Random Pockets of Time: Mobile Blogging

I'm here at the walk-in doctor's thanks to the two-year-old's out-of-control wheezing, and since I have my phone I figured I'd write up a little post.

It's kind of nice blogging like this. I don't feel guilty about spending time with my blog because after all, I would otherwise be staring at a sign that says "WALK-IN Patients are not ecessarily seen in order of rrival." (The sign is old and has seen better days). Anyway, I may as *well* be blogging than doing nothing. And, just like the last time I phone-blogged, no one has any idea that I'm about to publish something to the internet, for all the world to see. It's kind of cool. My little waiting-room secret.

So, blog buddies, (oh, I was about to merge that... you know, like blog + hug = blug... but blog + buddies = bluddies. Ew.) Today the topic is using random pockets of time. Some people might not need random pockets of time to write, but I definitely do!

Throughout the day I try to be ready for writable moments. Empty spaces in the day when I can squeeze in a few minutes of writing or brainstorming. It started when I was working. I used to take a journal and scribble out scene ideas on my lunchbreaks. Or I'd read through a chapter I'd printed up, with my highlighter and red pen ready to work on revisions. Or sometimes I'd people watch and work on writing in general, or just read fiction, because reading is food for the muse.

Those habits transferred to other pockets of time; like waiting for a doctor or dentist appointment (ha ha, like what I'm doing now), or waiting for the kids to get out of school in the parking lot, or while piano class/karate/drill team practice is going on. Lately I've even emailed myself scene ideas or new plot points from my Blackberry.

Pockets of time aren't meant to replace the hour I spend writing in the evenings or in the mornings. They're more like enrichment, and I find them all day long waiting to be filled. The more I use my time like a writer, the more I think like a writer. And if I have a little notepad and pencil handy (or a web-enabled phone), I can not only think like a writer, but work like one too.

Okay blog friends (blends?), that's about as much as my thumbs can take. I'm going to read some blogs here on my precious Blackberry, though sadly, I'm still not able to comment from it. Before I go, a question: how do you use time throughout the day, as a writer? Do you find yourself thinking like a writer, even when you're not immersed in your wip?

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One-Word Answers, Awards, and My Crazy Life

I do not enjoy house hunting. No. I. Do. Not.

Buying our first home using the VA in lieu of down payment and qualifying for very little... not easy. The word grueling comes to mind. We are lucky though, because we have the most encouraging, most awesome realtor in the world. Even though we don't qualify for much, he treats us like we're on Million Dollar Listing. Such a great dude.

So I'm using the rain as an excuse to use my "down time" to relax in front of the blog... ahhhhh, that's soothing.

Here's what's in store for today: my attempt at award catch-up! And if I missed someone's award I am so incredibly sorry! I don't deserve it, sob!!

I believe this was from my darling Emily at the Chronicles of Emily Cross:

The Creative Writer Award!

Annnnnd... I don't remember the rules. Hee hee *blush* Okay, here are three blogs I think are creative, hopefully that'll do:

Author, Flutist, Teacher, Aubrie Dionne
Mary at Writer's Butt Does Not Apply to Me
A Squirrel Amongst Lions

Melissa at Chasing the Dream AND Kelly at Rants, Observations, and Other Remarks (and I think one other wonderful blog friend, eeeeek!! I can't remember and I'm so mean and sorry for that!!):

The Over the Top Award!

Rules:


First, answer these questions with one word:

Your cell phone: Addicted
Your hair: Annoying
Your mother: Sad
Your father: Lost
Your favorite food: Fried
Your dream last night: Interrupted
Your favorite drink: Sweet
Your dream goal: Novelist
What room are you in: Bedroom
Your hobby: Writing
Your fear: Loss
Where do you see yourself in 6 years: Published
Where were you last night: Bachelorette
Something you aren't: Finished
Muffins: Tops
Wish list item: House
Where did you grow up: Miami
Last thing you did: Nebulizer
What are you wearing: Sweater
Your TV: Off
Your pets: Tortured
Friends: Understanding
Your life: Confusing
Your mood: Hopeful
Missing someone: Unfortunately
Vehicle: Dented
Something you aren't wearing: Shoes
Your favorite store: Bookstore
Your favorite color: Green
When was the last time you laughed: Today
Last time you cried: Today
Your best friend: Far
One place you go over and over: Imagination
Facebooking: No
Favorite place to eat: Beach

Now, pass it on to five blogs that are over the top!

*Diana scribbles a note to herself* "Must... pass... over the top award... on to five blogs..." Okay, if you haven't been tagged with this super fun Over the Top Award and want to do the answers, let me know!! I will add you to the award roll call.

Next...

Natalie at Sound of the Rain gave me:

The Happy Blogger Award!

Which I'd already received (you can read my happy things here) and I am "happy" to pass it on to anyone who's willing to post ten things that make them happy :)

And last, another one I'd received before (you can read my Ten Honest Things Challenge here), merci beaucoup Sesquipedalian! And again, since I've already passed out this award, I'll go ahead and challenge anyone who would like it to post ten honest things :)

The Honest Scrap Award! 

Wow, reading through those pre-house-hunting posts is like going back in time. *Heavy sigh*

Before I go, I leave you with something inspired by an email I sent Wendy. It's an excerpt from my frazzled life... or, how my days seem to go now that we're buying a house, and why I haven't been blogging so much:

• wake up; 
• do the usual morning craziness to get the kids to school on time; 
• sometimes volunteer at one or the other's school (because that's the apparent point of being a stay-at-home mommy, or so I keep reminding myself); 
• if no volunteering, then I go straight to faraway neighborhoods (because we can't afford L.A... or at least, any part of L.A. that we're willing to live in, so it's off into San Bernardino County I look); 
• check out "the area" of possible houses; 
• sometimes tour houses, sometimes look at nearby schools; 
• pick up son from preschool; 
• go home for "down time," aka eat lunch-give two-year-old his breathing treatment (takes 20 minutes, so I read while I sit with him)-catch up with housework-grocery shopping-maybe read a few blogs, or critique for my buddies, or tweet, or catch up on emails ; 
• pickup eight-year-old from school (read for a few minutes in the parking lot while I wait!); 
• get homework and dinner going; 
• read to kids and listen to eight-year-old read; 
• get kids bathed and ready for bed; 
• spend the evening looking through the listings our realtor sends and catching up with the husband; 
• spend one hour devoted to my wip;
• read a bit before bed.

I am devoted to my writing. Sadly, if something's gotta give, it's gotta be my blog/tweeting/emailing. Hopefully I don't have to give too much more, because I miss you guys too! xoxoxo
Di

Things My Followers Love... and Giveaway Winners!!

I hope everyone who entered had fun! The "something sweet" bonus entries made me HUNGRY!! And rocked in general :) Here's the Sweetness List:

Sweet Things My 

Followers Love...

Books and Writing...

Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster (I saw a review and now I truly want to read this! Thank you InABox!)

Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

Corinthian 13:4-7

Super sweet moments...

Warm baby cheeks

Amber's 4 year-old niece, who wrote her a Facebook message with a family friend's help:

"Amber, you are the best and I love you. Thank you for letting me be in your wedding. How is your dog doing? How is your car doing? I am four and I am going to be five."

Kate's husband, who baked 30 pies for their wedding

Melissa's youngest daughter, who just learned how to blow kisses

Aww, you guys...

Thanks for naming moi as your "Something Sweet", you guys are really too amazing. :) :)

And Gwoe, do you really have t-shirts that say Team Derek and Team Rowan? You ARE the sweetest critique buddy ever! *sniff sniff* Now I really have to sell these books!! And a Rock Hard Body Alert tshirt is awesome... who knew a bit of flash fiction could inspire so much.

Desserts...

Chocolate cake

Chocolate fudge cheesecake

Toffee from See's candy (love toffee!)

Toffee in general (ditto)

Kate's Husband's pies, especially the strawberry-rubarb, but also pumpkin

Cupcakes (two of you commented on cupcakes!)

Chocolate (a classic)

Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate ice cream

Wintogreen Lifesavers (are those the ones that spark?)

Chocolate mouse cake with Cool Whip and Strawberries (well YUM!)

Chocolate gummy bears

Venti White Chocolate Mochas (I. Adore. These.)

Blueberry Cheesecake

Chocolate pretzels

Erica's husband's pumpkin cheesecake (who are all these husbands who bake and will you please have them talk to mine?)

Heath bars (Super Yum!)

Chocolate brownies

Lemon meringue pie

Chocolate chip cookies

Peanut butter cups 

Okay, now that everyone's mouths are watering, it's time to announce the winners!!!

The Winners

of the Coaster's

Sweetest Followers

Ever Giveaway!

For the Keepin' it Real Category, the winner of How to Take the Ex Out of Ex-Boyfriend is Tiana Lei at Spilled Ink ! Congrats Tiana, I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.

For the Fairy Tale Fantasy Category, the winner of The Faerie Path is Tina Lynn at Sweet Niblets ! Congrats Tina, I hope you enjoy this charming, classic fairy tale.

I was going to use Random. org to pick the winner, but you have to pay! So I did the drawing the old-fashioned, writing-names-on-slips-of-paper way, then pulled them out of a kitchen container thingy. Actually, I had my oldest two pick the names (thanks kids!) and I think it is completely weird that the very first two entrants were both the winners. Congrats again!!

Thank you to everyone for entering and giving us so many sweet things to think about. I really enjoyed this giveaway, and I hope you did too!

Not so Random Wednesday: Macmillan Authors

I'm sure you've all heard of the Kindle Missile Crisis aka the Amazon Macmillan Kerfluffle aka How Amazon is Trying to Force Another Company to Sell Their Product at the Price They Dictate. It makes me so mad. What if Amazon told tennis shoe companies that all shoes had to be $19.99 from now on. Sorry Nike, sorry Adidas, if that means layoffs and pay cuts and ultimately isn't sustainable, OH WELL!! It's $19.99 or we won't sell your shoes, because we're the boss of you, and we will set the prices YOUR company sells products at.

So unfair, most of all to Macmillan authors. In my effort to take action, I went to a fabulous independent bookstore, which I found thanks to the ever lovely Agency Gatekeeper . The bookstore is such a beautiful place. The huge bookstore I normally go gives me a great feeling, but this one has that scent of pages and ink that I've only ever found in libraries. I also liked that the ceiling didn't have the capacity for flying helicopters, and the general coziness of the place. Here is the link that Agency Gatekeeper so kindly provided, which let me easily find friendly neighborhood indie bookshops .

I bought Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle, and it looks so fun. It just sucks that a writer who's career depends on sales is being blocked out of a major market like this, especially if this was an author's release week. Or even, if there were any debut novels coming out. Could you imagine??

So do you have any Macmillan authors you enjoy? Want to find some? Check out this post at Rebecca's Book Blog with a list and summaries of a whole bunch of Macmillan YA: Rebecca's Book Blog .

And one Macmillan book I enjoyed that wasn't on Rebecca's list is Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe. If you have any favorite Macmillan authors to add to the list, let us know!

Today I'm at my daughter's book fair again, and then I have Girl Scouts, so I'll reply to any comments later on. Have a happy Wednesday :)

Mobile Blogging Test

I'm trying something. I'm writing a post from my phone. Supposedly when I hit send, this will be sent to the Coaster. Like magic. So bizarre.

This feels entirely intimate; like I'm sending an email to a friend. Here I am, waiting in my car at my eight-year-old's school (because I volunteered to work the book fair-- fun!), while my thumbs tap-tap-tap away, other parents chit-chat and have NO IDEA that I'm blogging.

It isn't Wednesday, but I have a random thought, and since this post feels entirely strange, here it is:

Why, WHY, didn't the people of Panem have a way of permanently removing unwanted body hair? Really, Suzanne Collins who-is-my-hero, they have hover crafts and bionic legs and heatless flames and invisible protective force fields... but they still use wax and razors to deal with this little problem? I can't wrap my head around it. Maybe it's just me, but if I had three selfish wishes, one would be permanent hairlessness from the neck down. What would one of your selfish wishes be?

Blogging from my phone... this will make things way too casual for me, I can see it already. Oh, and speaking of my Blackberry, does anyone know why I can't comment on people's blogs from my Blackberry? I can use the internet to read blogs, but the "Post a Comment" links never, ever work. Do I need to download a patch or something?

Dear blog friends, that's all my thumbs can handle for now. I hope this doesn't come out in a weird font or some other completely wacky way. I hope you're having a fabulous Monday! I'll be at my daughter's book fair all morning, encouraging young minds to buy books and not pencils, erasers and posters.
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