Motivation by Slogan

I have no favorite inspirational or motivational quote.

I read them, I may nod and say yup, but I don’t retain them, much less energize myself into any action based upon one.

Quotes, like poetry and jokes, go in one ear and out the other for me. I may appreciate them a lot while they’re passing through, but the next time I hear them, they’ll be brand new to me yet again. Just not my thing! Now book plots and movie plots and ancient Greek or Egyptian myths – those I can talk about in great detail, with quotes of dialog.

“Seventeen days.”

“None taken.”

“Nuke the whole site from orbit…”

Yeah, those are lodged firmly in my memory but not exactly motivational for writing.

I have two desk calendars of quotes and I start each day with taking a moment to reread yesterday’s and then to peruse today’s. One is a Mary Engelbreit calendar because I love her bright, colorful and whimsical drawings, especially the tea pots, and she definitely has some good sayings, like “Bloom where you’re planted.” (And maybe she didn’t invent that one – I have no idea but I associate it with her.) The other is photographs by Deborah Dewit, whose work I love. I keep one of her prints above my writing desk in fact. The quotes on this “Simplicity” calendar not so much – some of them are long and dry. Others are fine. Today’s was “Simplicity is the nature of great souls” from Anonymous. It pleases me to start the day with something to ponder briefly, plus the pick-me-up cheery moment of Engelbreit art.

We had quotes in my family - My mother's favorite was "In a hundred years it won't matter." My grandfather's ironic quote was "Pets are no trouble at all," usually said right after one of my grandmother's Boston terriers had destroyed something. I say "Count to twelve" when I get upset or anxious, because counting to ten is too short for me to really calm down.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day by the way! Did you like my hair and hat in the photo at the top? My family is Irish-American descent, so I definitely appreciate the wearing of the green.

I hope you find your pot of gold!

Author's own collection of shamrock-y items for St. Patrick's Day

Look to the Stars

Humanity and the world of science lost one of our brightest, sharpest minds. Professor Stephen Hawking made some of the most arcane concepts of physics accessible. So when I seek inspiration, this is where I turn.

"It matters that you don't just give up." Professor Stephen Hawking

PS: If you haven't checked out the Roddenberry FB page, do, and scroll to March 14, 2018. 100% worth it.

My Favorite Line for Inspiration

Quick post here, as I'm pretty busy this week, but the question of the week over at SFF Seven is for favorite inspirational quote.  And mine is my perennial answer whenever this comes up, Jimmy Dugan's response from A League of Their Own when told that baseball "just got too hard".

"It's supposed to be hard.  If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it.  The hard is what makes it great."

That's a line I remind myself of whenever I need that push, whenever things feel too much of a challenge, too unsurmountable.  And with that, I push through.

Motivated by the positive

When I read the topic this week – writing quotes that are inspirational or motivational – at first all I could think about was that Steven Wright quote: “I’m writing a book. I've got the page numbers done.” Which, you know, isn’t extremely motivational. (Even it is so true.)

Then I thought about Dr Seuss. If Seuss isn’t a kick in the hiney, I don’t know who is. So I read through Oh the Places You’ll Go and … it was actually a bit of a downer. Every time he builds up to a “yeah, you rock, kid,” he follows on immediately with, “except, no. Just kidding.” I think the thing we’re supposed to take from the book, overall, is that life ain’t easy, but it’s worth it? Or something like that?

I’d like to be the sort of person who stubbornly, spectacularly defies criticism, is fueled by rejection, who gets knocked down but then gets up again, just like in that song (which may now be in your head for the rest of the day; sorry). But I’m not that person. Negative sucks the motivation right out of me and leaves me a pile of donut-eating who-even-cares.

So, what does work?

I’ll be honest, I don’t have a wall-sticker over my desk that motivates me, and I’m not huge on personal goal-making and aiming for the bleachers and peppy stuff like that. What I do have is a file folder with a bunch of emails and screenshots in it. In those files are comments from contest judges, critique partners, agents and editors who rejected my work kindly and had nice things to say, agents and editors who didn’t reject and also had nice things to say, professional reviewers and all their pretty stars, readers who were entertained enough to tell me about it … basically, a bright, blooming collage of positivity.

This is my go-to treasure box when my self-confidence gets low. I can pull out these priceless words, read them, and think, hey, maybe I don’t suck. Maybe this adventure is worth it. Maybe someone, someday will want to read this steaming pile of work-in-progress. That person might even like it. Might even like it so much that they sit down and type out a note to me, letting me know the pile isn’t quite so steamy. Or at least the in-a-good-way kind of steamy.

I guess that’s it for me, then. The good. I celebrate all the good, even several times, because once is never enough. Every nice word, I tuck it safe in my file folder of happiness, and it motivates me for days, weeks, years, always.

In other words, if you’ve taken the time to send an email or to leave a review or to contact me at all, Thank You. You have no idea what your gift has meant to me.

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p.s. - This has nothing to do with the topic, but a super cool thing happened yesterday and I am celebrating -- BECAUSE WE MUST CELEBRATE ALL THE THINGS: my debut book, Wanted and Wired, was released as an audiobook. The narrator, Johanna Parker, performed the Sookie Stackhouse books and is so amazingly talented. I've grabbed a copy and can't wait to see what Ms Parker has done with the interpretation.

Release Day: The Snows of Windroven by @JeffeKennedy

Jeffe is breaking free...of an anthology and releasing her story The Snows of Windroven as a standalone. Told in the world of the Twelve Kingdoms, it takes place between Tears of the Rose and The Edge of the Blade.

THE SNOWS OF WINDROVEN 
A new power is at work in the Twelve Kingdoms, unbalancing the fragile peace. For the High Queen and her sisters, it might mean a new alliance—or the end of the love of a lifetime…

As a howling blizzard batters the mountain keep of Windroven, Ami, Queen of Avonlidgh, and her unofficial consort Ash face their own storm. Their passion saved them from despair, but Ash knows a scarred, jumpy ex-convict isn’t the companion his queen needs. He’s been bracing himself for the end since their liaison began. When it finally comes, the shattering of his heart is almost a relief.

With a man haunted by nightmares and silent as stone, Ami knows only that Ash’s wounds are his own to hide or reveal. She can’t command trust. But just as they are moving apart, a vicious attack confines them together, snowbound and isolated with an ancient force awakening within Windroven itself. If they truly mean to break their bond, Ami and Ash must first burn through a midwinter that will test every instinct—and bring temptation all too near…

BUY IT NOW: Amazon |   Kobo   |   Smashwords

Favorite Motivational Post

It's simple, really: You can cut it a hundred different ways, but at the end of the day it comes down to this simple statement. JUST DO IT!

That's all. If you have a dream, follow it If you have a story to tell, tell it. Sit down, write. Repeat as necessary until the job is done. Then, when the first draft is finished, move on to another project for a few weeks, go back to that first project and edit.

Why?

Fresh eyes. You can't see the mistakes you're making until you  have a chance to clear your mental palette of all the colors and phrases you've been painting with. You have to gain a little distance. In a crush you can always have someone else edit, but I think it's better on the first pass if you do it yourself.

here are four variations of the same theme. None of them created by me but all of them using my likeness. According to some people I am very motivational. I have no idea why.

Is Fear Holding You Back in Your Writing?

Today is the very last day to catch the AMID THE WINTER SNOW anthology. After today it goes off sale and the stories will only be available as stand-alones.

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is Our Favorite Motivational/Inspirational Quote.

Mine is so beloved that I have it hanging over my desk. Let me all-cap it for you.

WHAT WOULD YOU WRITE IF YOU WEREN'T AFRAID?

Any time I hesitate while writing, I look at that. And, liberated, I plow forward.

Now, sometimes when I talk about this, people tell me they aren't afraid of anything, certainly not in their writing. Which is fabulous, I guess.

(Really, I don't believe them.)

It's human nature to be afraid. Fear is a protective instinct that kept us from being munched by tigers back in the day and keeps us in the clear with the IRS now. Being afraid of the right things is healthy.

And I'm not talking about gibbering terror. I mean things like being nervous about walking down that skeezy looking dark alley or hesitating over a funky-smelling leftover from the fridge. Those things are warnings to think twice.

The problem is that we become conditioned to hesitate over social gaffes, too. After all, on an instinctual level, being outcast from the herd means the wolves can get us. In the age of social media, we worry about reactions from other people from sneering reviews to mass outrage.

Some of that is important. We need to observe our own biases and review what our privilege leads us to unthinkingly do and say. But that's for a later stage of the work - for review and thoughtful revision.

Before that, we owe it to ourselves and our creative process to disengage from caution and hesitation, to write what comes out. To write what is in us and wants to be spoken.

Write with courage and boldness, always.

The Single Minded Author

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Our topic this week is whether we write in other media than our current one, which for me is fiction novels.

(Do blog posts count? I write a TON of those, for various platforms.)

I have to say that the action/adventure/romance novel is my natural habitat as a writer and the only thing I have any burning desire to write.

I wrote one poem, an epic fantasy, in iambic pentameter, for a college English class. I’m not a poet in any way, shape or form.

I wrote one speech and gave it twice in high school.

I wrote three plays in high school, two of which were performed once each. My principle memory of the experiences is that they ran wayyyyy short of the desired time slots, much to everyone's surprise. I have no idea why. I’m not a playwright! All three of these cases were the infamous  scenario - “we need a senior day play” or “we need a Christmas pageant” and hey, she likes to write, she can do it. Uh, no. Not so well.

I wrote articles and columns for the high school newspaper.

In the day job at JPL I wrote copious amounts of nonfiction. I wrote contracts, purchase orders, procurement justifications, official letters, draft policies and procedures, employee evaluations, change management plans, strategic plans, Non Disclosure Agreements, audit plans, audit findings, responses to audits, summaries of meetings, class materials, Powerpoint decks galore, memoranda to the file…probably thousands of documents and millions of words over the years. Because we actually worked for Caltech, on a NASA contract, the standards were exacting and the expectations high. All the subject matter was discreet, business sensitive, confidential, so nope, can’t share any juicy anecdotes or details. Sorry!

It was the job, I did it, I’m very good at writing a cogent nonfiction document if I say so myself, but it sure isn’t my passion.

I can't draw, dance, sculpt, knit, compose music...trying to be exhaustive here...

So, the shorter answer would be no, I don’t write – or create - in any media or format other than novels of fiction. I only hit the 'flow' state when I'm immersed in one of my scifi or paranormal worlds, telling the story at hand.

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