I found that a gentleman by the name of Ollie Lind had read one of the poems I’d posted here and not only liked it, but offered up the link to his own readers.  How cool is that?  So, I spent a little time at Mr. Lind’s site and was amazed at what I found.  Ollie Lind is quite the poet in his own right, and has even released his first book of poetry titled Reflections of Life.

Now mind you, I was a little intimidated about reading Ollie’s work.  Several years back, I’d posted some of my poems to a critique group and almost quit writing poetry all together.  I write in rhyme.  One of the people in the group had told me that it was a sure sign that I was nothing more than an amateur.  I was devastated.  I’ve tried my hand at free verse, but I have to say that I totally SUCK at this form of poetry.  Everything I wrote in free verse sounded forced, so I just gave up.

Anyway, I decided to read a few of Mr. Lind’s poems and fell in love with his writing style.  He’s a rhymer.  His poems come together in a magical way that dances across the heart.  It gave me hope that my poems might not be dead after all.  It also caused me to pull out my dusty old book filled with the poems I’d written so many years ago.  And, it made me realize that just because one person in this world didn’t approve of my style, someone else out there might enjoy it.

Thank you, Mr. Lind.  You helped put a spark back into my soul that’s been silenced for a very long time.  They say that all things happen for a reason, and I believe that you reading my goofy little poem was no accident.  May all your writing dreams come true.

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This totally blows.  I’ve been waiting for almost 5 years to be able to stay home full time, and be the writer I’ve always dreamed of being.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I am writing, just not for myself.  To any of the wonderful people who have hired me to write for them, God bless you.  You have no idea how much you all mean to me.  My problem is that when I get to a point where it’s time to write something for myself, I draw a blank.

I have to be honest here and say that housework is NOT my favorite passtime.  But lately, I’ve been cleaning out closets and cupboards as an excuse not to sit in front of a blank computer screen and cuss at myself.  The people I write for come to me and say “Hey Chris, I need a few articles about such and such a topic”.  Cool, no sweat.  I can do this.  Then, I get to a point where it’s time to write something for my own things and I suck.

That’s one of the reasons behind this post.  It’s more of a “just do it and shut up about it” type of thing.  I figure that if I free write and get some of this off my chest, I just might be able to write something amazing next.  Or, at least come up with some ideas that will get the ball rolling.  If nothing else, I can at least say I actually wrote something for me.  The thing that really sucks is that I’m The Prompt Writer.  I come up with writing ideas all the time, and pass them along to everyone else without a problem.  Why can’t I do that for myself right now?

Ok, I guess this pity party is over.  Everyone can go home now, but next time it’s your turn to bring the chips.  Ironically, I feel better after writing this little rant.  Maybe kicking myself in the butt wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

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In the past few months, I’ve done a lot of ghostwriting for a few webmasters. It’s a great gig, and I enjoy doing the research needed to make each article unique. The problem is that it takes a lot of time and everything else gets put on hold.

I’ve also been busy on the home front. Since I last posted here, we had our son’s Eagle Scout ceremony and watched him graduate high school. It’s hard to believe that my little boy is all grown up. He leaves in March for the United States Navy, and I’m both apprehensive and proud. The good thing is that I’ll get to spend more time with my daughter, who’s going to be a Sophomore.

The main reason I decided to go make the rounds is because as of June 11th, I will be a full time writer. I thought I was going to get to this point a couple years back, as I had quit a previous job in order to do so. However, a friend of mine needed help at the restaurant she worked at, and I told her I’d help out. Within a year, I went from working a couple days a week, to working Monday-Friday. But, even so, the owners have decided it’s time for a change and are closing the doors this week.

Now that I’ll have more time on my hands, I know I’ll have more time to devote to my family and my writing. The break from all my writing endeavors has actually been to my favor. I’ve become refreshed and feel like a new person. I’ve given my creative juices a vacation and they’re all ready to get back to work. It’s nice to feel like myself again, and it’s nice to have a place where I feel like I can come back home.

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ALCOHOL AND ELECTRICITY DON’T MIX

Now, please let it be known that I’m not a man-basher.  In fact, I come from a family where most of the men have outlived the women.  I just thought I’d offer up this little picture to show that sometimes people do things that would cause most people to sit back and go “Well, Duh!!!”.

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I’m not one who usually enjoys leaving my comfort zone, and I knew how to use WordPerfect inside and out. So, it took me awhile to get used to this new program and I’m still learning the ins and outs of the whole thing. There are some pretty cool features that come with OpenOffice, such as word completion. As you’re typing out a certain word, the program sort of finishes it up for you. I’m not sure I like this function, as I type to fast to pay attention to what’s being put in front of me, and it’s kind of annoying.

One of the features I do like about this program is that you can automatically create PDF files with the click of a button. Now, many of you bloggers might not understand what that means, but for those who write e-books, it’s a given. Anytime you write something that is to be read in Adobe Reader, it’s in a PDF file. For a long time, you had to buy a special program from Adobe in order to make this happen. I think the program was like $100 or something like that. I don’t remember for sure, but that’s because I about choked on the idea of spending that kind of money and waited until someone came out with a freeware product that did the same thing. Now, I can do it as soon as I’m done writing whatever it is that I happen to be writing.

OpenOffice also comes with a bunch of other applications, most of which I’ll probably never use. There is one application that does nothing but calculate mathematic equations. No, won’t be needing that one, unless my daughter gets stuck on an Algebra problem at school. There is also a spreadsheet that comes with this program, but it’s pretty basic. There are a lot of templates for different projects, but I’m still not sure what they’re all for. I’m still in the learning phase of this journey.

The only real thing I’m going to have to get used to is in saving my work to my flash drive. Not because it’s hard, but because I have to save everything in a different type of format. Everything I have right now is saved in .wp and I can’t do that with this program. I don’t want to start saving everything in this program’s default format, which is .odt. So, for now I’m saving in .rft format. I just hope I don’t screw up my work because of this. LOL. That would be my luck.

If you’re looking for a free office type word processor, check this one out. I won’t say it’s totally cool, because I don’t know that to be a fact yet. But, I won’t say it sucks because so far it’s been pretty easy to use. It all comes down to what you’re looking for and what you’ll be using it to do. My favorite part of the whole this is that it’s free, and so are all the extensions that come with it. I like free!!!

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I know there have been a lot of sites talking about setting goals for the new year, but I’m not one of them.  I have a lot of plans for the new year, but my only goal is to take one day at a time.  I figure if I can do that much, I’ll be doing good.  It seems that whenever I set certain goals for myself, I always screw them up.  If I don’t set any goals, then I do pretty good.  LOL

I haven’t made any clear cut decisions about where I plan to go with this site, but I do know that I’ll be doing something interesting if nothing else.  So stick around, you never know what’s going to happen next. 

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On the second day of Christmas I went and got for me
Two social Plugins
And a brand new RSS feed

On the third day of Christmas I went and got for me
Three Google Ads
Two social Plugins
And a brand new RSS feed

On the forth day of Christmas I went and got for me
Four affiliate links
Three Google ads
Two social plugins
And a brand new RSS feed

On the fifth day of Christmas I went and got for me
Five blogging themes
Four affiliate links
Three Google ads
Two social plugins
And a brand new RSS feed

On the sixth day of Christmas I went and got for me
Six stumbled posts
Five blogging themes
Four affiliate links
Three Google ads
Two social plugins
And a brand new RSS feed

On the seventh day of Christmas I went and got for me
Seven sites for bloggers
Six stumbled posts
Five blogging themes
Four affiliate links
Three Google ads
Two social plugins
And a brand new RSS feed

On the eighth day of Christmas I went and got for me
Eight killer keywords
Seven sites for bloggers
Six stumbled posts
Five blogging themes
Four affiliate links
Three Google ads
Two social plugins
And a brand new RSS feed

On the ninth day of Christmas I went and got for me
Nine sidebar widgets
Eight killer keywords
Seven sites for bloggers
Six stumbled posts
Five blogging themes
Four affiliate links
Three Google ads
Two social plugins
And a brand new RSS feed

On the tenth day of Christmas I went and got for me
Ten Twitter followers
Nine sidebar widgets
Eight killer keywords
Seven sites for bloggers
Six stumbled posts
Five blogging themes
Four affiliate links
Three Google ads
Two social plugins
And a brand new RSS feed

On the eleventh day of Christmas I went and got for me
Eleven email contacts
Ten Twitter followers
Nine sidebar widgets
Eight killer keywords
Seven sites for bloggers
Six stumbled posts
Five blogging themes
Four affiliate links
Three Google ads
Two social plugins
And a brand new RSS feed

On the twelfth day of Christmas I went and got for me
Twelve new subscribers
Eleven email contacts
Ten Twitter followers
Nine sidebar widgets
Eight killer keywords
Seven sites for bloggers
Six stumbled posts
Five blogging themes
Four affiliate links
Three Google ads
Two social plugins
And a brand new RSS feed

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Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d like to announce that tomorrow, December 1st, begins the first annual National Plot Writing Month.  Though this event is not associated with the NaNoWriMo challenge, it is a way for writers to create a deeper, more realistic plot line to your story.  The best part of this is that there is no crunch-time writing to do, just daily tips to shape your masterpiece.

PlotWhisperer also has a free monthly newsletter called Blockbuster Plots.  As a writing consultant, this lady knows how to help others create the perfect plot line, while still allowing your story to be just that; your story.  And not only does this lady claim to be able to help you improve your plot, she’s got the credentials to back it up.

I invite you all to stop over and sign up for National Plot Writing Month, and get in on all the techniques that will take your good story idea and turn it into a wonderful work of art.

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Every time I get a message that someone else is following me on twitter, I immediately run over and check out there spots.  You never know when you might come across someone who’s blogs and sites will compliment your own.  But lately, most of those who are now following me are spam twits.  So, here’s my theory.  Anyone and everyone is welcome to follow me on twitter.  In fact, I’d love to see my twitter followers hit the 1,000 mark before I die.  However, if you’re twitter account is nothing more than an extension of your “make me money” site, I probably won’t be returning the follow.

With that said, let me also say that there are a few out there that I will be following even if they’re spam twits.  Here are the criteria: 1.) You’re already a friend of mine somewhere else, and you’re just looking for a little extra help.  2.) I see more than just product tweets when I check out your profile.  3.) I get the sense that you are a real person, and not a robot.   And if I do end up following you and start seeing several tweets about which nail polish your putting on, or if I see 50 tweets about your digestive problems, I won’t be following long.

I have nothing against tweeting about your latest posts, nor do I have any problems with anyone throwing out a few tweets about what’s going on in their day.  In fact, those are the qualities I love about Twitter.  But I can’t stand spam in my emails, I’m sure not going to subscribe to a specifically spammy twit.

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My son has been in Scouts since he was 7 yrs old, and was just a Tiger Cub.  That’s the very first step in a Scouter’s life.  I’ve been beside him every step of the way, as a leader/den mother/volunteer.  Not because I thought I needed to be watching every move he made, but because nobody else would volunteer to be a leader.  I couldn’t let my kid down, so I joined up and have been doing this for 11 years now.  Geez, no wonder I’m tired.  LOL

This is an exciting time for our entire family.  My husband was in Boy Scouts, but due to circumstances beyone his control, he wasn’t able to finish and become an Eagle.  The idea of our son making it has made my husband one of the proudest men alive.  People often ask me why my husband didn’t become the Scout Master.  Honestly, it’s because his job wouldn’t allow him to put in the time needed to be a good leader.  He often had to work long hours, including nights and weekends.  And I decided that being a good provider was more important than trying to find time to be a scout leader.  That’s why I jumped in and took control.

I’m very proud of both of my kids.  As I look at some of the other kids they go to school with, I lucked out and ended up with 2 pretty smart ones.  Maybe it’s just the mom in me talking, but I’ve been very fortunate so far.  Hopefully, I’ll get to tell the world tomorrow night, that my son finally made Eagle Scout.

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