On my WordPress blog I've put up a 2700 word excerpt from my motorcycle romance racing novel entitled Racing the Line. I will be formatting the first three chapters of the book for Smashwords soon. I welcome any and all feedback on the story!
Racing the Line
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For anyone who subscribes to my blog via email or still checks this site regularly, I am transitioning to using WordPress for all my blogging. You can get there through clicking the "JULIEANN'S VOICE" page or through this link http://ramblingjulie.wordpress.com. I hope you'll follow me there! I will continue to use this site to post my artwork and fantasy writing. If you live somewhere that is finally enjoying the warmth of spring, I envy you! Winter doesn't seem to want to release its grasp on Upstate NY. We've had a few warm days but they're quickly replaced with bitter winds and returning snow. Today started out in the 40s but dropped 15 degrees by the afternoon thanks to gale force northerly winds. The weather has changed from sun, to snow, to sun and back again more times than I can count and with the wind chill, the temperature is barely in the 20s.
I am extremely frustrated that I can't plant anything outdoors yet or even spend much time outside without freezing even in a winter coat and gloves. I'm going to attempt flower gardens in containers this year despite last year's rather unique garden failure. Last year I thought I planted tons of daisies but what grew was everything but! This year I'm buying already started plants and keeping the garden more manageable. I also hope to have a water feature of some sort and of course my rock garden. My lilac bushes will be overflowing with blossoms if the weather ever warms up and my irises are hesitantly starting to grow. The birds have all returned, even the blue herons, and every day I hear them chirping in the trees probably wondering why they came back at all. They might want to reconsider their choices of scout birds for next year because the ones this year were optimistic with their warmth reporting. I've decided to battle the lingering winter drearies the best way I can think of, by painting spring! Spring flowers, blue skies, bright flowing water and warm sunshine! I still remember what it looks like though I haven't felt it in forever and I know what I'm looking forward to. So while it continues to snow and blow and be nasty cold outside, I stay warm inside and paint pretty scenes in spring colors. I'm hopeful that eventually it will warm up outside and life will finally renew itself but in the interim I'm filling my portfolio to overflowing with new creations! I am a freelance ghost writer. What that means is that I write a whole bunch of blog entries, articles and product reviews using my own unique writing style but I don't get to take any credit. This type of work used to feel like I was selling out or something but I have grown to like it. I am constantly learning new information and finding great ways to edit myself. I am passionate about all the words I write and that will never change. I can't claim the ghost writing pieces as my own but I know they are and I take immense pride in that. Ghost writing has primarily been a way to supplement my income but as they continue to cut my hours at work and reduce benefits, it's grown into a second job. I'm working toward making it my only job and it is proving to be a welcome challenge. I have to force myself to unplug when I write. No TV, no texts and as few distractions as possible. I've been rising early and staying up late to write. I write as much as I can when I don't have my daughters so I don't miss out on time with them. Raising my daughters will always be the most important job in my life. I adore being a mother and I took to it naturally and my girls come first. The blogs and articles I love writing the most deal with raising children, being a mother, interior design and landscaping. I have hands on experience with the first two subjects but I felt it was past time I do some genuine research on the others. Reading stuff off the internet is all well and good but information online isn't necessarily fact. I wanted to read actual printed books on the subjects so I made a trip to one of my local libraries. I forgot how much I loved libraries until I started walking through the shelves grabbing books. It was like coming home! I had to stop grabbing books when they became too heavy to carry but I was so excited by what I found. I went home and started reading and used what I learned in one of the books in an article that very night. It felt so amazing having actual fact-based knowledge on the subject. I continue to improve and streamline my writing style and I'm enjoying doing research. I must be doing something right because the clients on the freelance site all give me high marks and I've even earned a bonus on one article so far. It is so rewarding and fulfilling that people appreciate what I write. Working as an anonymous writer has increased my self-esteem and feelings of self-worth far more than any retail or office job ever could. I shall continue on this path and eagerly step through the doors it opens to me. People on shelves. Sounds like a weird concept perhaps until you stop to consider that every person has a story and those stories are like books waiting to be read. Some such books have never been opened and some have been opened and closed many times. The stories within each of us are far more interesting than we may realize and filled with life lessons, secret meanings, footnotes and reference materials. Even someone who has done the same exact thing for their entire lives has something important and interesting to tell because into even the most mundane existence, the world around us has a way of interjecting its own excitement. Some people are eager to tell their story and so they fling their pages wide and write the words in bold dark print. Others like to tell their story in a nice even tone and pace until some unexpected event jumps out of the pages suddenly making it a popup book. Still others are not so eager to have their stories read so they are written in very faint ink with certain details omitted or changed to sound more appealing. The truth of the matter is that our story is our life and as much as we might wish otherwise, we can't go back and edit or change things because then that story is no longer us. Events have already happened, both good and bad, and our wisest course of action is to learn from them instead of living in regret or longing. On these shelves of people/books there are numerous tomes that have been taken down, read and then put back on the shelf, perhaps even tucked behind other books so they are hidden out of sight. Some of these books feel that they deserve their fate and stay hidden in the shadows or atop a high out of reach shelf. The smarter and braver of these books push through back to the front of the shelf or climb onto a lower shelf so they are again within reach. We all deserve to be read and accepted as what we are and if we just hang in there and hold our place on the shelf, the right people will find us, read us, understand us and add their own story to ours. I am not fond of winter. The cold temperatures, the nasty wind chills, the shorter days and especially the snow. I don't ski or ride around like a crazy person on snowmobiles and when the snow falls my biggest interactions with it are shoveling it and driving in it. I did something unusual this year, I actually wished for a white Christmas for my daughters. As much as I hate dealing with snow, I knew how much snow on the holiday would make them happy. Lo and behold, it snowed! It was just enough to play in and within a day it had started to melt. I was content with that. Alas, a couple days later the area where I live got dumped on by a foot and a half of snow and I was then ready for winter to be over with. I tried to shovel out my long driveway but it was just too much for me so I swallowed my pride and asked my ex husband to come plow me out with his truck. Thankfully he did and I was able to escape my driveway in my little Matrix but the snow continues to fall almost daily. I had to shovel out my entire driveway when we received five fresh inches of snow a day later. It was light and fluffy snow but that doesn't make my driveway any shorter and by the time I finished, my whole body hurt. There's an accumulation of almost six inches out there now and I will have to shovel again soon if I want to keep getting in and out of my driveway. I groan at the very thought. There has also been a rather large lack of sun since the snow started flying. Occasionally it pops out but it's usually so blinding reflecting off the snow I don't go out in it. Most days though it hasn't appeared at all and that does nothing for my spirits. I have to keep the curtains closed in my house to keep the warmth in and even then cold air gets in. I've covered several of the windows in plastic and that helps considerably but this house still leaks heat from all sorts of places. I walk around wearing a sweatshirt, thick fleece pants and fuzzy slippers that go up over my ankles. No sex appeal to be found when I'm trying to keep warm. In Upstate NY winter will last another 3 to 4 months and that is a depressing prospect to say the least. I get home from work and all I want to do is nap until Spring comes. Fortunately, I was smarter than I realized when I bought an Xbox 360 kinect for our big Christmas present this year. I love to dance and have always wanted to know choreographed moves and the Dance Central game plays right into my desires. I can't help but play the game every night and I end up having so much fun doing so that an hour passes before I know it. There are tons of songs to choose from, many of which I know and love and I am constantly improving, much to my own amazement. Thanks to that game, I get off my butt and exercise and that certainly lifts my spirits for a bit. Between Dance Central and shoveling I am hopeful that my body will be in awesome shape by the time it's warm enough to actually remove some layers and show it off. Now if my daily naps somehow inexplicably contribute to a hot body too then I'm all set! Is it Spring yet? I got my hair cut yesterday afternoon. Usually a "hair cut" for me is about an inch off the ends but this time it was more like five inches. I felt it was past time for a change and my long hair was becoming more of a hassle than it was worth. Long hair has a tendency to get caught in coat zippers, earrings and sometimes even in car doors. I certainly don't need that kind of aggravation on a daily basis. Cutting off so much length was also symbolic for me in a way. I'd grown my hair long to prove that I could and to increase my visual appeal to the opposite sex. Visual appeal certainly has its place but I have far more inner beauty than can ever be seen by the naked eye. By cutting my tresses short I feel I've freed myself from the tangles of my past and can now move forward with a much lighter and more flowing stride. October is a rough month for me and it has certainly had its tribulations thus far but I keep chugging along. I've made it to the gym 4 out of 5 weekdays the past two weeks, I go on my one mile lunch walk whenever it isn't raining and I walk Jazz over the hills on nice evenings. I admit that I am a stress eater so my diet hasn't been perfect but I'm doing my best all things considered. I will make it through this month and life will continue to improve and I will reach my goals. My faith falters at times but it never totally fades and it eternally returns stronger than before. I am moving forward while returning to pieces of my past that I'd somehow forgotten bring me pleasure. In rediscovering past quests I am finding fresh ones and this prospect genuinely excites me. Using knowledge I've acquired in previous endeavors for new and different adventure is always a fun challenge and I welcome it! My writing and artistic prospects are also taking unique new paths and I am eager to expand my creativity in stimulating ways. Sometimes transformation comes upon you and sometimes you create it within yourself but how you embrace it and learn from it is all that truly matters. The world is full of knowledge and facts and endless information and eternal life experiences. I have a great thirst for knowledge and I love to learn new things and being a ghost writer has certainly helped feed into that. I wasn't always quite this thirsty though. I remember groaning along with everyone else when I was assigned my first research paper in high school. The idea of looking through several books and gleaning just the right facts from them did not appeal to me. Once I started though I quickly realized that I had a definite knack for it. My favorite English teacher, Derek Hulse, helped me sort out what was important information and what wasn't when it came to reviewing and grading my first research paper. The assistance and insight he gave me has been invaluable in my life and I am grateful that I was fortunate enough to be taught by him and be counted among his friends. My knack for research is a very handy thing as a ghost writer. I write about anything and everything and as I'm not omnipotent, that takes some information gathering on my part. I find a topic, read what the client wants and if it appeals to me, I accept the assignment and start writing. When I'm focused and the information is easy to find I can write a 500 word article in a half hour. If it's a topic I already know about and love it might take me 15 minutes. For an article that requires several different resources for information, the project time can be an hour or more. All assignments have a deadline far longer than I usually require and I strive to complete them as quickly and accurately as possible. As a ghost writer I've looked at and usually not accepted assignments that require 10 keywords used two to three times in a 200-300 word article. This is someone's attempt at using SEO (search engine optimization) to get their content found but there's a very large problem with this technique. Such a high density of required keywords makes an article practically unreadable. There can be very little true, important, sensible content in an article made up almost entirely of keywords. People want to read something interesting, they don't want fluff stuffed with SEO words. Perhaps these types of articles work in improving a website's ability to be found, but if the site doesn't properly explain its purpose, traffic to it will eventually diminish. There's nothing wrong with reeling people in as long as there's something worthwhile at the destination. In my endless research gathering for both professional and personal interests, I have encountered a fair share of online articles that are so filled with typos and grammatical errors I can't leave the page fast enough. I do not profess to be perfect, far from it, but I know what a readable well-written article looks like and what a keyword-stuffed, fluff article looks like. Having content on a website is obviously important but it's even more important that it be relevant and accurate. I strive to deliver well-written articles to all my clients and I don't accept a topic unless I feel I can do it justice. I've yet to have an article rejected so I must be doing something right! Traverse the Sky - 10/3/12 Even though my Canon PowerShot is a vast improvement over my old Sanyo digital camera, it still can't capture the true depth of my paintings. Not all of my paintings have texture but those that do are best appreciated by curious fingertips running over the unique ridges and valleys of the acrylic medium. Perhaps it simply isn't possible to take a photo of any of my paintings that begs the onlooker "touch me." I have been trying for many years to take good pictures of my paintings and certainly some of them are more photogenic than others. If I've used metallic paint in the creation it will reflect the flash and wash out the detail of my brush strokes. Not using the flash though makes the picture appear darker than it is and doesn't capture the colors and layers of paint. Taking my paintings out on my deck to photograph them in the sunlight definitely helps. I'm forever crouching down at weird angles or tilting the camera funky to get the painting in the view screen straight so I don't have to crop it later and lose the details around the edges. I only have a few photos where the entire painting is actually in the shot, most of them have been cropped because the photo came out more skewed than I thought. It feels like an endless and frustrating quest when all I truly seek to do is share my art with the world. Photographs of beautiful places can compel and invite people to visit a particular destination or perhaps seek out similar beauty where they live. A photograph of somewhere real probably has more pull than a photo of a two dimensional painting. Yet if that painting is one of many great works on display in some amazing art museum it can in a way be a destination. My house is far from a museum but it is definitely a gallery. Nearly everything hanging on my walls is a painting I created. Some of those paintings are framed but most of them aren't and even the framed ones aren't behind glass. As I said earlier, my paintings need to be touched to be truly appreciated. Glass casts reflections and hinders the view of my paintings and so I have a stack of frame glass tucked next to my dresser in my bedroom. Maybe someday I'll paint upon that glass and see what I can create that way. In the meantime canvas and watercolor paper are my surfaces of choice and I will continue to use them to express the artist that lives forever within me. Today is the first day of October and autumn started several days ago. Autumn is my favorite season as the leaves on the trees turn vibrant shades of red, orange, yellow and purple. There is an abundance of purple leaves this year and I saw the first hints of it during my trip to the Adirondack Mountains this past August. I'm sure it has something to do with the peculiar weather conditions we've had and I am enjoying the unique violet hue among the trees. As much as I love the fall, October has been a challenging month for me for the past three years. My father passed on October 21st, 2009 and ever since then the entire month has a different feel. I have vowed to make October a strong and productive month for me though. I do not believe there is any set time that is appropriate for mourning the loss of a loved one. When someone precious to your heart leaves this world, dealing with that and accepting their absence is a long and perhaps never ending process. The pain is certainly less than it was three years ago but it's still there. I went to some bereavement support groups in the months following my father's death and there were people who lost loved ones over 10 years ago but they still teared up when talking about their grief. It takes as long as it takes and everyone heals at their own pace. My father's spirit is still with me and he looks out for me as best he can but I believe I am finally getting the hang of flying with these wings I started spreading years ago. My father had health issues before he died and he had suffered several strokes but his passing was still sudden and from something we never expected. After his first stroke he was rehabbed to almost 90% and his strength and determination was truly inspiring. His health issues scared me and kicked my butt into taking charge of my own health. I changed my diet and began seriously working out and lost 50 pounds in six months pretty much on my own. By the time I had my second daughter I was in much better shape than I'd been with my first daughter. It was also a bit easier to get back in shape after I had my youngest but I'm certainly not one of those celebrities that snaps back into perfect shape when their baby is two weeks old. I am and will always be a work in progress and I think we all are. There's no fun in being "done" and it's up to us to continue challenging ourselves to become better than we are today. I admit that in the hotter summer months I'm not exactly fond of working out so the cooler months of spring and autumn are when I really hit my stride. In order to get back on the exercise "wagon" I have started going to the gym four days a week before work. I only have about 20 minutes to work out by the time I get the girls on the bus and get there but I make the most of it. As long as I've got some up tempo music playing on my phone MP3 player I'm all good. I also take daily lunch walks of at least a mile when it isn't raining and walk Jazzmin on evenings I don't have the girls and the weather cooperates. Jazz and I did a lot of walking in the snow and rain this past winter and spring so I'm sure we'll get back into that soon. Nothing fazes that pup and when I say "Walk?" she runs to the door in eager anticipation. She's a great little motivator and I think she'd walk for 100 miles if I had it in me to go that far. If she ever manages to trip me and get off the leash I have no doubt she'd walk that far alone... Along with getting back in "fighting shape" physically I'm also going to re-awaken my creativity and start painting again. Painting is my favorite way of expressing what I'm feeling and my creations can always be translated in so many different ways. I have a handful of blank canvases just yearning to be caressed by a brush. I also do smaller works on watercolor paper because I like how versatile acrylic paint is on it when I add water. Water is essential in all of my paintings; it is how I blend my colors together in a background. Water is essential to life as is change. Life is always changing and flowing and diverging down paths we never anticipated. I shall keep my head and hopes up, maintain my steady pace and be vibrant, but I shall not fall. |
AuthorMy words are like my brush strokes, I'm never quite sure where they'll flow to and when they'll stop. Categories
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