the novel such as Bangor, Maine and Salem and Gloucester, Massachusetts. We asked questions of people who might have first-hand information. We also do a lot of research just by being aware of our surroundings, watching and listening. Amy’s son (Joanne’s nephew) has Asperger’s syndrome so her life is filled with experiences that could be used in Wicked Good. Just watching and listening to her son gave her information as to how Rory might act in a situation. We are both keenly aware of our surroundings and the people we come into contact with. For example, in the novel, Archer gives Rory the candy Skittles that she calls his feel-good pills. Amy got that idea from a friend who had done the same thing with her son. It’s these real life touches that make the fiction world of Wicked Good appear very real. As far as reaching out to people, there is a police officer in the novel so we contacted a friend of ours who is a former police officer to make sure we got the character of Campbell correct. It took us 3 years to go from inception to completion of Wicked Good with maybe 20 different drafts of the novel. Not a lot of research was left on the cutting room floor since our research is narrowly targeted. However, a lot of the novel was left on the cutting room floor. We did a lot of editing of Wicked Good. And when we thought we were done editing, we edited some more!

3.     You’re both lawyers with families. Please give us a glimpse into your writing routine/schedule. How do you fit it all in? And, more importantly, how do you get your family onboard?

Amy: I not only work as an attorney but I am on the Board of the Bangor Humane Society and volunteer there too. I write after work, Sunday afternoons and in bed before I go to sleep if I’m not too tired. I have two teenage boys who are quite happy when I am out of their hairs! Jo: I work as an attorney and volunteer as well. I write when I’m not working. Before work, after work, evening, weekends, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning. I don’t like a definite schedule. It’s not easy juggling a full-time job as an attorney with being a novelist but our family knows how important this is to us so they are completely on-board. Amy: We have also learned when not to write. Many times, it’s important to shut off the computer and spend quality time with our families. That’s why I always try and have dinner with my sons. Jo: I completely agree.

4.     Like I mentioned, I was pulled into Archer and Rory’s world from page one. The dialogue and setting are so strong. The emotion is tense, yet fragile. I’m always curious how many drafts writers go through from 1^st to finished. Can you share your revision process? (i.e. Do you revise while writing; revise by hand, on computer; use a special technique, etc.?)

We do all our writing on the computer. Amy lives in Maine and Joanne lives in Florida so we e-mail drafts back and forth. We went through about 20 drafts of Wicked Good. After we got a handle on what the plot was going to be, we wrote it straight through without any major editing. We just wanted to get a first full draft done that was starting to look like the novel we wanted to write. Eventually, when we felt we had completed a decent draft, we gave a copy to each member of our mother’s book group. They took it very seriously, which we really appreciate. We went to the meeting when they discussed Wicked Good and they ripped it apart! While it was painful then, looking back it was an amazing experience. We dusted ourselves off and got back to work. We revise on the computer. When we make a lot of revisions and the draft starts to look significantly different, we save it under another name so we have all our drafts on our computers. And we back up everything on an external hard drive. Thank you for enjoying Wicked Good. There is nothing we want more than for people to get lost in Archer and Rory’s world as we did.

5.     What were the highs and lows of co-authoring a book? Do you think these were intensified because you’re sisters? 

The highs of writing the book feel endless. We know that sounds hokey but it really is true. Everything about writing Wicked Good is better because we are sisters. From day one, we decided to have fun writing Wicked Good. We both have good jobs so while we love writing we do not approach it with an expectation to make livings as full-time authors. That takes a lot of pressure off of us. The highs were speaking and e-mailing each other every day and learning about each other’s lives in a way we had never known before. The biggest high now is looking back and realizing what we have accomplished together. While we were great friends before we began writing Wicked Good, we are now the best of friends. We guess it could have gone the other way but are glad it didn’t. We’ve never had a fight over Wicked Good. If we have a disagreement over the plot, we discuss it and usually reach a compromise very quickly. However, if Amy is adamant about plotting or characterization, she usually prevails since she is the one who lives with a child on the autism spectrum and is most qualified to keep Wicked Good realistic in that regard. And she is the older sister too! The lows have really involved post-publication and marketing. The reviews have been great and Wicked Good has won an award and is up for another award (to be announced in October) but getting Wicked Good out there has been difficult. We know it takes one reader at a time. We are hoping as more people read Wicked Good and they tell their friends who tell their friends…so please, if you enjoy Wicked Good, please tell your friends and family.

6.     Do you have any future writing projects planned together or individually?

Yes, to both. We are working on the second book in the Wicked series called Wicked Wise. In Wicked Good, Rory is fifteen years old. In Wicked Wise, he is nineteen and graduating high school. We are planning on following Rory into old age. We are hoping to have Wicked Wise released in 2012. Individually, Joanne is in the final editing process of a historical fiction novel called The Lantern that will be released by the end of this year, or early 2012.

Please leave a comment or question for the authors to be entered to win a Kindle version of Wicked Good! Winner will be randomly selected and announced tomorrow, Wed. Sept 21

And, now the deets on the $100 contest:

Have you ever said something that totally stopped conversation? Maybe it was insightful. Maybe it was weird. Maybe it was the thing everyone was thinking but was afraid to say. Rory, the teenage character in Wicked Good, is the master of conversation stoppers—his family calls them “Roryisms”.

WOW! is hosting a “Roryism” contest; the winner will receive a $100 prepaid Visa card and their Roryism will be published in the next book in the Wicked series. Full details can be found on The Muffin. http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2011/09/wicked-good-by-amy-lewis-faircloth-and.html

“A written word is the choicest of relics…”

“…It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips; – not be represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself. The symbol of an ancient man’s thought becomes a modern man’s speech. … Books are the treasured wealth of the world and fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage.”

~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden

and the winner of the ebook, Who Are You?  is…. Jan!!

Congrats! Please send me an email so that Mari can send you the link for the free download! (mjcwriter”at”comcast”dot”net)

Are Old Fears Dragging You Down? (Guest post & Giveaway!)

Are Old Fears Dragging You Down?

Guest Post by Mari McCarthy (Don’t forget to enter the ebook giveaway @ bottom of post!)

It’s the human condition to experience fear every now and then. No one is entirely immune to it. Part of growing up is learning how to handle your fears.

A friend observed the other day that people seem to be inexplicably drawn to challenging situations, circumstances that will force us to change and grow. It’s easy to build a cozy cocoon of our daily routines, but the time for metamorphosis comes around sooner or later. And often, you find yourself facing the very thing you hoped to avoid forever.

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The challenges that beckon us can bring us face to face with old fears. It’s as if the growth is directly aimed at making us resolve these ancient terrors, so we can progress in life. Our fears are barriers, keeping us from becoming what we naturally wish to be.

A highly effective tool for making your old fears disappear is journaling. Try the following process.

1. Set aside a notebook that is dedicated to journaling about your fears. Write in it regularly.
2. Make a list of everything you are afraid of.
3. Identify several childhood fears that you had. Have you overcome any of these? How were you able to erase your fear?
4. Write about the sensation of fear, how it feels in your body, what it might look like if it had a tangible form.
5. Write in detail about the conditions present when you experience fear in your current life. Describe the external circumstances as well as the sequence of your thoughts.

Now return to the list of all your current fears and work through them in whatever order you wish.

Write about:

1. where you are when this fear arises
2. what happens in your body when you feel it
3. your response to the fear
4. the value of this fear to you (don’t forget that some fear is good; it protects us from harm)
5. and end with an observation (or two) about your fear at this point

As with all journaling, don’t neglect the important step of reviewing previous entries after some time has passed. It is when you look back on the past that your journey is revealed.

Finally, notice that the journal writing therapy prescribed here makes no demands on you to change. It is important not to feel pressured about changing. Know that you are journaling to record, to illustrate, to discuss; but not to achieve anything.

Let the change come of its own accord as you continue to observe and write.

#

Mari McCarthy

 By Mari L. McCarthy – The Journaling Therapy Specialist, founder of Journaling for the Health of It™.  Please visit Mari’s blog at CreateWriteNow. In Who Are You? How to Use Journaling Therapy to Know and Grow Your Life, Mari presents a gentle process for self discovery through journaling. Mari’s latest publication is titled, Your Money Matters! Use Journal Writing Therapy to Get Financially Fit Now.

Enter to win! By leaving a comment or question on today’s post, you are entered to win a copy of Mari’s ebook: Who Are You? How to Use Journaling Therapy to Know and Grow Your Life. I use random.org to select a winner – posted tomorrow, Wed., Aug. 31)

Up, Up and AWay

This my horoscope for today…

Scorpio

This is just the kind of day you like, Scorpio – intense and supercharged, just like you! It seems there’s a deadline coming up, or a time-sensitive project. You’ll have a lot to do and not a lot of time in which to do it. This is when you’re at your most productive. Just remember to drink plenty of water and eat. Even superheroes need fuel in order to accomplish their heroics.

Some days, it’s just creepy-cool how accurate these are! I mentioned last week that I struggled to get my butt back in productive gear with writing and exercising. Well, I’m pleased to say I did not hit snooze this a.m. at 4:55. I completed my TurboJam, drank my lemon water and even jotted down my to-do list for today, which includes:

1. grocery shopping
2. write a new novel scene (brainstormed earlier from Writing the Breakout Novel wkbk)
3. research a martial arts center for my oldest son

I feel supercharged. Maybe it’s a mindset, maybe it’s because the sun is shining and the temps are below 80 degrees. Maybe because school starts this week and that always makes me feel like it’s a brand new year gifting me with a beautiful blank canvas.

Whatever it is…I’m ready to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

What’s on your agenda today?

Thankful Thursday…And ebook winner!

Big Smiles!

First, ebook winner announcement:

 

Though over 120 visitors passed through and read Amira’s  interview,

Allison Gardner 

was the only one who was savvy enough to leave a comment – Congrats, Allison! You won a copy of Amira Aly’s ebook: Egypt: The Uprising. Please send me your email address and Amira will forward the ebook to you. (mjcwriter”at”comcast”dot”net)

“ Ninety percent of the population wish positive but think negative.                 

                      ~ Mark Sanbourn, Speaker

Today, I am thankful for…

A Week off from my day  job to teach some amazing, creative and energetic kids in my Young Writers’ Summer Studio (prompts & tips I used will be posted next week!)

AWESome list of helpful tips on setting goals for writers

The peace in my home since we banned all electronics until after dinnertime.

The beginnings of “clutter clear out” in my home – specifically my writing area.

Gorgeous cool weather and bright sunshine which added to a fun day lingering in Downtown Downers Grove with my two sons.

What/who are you thankful for today? Tap into the gratitude and see how it frees your mind for creativity. Share!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m so thankful for my readers!! Please SUBSCRIBE and be part of my secret inner circle ; )

Interview & Book Giveaway: Amira Aly, Egypt: The Uprising

Amira Aly

Please welcome, Amira Aly, author of the YA novel, Egypt: The Uprising. Amira answers my questions on the timeliness of her novel, being a doctor and a novelist, writing against the regime without fear and her secret writing weapon. Enjoy this fascinating interview and be entered in the ebook giveaway drawing by leaving  a comment or question for our author. Entries will be randomly selected on Wednesday, August 10.

Interview by Mary Jo Campbell

Welcome, Amira! Thank you for taking the time to answer my interview questions. I’m sure my readers will glean much from your responses.   In your unofficial bio on your site, you say “Oh, {I’m} also a full-time writer and part-time doctor.”  I Love that irony! It’s unique to see those who study medicine/science also having a passion for creativity and art. How does one help the other in your life?

Thank you Mary Jo. It’s funny because there is a long line of doctors-turned-writers in Egypt. I guess it stems from the pressures Egyptian society exerts on us. We, ‘artsy’ types with scientific potential, are usually cajoled into pursuing a more traditional career. I think we end up studying medicine because deep down in every writer there’s a romanticism that lends itself nicely to medicine.

Studying medicine, and practicing it in the setting of a developing country among the poor of the nation, has enriched my understanding of human beings and exposed me to the most interesting characters one can come across. I also think that seeing and experiencing suffering first hand taught me a lot about human nature and how people react to trauma–things that I would not have otherwise been exposed to in my otherwise sheltered life.

Post-apocalyptic stories seem the new trend, but your book has a slight edge, as Egypt has already been dealing with political uprisings, the most recent being broadcast world-wide in January, 2011.  First off, when did you begin writing the ideas of this book and how long was the publication process, from brainstorming to finished product in hand? It seemed perfectly timed with the riots.

I had been fiddling around with the idea of a book set in post-apocalyptic Egypt where the goddess of justice, Maat, meets up with a young Egyptian girl to help her on the quest to “set things right.”

When the uprising broke out, I felt like this was a perfect opportunity for Maat’s intervention in modern history–after all justice and equality were the demands of the protestors.

I had all the Egyptian mythology research ready (approximately two years worth) and various character notes. I wrote the book in a little under three months.

 

Have you had any political resistance to the release of your book? I’m thinking back to the internet being shut down during the uprising in January and how scary that must have been for the citizens.  Were /Are you concerned for your safety while writing and/or releasing this book?

Win this ebook!

When I started writing the book, I had no idea that we would “win” and that Mubarak will be ousted.

Being politically active on the internet through social media, I’d made it abundantly clear that I was anti-regime. So I suppose that I would’ve been rounded up with the rest of the “virtual” activists had Mubarak stayed in power.

But I was not concerned about that. There was so much more at stake that my safety somehow just felt of secondary importance. The young innocent lives taken by the security forces and regime thugs left a bitterness and aching in me that superseded any other feeling.

 

 

Can you tell us a bit about your writing practice – any routines, quirks, rules you follow?

I, unfortunately, am very peculiar when it comes to my writing habits. I can only write when it’s cool (my AC bill always speaks for how much writing I get done in the summer.)

When working on my novels, my best writing comes when I am in the “twilight zone,” not fully awake and alert, usually late at night or just after I wake up and before my morning coffee. Sure, the writing is usually full of typos, but I feel like this is when I best access my creativity.

I also have a secret writing weapon–my husband! Without him, I’d be totally lost.

He takes my toddler and 7-year-old daughter out whenever I need some alone time to concentrate on my writing.

 

Can you share your tips for research?

After extensively researching Egyptian mythology I thought I had everything figured out. But when I started writing, this turned out to be far from true. I heard some writers talk about a research-as-you-write process, and I think it is an excellent idea which can significantly cut novel writing prep time.

 

Anything unusual you found while researching for this book?  Can you give us an example of how you merged factual data with your fictional world?

 

Many unusual things came my way during researching the ancient Egyptian mythology and culture. Most interesting was that the known ‘myths’ or accounts of the relationships between the Neteru, or gods, are not ‘set in stone’ (pun not intended.) They vary depending on where in Egypt the information was found and during which dynasty. Some like Seth, god of the underworld, for instance was not vilified until later in ancient Egypt’s history. Earlier accounts of him talk about him being an ally of the sun god Ra.

There is a lot of room for interpretation of Egyptian myths. And I had a pretty set idea about which bits and pieces I was going to mix together.

Fact meets fiction many times in my book, starting with the Egyptian revolution of January 25th 2011 of course.  The looting of the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Tahrir Square is the quintessential fact upon which I build my world.  The museum was in fact looted by pro-government thugs during the uprising; I  fictionalize why that happened and present an interesting theory about the onset of the revolution.

One key artifact in my story is the gilded Trumpet of Tutankhamen, a trumpet which was dubbed “the trumpet of war” and postulated to possess a magical ability to start war. Egyptian Minister of Antiquity, Dr. Zahi Hawass, had even issued a statement about some Japanese delegation sounding the trumpet one week before the revolution started!

I’d chosen to include that trumpet in my story ever since I saw that it was on the list of the missing artifacts from the museum, even before Hawass had made that statement, but when he did I decided to add a Japanese element to my mix.

I also have a fact or fiction section on my website  http://www.battleformaat.com/p/fact-or-fiction.html to specifically address all questions I receive about sorting out the factual from the fictional.

 

What’s next for Amira? Are you staying on the writerly path or devoting your time to medicine?

The writerly path it is! Being a novelist is an addiction I cannot cure myself of I am afraid.  I want to tell my stories to the world. Now that I’ve started, there is no stopping me.

About the Author…

Amira Aly lived in Canada up until her first year in university when she moved to Egypt to study medicine at the University of Cairo. It seemed she was on the traditional route of a medical career working as an intern and teaching assistant in the surgical pathology department. But then she discovered the wonderful world of freelance medical writing. And who could resist its charms?

Egypt: The Uprising isn’t Amira’s first book. There was that picture book she wrote when she was five years old. Sadly, publishers didn’t recognize its brilliance but it was the first step on a life filled with a love of writing.

When she isn’t writing Amira likes to read her favorite authors Anne Rice, Stephen King, and F. Scott Fizgerald. She also spends time dancing, playing video games, and eating her favorite food Molokheya (an Egyptian green soup). She’d like to squeeze in time to learn a fourth language. She already speaks English, Arabic, and French. Amira lives in Cairo with her husband, 7 year old daughter and 17 month year old son. Her children would like to add a dog to that list but Amira, still traumatized by the loss of a pet turtle, has sworn off pets. That, and she knows she’ll be the one walking the dog even though everyone promises they will.

http://www.battleformaat.com/

http://amiraaly.wordpress.com/

About the book…

Aya is a teenage girl trying to live through the Egyptian Revolution of January 2011 with her brother and aunt without getting swept up into the demonstrations and violence. But fate has something else in mind for Aya. What starts out as an attempt by Aya to drag her brother and is friends away from the demonstrations transforms into a battle with ancient Egyptian figures who have returned from the past to take control of modern Egypt. Can Aya learn enough about her mysterious past and powers in time to save her world from the evil threatening it?

Egypt: The Uprising is a fascinating combination of modern events, historical figures, secret organizations with magical powers, and adventure that keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

“Reminiscent of National Treasure, this young adult book has a little of everything for reader – sibling rivalry and love, family dynamics, young crushes, loyalty, magic,fabled creatures and beings, strange worlds and journeys.”

– Shaeeza Hanif, Amazon Review

“Very few people could have pulled this off and created a story with such layering, a story that reads like a credible Hollywood screenplay in the mold of Raiders of the Lost Ark with the scholarly underpinning of a National Geographic documentary.” – Amazon Review

Egypt: The Uprising is available for purchase in print and e-book formats at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, in various e-book formats at eBookIt!, and for the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch at the Apple iBookstore.