Taking Advantage of Lazy Days

By Cege | August 4, 2012 - 5:20 pm | August Awesomeness, Uncategorized

Share and Enjoy

Need a Kick in the Productivity Pants? Try Journaling

By Cege | August 2, 2012 - 4:18 pm | August Awesomeness, Edge of Shadows, Motivation, Musings of the Writer

This is Day 2 of my 31 Days of August Awesomeness posts. Click here for how it all started…

Ask anyone who has known me for any length of time, and they will confirm what I am about to tell you: I am a lifelong procrastinator. It is a crippling habit when paired with my other “p” weakness: perfectionism. What do you get accomplished when you are a perfectionist procrastinator?

Nothing.

I have had a bazillion false starts in my writing career. That’s why I spent 7 years working on the Edge of Shadows manuscript. That’s right: 7 YEARS! I wrote it, I edited it, I changed it, I got brave in 2009 and gave it to a bunch of beta readers, I edited it some more based on their feedback, I lost that version (whole other story), then I tweaked, moaned, and edited some more. It still wasn’t right. I felt like I still wasn’t ready, and so I shoved it away for another day.

Now that easily could have been the end of my story. Aspiring writer finds reality and trudges back to day job content to live out the rest of her life.

Then quite by accident, I stumbled across a reference to a book on a writing blog called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. If you are an artist, not even a writer but any kind of creator of artistic work, and you are stuck, you must run (don’t walk!) to Amazon and buy this book. I’m absolutely serious- the book will change your life.

I’ll wait.

The single most important habit that book taught me, and a habit I continue today is to journal. I journal three long-handed pages almost everyday. I started the self-paced The Artist’s Way course in October 2011, and as you can see by the picture at the top of this post, I’m on my 5th journal.

Why do I consider this course and this habit life-changing? I got out of my own way.

Consider this. Prior to October 2011, I had written two 50,000 word manuscript drafts which were both collecting dust in a drawer. Fast forward ten months. One of those manuscripts I published (Edge of Shadows), and then I’ve written and published 4 more. Ageless is written and with my editor, so that’s really 4 1/2 by my count. And I’m well underway on the next book.

My writing has been taken to a whole new level. I’m not afraid to take risks. I’ve had my share of failures and lessons learned, but that is far outweighed by the massive burst of energy and productivity that I’m leveraging on a daily basis.

It all starts with my journaling. In it, I allow myself to be whiny. I allow myself to be self-deprecating and get down on myself. I nit-pick dumb things I’ve done. But I also plan out what I want to get accomplished each day. I pat myself on the back for every victory. And I have a fabulous record of my writing journey. I get shivers thinking about being able to come back and read my first entry in my first journal five or ten years from now.

It’s heady stuff, powerful stuff. And it’s addictive.

Journaling has opened up my mind and jumpstarted my productivity. It’s one of my awesome productivity secrets, and I’m delighted to be sharing it with you.

By the way, you may be thinking “Well sure, Cege, you’re a writer so journaling is easy for you.” I may have written in a diary a couple of times when I was a teenager, but this kind of structured writing has never been part of my writing routine. Finding the time and sticking with it was a challenge. But in the end, it became part of my day and it’s something I look forward to.

So if you are looking for a way to shake up your routine and find massive loads of inspiration? Try journaling. Plus, it’s a great excuse to go shopping at your local bookstore.

Share and Enjoy

Why I’m Still Afraid of the Dark

By Cege | April 30, 2012 - 3:50 pm | Musings of the Writer

1 Comment

Confession time. I’m 36 years old and I still jog up the staircase at night after turning off the lights on the floor below. I’ve got an inner dialogue going on the whole time that sounds something like this:

“This is so stupid. You are way too old to act like this. Seriously, what (or who) do you think is going to come after you? The boogeyman?”

Followed quickly by:

“Man, I need to get to the gym.”

That second part is a self-deprecating story for another day.

Let’s focus in on the fact that I turn into a ten year kid in my own house by letting fear almost completely overrule every rational thought in my head. When it comes down to it, I’m not a fan of the dark. I don’t find it particularly comforting, and instead it has always represented in my mind a place where things that want to hurt you hide away until you are completely vulnerable. Then those things will lunge out and grab you with no remorse and reduce you into a crying, terrified, now-I-need-therapy mess (that is, if you weren’t completely spirited away into another universe of course).

You may chalk it up to my early discovery of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and the like. Or the fact that I read every Stephen King book I could get my hands on somewhere between fifth and sixth grade. My middle school mind was shaped by these big uglies who had their terrifying agenda of revenge and often stalked their prey at night. You know, when everybody was sleeping. I got older and even though I knew that none of these things were real, I was even more drawn to them (ahem, vampire junkie anyone?). But that fear of the dark remained.

Then as a grown-up, I learned a shocking truth. You don’t need a Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, or Michael Myers to come along and do evil things. Human beings, the ones that exist here and now in the real world, are just as capable of the dastardly awful things that I saw in movies and read about in my fiction books. I learned that there are people out there who don’t know me, but given the proper motivation (in their minds anyway) would hurt me without hesitation or provocation. Usually you can’t see those people coming either. They hide behind normal faces in normal places. They could be anywhere. That fear becomes even more pronounced as you transfer it to those that you love.

You may wonder how a big old scaredy cat like me could write horror or any other kind of spooky story about things that go bump in the night when I feel this way. Part of the reason is because regardless of how I feel about the creatures themselves, I still get a little bit of a thrill out of being scared inside a safely contained fictional environment. I’m the first person in line to see movies like Resident Evil (and all of its sequels) and the remakes of my favorite horror movies from when I was a kid (even though they are almost always spectacularly bad). I think the important words there, in case you missed them, were “safely contained” and “fictional”. When I’m in control of the words going down on the page, those things hold no power over me. In fact, I could erase them without a second thought. No, those fictional baddies don’t scare me.

But movies like Blood Diamond and Tears of the Sun stress me out and put me in a melancholy depression for days – because even though the story may be fiction, the truth behind the story is not. What human beings can do to other human beings is ghastly and deeply disturbing to me. In the end, that’s why, at 36, I’m still afraid of the dark. It’s not because of the monsters inside my head or that I find in other writers’ work; it’s the real monsters out there that I know exist. I hope they never find my doorstep, or yours. But in the meantime, you’ll still find me looking over my shoulder when I climb those stairs at night.

Share and Enjoy

Guilty Pleasures: Streaming Media

By Cege | April 11, 2012 - 9:20 pm | Musings of the Writer

Share and Enjoy

Paranormal Headliner: Deborah Hughes (and a Special Treat!)

By Cege | March 5, 2012 - 8:54 pm | Author Spotlight

25 Comments

Today I am welcoming Deborah Hughes, author of Be Still, My Love. Deborah has had some real life paranormal experiences that definitely shaped her work. And she’s met Stephen King!! (I swoon in envy.) As a special treat, Deborah is offering up a Numerological Evaluation to one randomly chosen reader! (Read on to hear more about how to score that…)

A Little About Deborah

Deborah Hughes moved into a haunted house at the age of seven. She lived there for seven years and that experience spurred her to learn all she could about the bizarre world of the paranormal and the supernatural. The more she read, the more she learned, the more she realized how little she knew. This realization has led to a lifelong search for knowledge, truth, and enlightenment. The writer in her is constantly inspired. From the age of eight, she scribbled down the stories that streamed like movies through her mind. She enjoys the process of their evolution from thought to completed book and hopes others will enjoy those stories as much as she does.

Where are you from?

Deborah: I was born and raised in Bucksport, Maine.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Deborah: I have honestly wanted to be a writer since the age of eight when I wrote my first story. I decided then and there that I wanted to grow up and write books.

What do you do to unwind and relax?

Deborah: I read quite a bit but I also love movies. If I need something that requires more action, I love traveling and sightseeing.

Deborah on Writing

Your bio mentions that you had some experiences as a child that influenced your decision to write. Can you share a bit more about that?

Deborah: I moved into a haunted house when I was seven. We lived there for seven years. I lived in fear for all seven of them. Although nothing bad every happened to us, the fact that unseen people…dead ones!…really freaked me out. When I became more proficient at reading, I started checking out books from the library about ghosts and hauntings. I wanted to understand the phenomena. It was only natural to start writing stories that involved ghosts. I love romances, too, so I like to combine both of those passions. One of my favorite people in the world, a beloved uncle, encouraged me to follow my dream of being an author. I was 14 when he died. I swore I’d dedicate my first book to him and I have.

How did you come up with the title for your book?

Deborah: It came from the book, actually. I was nearing the end and Tess’s husband, who is dead (she’s a medium), says to her, “Be still, my love” when she managed to live through a particularly dangerous situation and I loved it. I thought how fitting since this is what the story is about…Tess needs to get past her husband’s death and he needs to move on in the after life. Not to mention, the two restless spirits Tess was trying to help…well, she was trying to “still” their anguish as well.

Are your characters based on people that you’ve known, or situations in your book things you’ve encountered in real life?

Deborah: I have certainly based a lot of the situations that Tess encounters with my own experiences. For instance, Tess holds a seance and I’ve done that. The way she experiences the spirits or encounters her spirit guide…they are similar to my own. As for the other characters, no, I didn’t base them on anyone I knew. I think there is a lot of me in Tess but I can’t say that any of the other characters are similar to anyone I know.

What are your current projects?

Deborah: I am nearly finished with the sequel to “Be Still, My Love“. The town in which “Be Still” took place is a fabrication but the next story takes place in Bucksport, my hometown. There’s a cool legend associated with the town’s founder Jonathan Buck. Supposedly his grave monument is cursed by a witch. The story is brought to Tess’s attention in “Be Still” and I thought, how cool would it be for Tess to go to Bucksport and try to figure out if that witch’s curse has any basis? I’m really enjoying the story and learning a lot of Bucksport’s colorful, tragic history. I also have another book which I’m preparing for publication called “No Matter What”. It’s about a young girl who was burned for witch craft and is now reincarnated to save her spirit which now haunts the estate where she lived and died. Some of the people who took part in her death are also reincarnated and they are all trying to work out issues associated with that past life event. I’m very excited to share both stories with the public.

What is the hardest part of writing?

Deborah: Finding the time to actually write! Seriously, life has a way of getting in the way of my make believe stuff! (smile) Writing the stories is really not a problem for me, I’ve been doing that since I was old enough to string words together. For me, it’s marketing my book that I’m finding the most difficult. It sucks up even more of my valuable time. So, the hardest part is getting enough uninterrupted time to write.

What advice would you give to writers just starting out?

Deborah: Don’t give up and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. Nowadays, anyone can write and publish. How successful you are as a published author depends on how much time and effort you are willing to put into it. Be prepared to put in a lot of both. And believe in yourself. If you don’t believe you have what it takes to be a writer who can produce stories others will want to read, then it’s probably not going to happen. Take a look around you. There are successful people whom you can’t believe are successful. In your opinion, they might not have the level of talent needed to be successful…but in their opinion and belief…they do. And they are.

Deborah’s Paranormal Perspectives

What’s your definition of the paranormal genre?

Deborah: Well, nowadays it seems to mean anything involving vampires and werewolves and the like. It’s a bit frustrating because when I do a search for ghost stories, it’s hard to find them! Most authors categorize their ghost stories under the paranormal umbrella and there are so many vampire books that ghost books get buried. I think we’re going to have to come up with another genre subdivision for ghost stories. I categorized my book as “ghost” and “gothic” but people looking for those sorts of books normally do so by searching the paranormal so it’s going to be hard to find my books in a general search. The Paranormal Genre is a pretty broad category. The Supernatural Genre is pretty much the same though that seems to be more associated with horror. By “horror” I mean, terror and possibly gore. My books are spooky but there’s no genre specifically designed for spooky ghost stories. It’s a bit of a paradox.

How do you feel about the boom of paranormal fiction recently?

Deborah: I think it’s not going away. The paranormal is a wide open realm of possibility. There are no rules and the imagination is not limited by set parameters. I think it’s great that writers have flocked into this genre with such enthusiasm and creativity.

Is there a specific paranormal sub-genre interests you the most?

Deborah: Obviously my sub-genre is ghost stories! But I enjoy all of it…the whole spectrum of the paranormal. It’s all fascinating.

What scares you?

Deborah: Evil. I know there is negative entities in the world and I know that I’ve brushed up against it a time or two. I know there was something not “nice” in that haunted house I lived in. I prayed a lot while I lived there. I believe my faith kept us safe. I have a hard time watching true horror because it does scare me. Dying horribly, painfully…it’s the worst thing ever. I get spooked sometimes while writing my stories but I don’t get terrified. I make sure that the entities in my stories cannot overpower the characters. Because, it’s that sort of thing that would scare me. A lot.

What is your favorite paranormal book?

Deborah: The Reincarnation of Audrey Rose. It inspired me to write “No Matter What”. But I also love Jacqueline Frank’s Nightwalker series. And really, I could go on here because I love so many. The Shining by Stephen King is another favorite. I met him right after reading The Shining; it left quite an impression on me. I was 16 at the time and worked at a party he was hosting. He took time out of his busy day to come talk to me and my friend…the kitchen help. I thought, someday, I’m going to be like him. (smile)

What is your favorite paranormal movie?

Deborah: I loved The Sixth Sense! What a great spooky movie that was! I also like Poltergeist. It got a little weird toward the end but I think it’s a great paranormal movie. The Entity is another great movie. Again, it’s hard to give a favorite because there are so many but those are at the top of my list.

Do you ever come up with anything so wild in your writing that you scared yourself? What was it?

Deborah: Yes! I scare myself all the time. I’ll be working on a spooky scene and then suddenly one of the kid’s toys will come on or I’ll hear a knock somewhere. I truly think sometimes that writing spooky stories invites the spirits to come around. When writing ghost stories, you get in that groove and begin to feel the spookiness of what you are writing. It becomes almost real. In “No Matter What” the little girl, Lynn, finds an old ragdoll and she and her mother bury it. Later, when Lynn goes to her room…the doll is on the bed. I was not expecting that to happen. It gave me the creeps! Lol. Little things like that spook me enough that I sometimes have to stop and think about other stuff. You get in that mood and suddenly your skin is broke out in goosebumps and the more you write, the more you begin to think someone is standing behind you. Creepy.

What do you think draws people to paranormal novels?

Deborah: We need to be taken out of the norm…the ordinary…and experience something more, something out of this world. The paranormal cannot be predicted and it certainly isn’t “normal”. It’s paranormal and it’s exciting.

Do you ever research real events, legends, or myths to get ideas?

Deborah: Yes! I think there’s some truth to art imitating life imitating art. As I said, I’m working on a book now that is based on an actual legend. While researching that, I found out some other mysteries and now I’m thinking I’d like to explore those as well. There’s something exciting about taking something that happened but has unknown elements and creating something to explain the unknown elements. It makes it seem more real somehow and thus, spookier!

Connect with Deborah

Website: www.deborahjhughes.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeborahJHughes

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Deborah-J-Hughes-Author-Page/257975100917551

Purchase Be Still, My Love on Amazon here.

A Little Something Special:

For one lucky reader, Deborah has offered to do a Numerological Evaluation of his/her birth name or birth date.

What’s a Numerological Evaluation You Ask?

Each letter has a numeric value and each numeric number resonates to a specific meaning. Since every letter has a numeric value, everything that exists can be reduced to a single number value (0 through 9) using a specific formula. Our names and birthdates are two things most associated with our lives and the numerological value placed on those two things are supposed to give us insight into our life purpose, talents, and characteristics. It’s fascinating and can pretty accurate (and fun!).

What Do You Need to Do to Win?

Pop a comment on this post to say hello or ask Deborah a question. That’s it! One random winner will be selected on March 13th, 2012.

Thank you for visiting Deborah!!