I am realized … the ecstatic culmination of a 2-star rating

It really is a sad situation when your blog has been so long ignored you fear remembering its password. First, I’d like to apologize to my deserted page with its catchy name and fun posts reaching out to other writers in similar situational star-rocketing highs and equally plummeting despairs.

(remember, I post daily @ sunshinesent.com)

Without further ado let me ‘slash’ this month of February 2019 @ Insecure Writers Support Group up, writing 4 the first time this year and posting ON time, because I know the 200 other monthly contributors have missed me.

(I’ve missed you too. It’s true, I do! I do, silly, I do.)

Bringing me out of hibernation would be attributed to the quarterly rounds I make to my KU page, pathetic…I hear you…kindly say nothing, where ecstatically and solemnly, I discovered attaining the highest of writer rankings with a well thought and non-stellar rating by a consumer.

Ecstatic…because I felt realized, proud to wear the badge of the misunderstood.

Solemn... upon realization 1.5 of those stars were lost due to no fault of my own and remedied by re-printing, naggy binding glue & such. The other star and a half, accepting equal blame, discounted due to my perpetuating cheesy prose and writing nonesense, contributor spelling. (Spell-checker, ugly red underscore, sincerely, quit yelling at me.)

I’m not posting to whimper about the public berating, but to pose a question? One we’ve heard throughout our writing careers freshly born or exaggerated. If you haven’t been privy to this blight of wisdom then mission, I mean, listen…very carefully.

*Should we publish before we are ready just because we can?

Who/what is our determiner? Would you really hear over the excitement to push enter?

My next query…

*Should we UN-publish thus we’ve previously published poorly? 

Because now we know better, one, ten, thirty-nine years later? or do a full rework?

As you’ve known me, I’m the girl who gets over-excited and jumps in both feet first. Perhaps, I flip over and end up looking like a goose/duck’s hiney, but effort and stamina should be considered, right? (Not drowning, I assure you.)

The work I published is not a novel, merely a collection of stanzas and deliberated art from Send Sunshine. As the years have progressed my posts and artwork have developed. Each piece dutifully agonized over with a disgustingly palpable amount of thought, energy, and love.

*Does that mean we should bury our beginnings underground or venture forward w/ extreme caution? 

The craft of writing is selective, individual, eclectic in the way each author chooses its presentation. An understanding maybe other artists recognize and give credit or leave, while the general population…not really so much. Though for an accurate translation it is, our, or in this case, my, full responsibility to relay.

In hindsight, did I say that? I did, lol…I believe re-addressing my back cover is in tall order, detailing the purpose of my blog and brand Send Sunshine for a detailed understanding of their purchase.

Re-imagined digital photography with heartfelt quotes…Send Sunshine is a lifestyle dedicated to positive affirmations, self-empowerment and the promotion of spreading kindness.

What about those novels? I’ll tell you this…whoever said it takes thousands of writing hours before you write well is 100% correct. I feel closer than I ‘ve ever been before. Last years project is near its second draft completion. Titillating. Every other story is still knocking around my brain. So many stories, so little time.

Regardless…Write On! ❤ Jess

 

PS…here is the posse of peoples you’ve been searching for, thank you IWSG!

PSS…if you take direction they actually give you a monthly writing prompt…sorry team.

 

#TheEnd

Gosh, itching to insert Napolean Dynomite meme, what does that mean to you? A frightening thought for writers or beyond.

For this, the first week in July of 2018, The Insecure Writer’s Group posted on the glorious day of Tuesday, the 3rd…I, however, am posting on the enigmatic, as the enigma I am, day of Friday the 6th which means in seven more days Friday the 13th, and Jason, shall arrive… & precisely 6 days after, as in the 6th, turns into Thursday the 19th of July where a very cool writerly opportunity shall be hitting the #twitter #feeds. Yes, #BigBrother will also be holding eviction that night.

But, #Writers #Authors #Wordsmithy #Friends this could be an #AmazeBalls #Opportunity for #pitching that #manuscript! (2 #agents, NOT out the door, into the fire or even against your siblings head…) Just make sure it’s ready & varnished to a high-level spit-shined gleam that would make your Nana proud. Your elbow should be aching if, in all honesty, you’re ready. Joke, I do not.

Click here for more information. Thank you Insecure Writers Support Group!

Will I attend said event, “Oh’ hell no.” Not this year…I have attended #PitMad, a quarterly event, once before & my claim to fame came in a full #MS request, but alas, I sucked and rightly ’twas my 1st completed work lacking due diligence as an understudy should devote and fell full frontal. I’ve learned to suck-up said suckiness with a smile and thankfully my teeth still intact. All I’d genuinely accomplished, at that point, was proving to myself I could pen those magical two words #TheEnd and since then I’ve done so three more times, each with a little more flair than the last.

Blogging it out…bullying, what are we really teaching our children?

*Please note, since writing this the school is in the process of issuing a formal apology to the young man involved and the children are writing sorry notes. My first instinct was to decline, but this issue is one to be remembered and I believe their fresh approach immensely wise.*

Because of the seriousness of this article, I am posting it as my monthly addition to the Insecure Writers’ Group…

Dear Parents,

Your accounts and accolades of our youth on social media can only make them picture perfect. And what an unrealistic example or achievement is this in turn for our children to even fathom they have a chance of living up to. We teach these beautiful souls how to treat themselves and others. The excuse, excuse, of recounting children being children when misbehaving is a direct reflection of taking ZERO accountability in our role of educating them.

#WeAreTheDifference #StopBullying #SpeakOut #AllLivesMatter

 

1st I’d like to say my heart bleeds as I write this. Every day, everywhere this occurs to all-time severities in which we’d rather bury our heads. WE as human beings owe it to each other to care about one another, a responsibility beyond being selfish, how what WE say or how WE act effects those around us, especially when it comes to our youth.

My child, your child, our children can all wear this ugly cap named-

I’m BACK!

I’m back! And who the heck am I? Its been months since I blogged, but the time has come to get back in the writing game. Jessica and I started American Writers in February, or was it January a couple years ago, after attending a frustrating workshop given by an “editor.”

It has been quite a while since I posted and I’ll spare you my reasons ie. excuses. OK, maybe one. The number one distraction (also an excuse) is that my husband and I moved from acreage with 5 outbuildings full of important stuff. We relocated to a condo – a vacation condo with insufficient space for my “treasures!” I swear that most things multiply when no one is watching.

After over a year I’m still sorting, purging, and relocating homes for my treasures, and this is after yard sales, gifting and donating. UGH! Thus I have had to admit that my organization skills have met their undoing.The lists get longer and more formidable by the week. It appears that my dedication to writing and making my new abode fit my life sucks. I make lists of To Dos that are tissue paper in a storm.  Soggy and deteriorated.

Do you make a list for the day? I am prideful when I can check one off. The problem is I almost never finish them all in one day. Am I that busy? Nope. Some days I ‘m not in the mood. Now that’s grown up behaviour, isn’t it? Items will float onto 2 or 3 new lists.

I recall a demonstration with a clear glass container, sand, gravel and a couple rocks that would fit into that cylinder. The demo goes somewhat like this.

The instructor starts by dumping the sand in, then the gravel and finally one of the larger rocks. The other rock doesn’t fit. He then pours water in and it overflows (somewhat as my energy drains during the day.) He asks his audience if the big rocks were the most important goals. (Writing, perhaps?) Well, yes. That’s why they are the larger ones.

“It didn’t fit with all the sand and gravel put in first.” Well, duh, I think. “What if I do the experiment differently? What if I start with the bigger rocks first then add the gravel and finally the sand?”

You know the rest. All the ingredients fit. Viola!

What do each of the items represent? (I know you know this.) The sand is the time wasters that aren’t important but you like doing them: tv, games, munching on a snack. The gravel is taking out the garbage, cooking dinner, picking up your children from school, etc. You get the picture. The bigger rocks are what matters to you most. Could that be writing 3000 words today?

“What is the lesson,” I ask myself?

Just do it! Tackle the big rocks first and the rest will follow. What disappears is guilt, frustration and self loathing. And I might have a perkier walk and more patient attitude toward those in my life.

So, here I am attempting to apply some logic to my To Do list starting today. Wish me luck!

Thanks for reading our blog.

Sandi

Pleased to meet you…

* hope you guess my name *

I bet you’re curious how my FebYo’WriMo group went?

Fantastically awry and disgustingly amaze in one single nutshell of immense Mr. Peanut proportions. What else would you expect of me? The group continues as a safe haven for writers who seek to post something, anything without the judgment of, let me see…the world.

I’m going to give myself that one. We don’t beat ourselves in the face with frying pans anymore, remember?

Let me check w/ Insecure Writer’s Group Question of the month…oops looks like FebYo’ary is still up so I’m going rogue. Afterall, I’m writing this post almost a week in advance. Shocker! I’m thinking we may need to develop a Tortured Souls team…who loves the punishment! cue cymbals…

So…if you’re thinking about creating an epic group of social media fame on Facebook take it from the monarch of leaden feet, there are a few things you might like to know. 

#1 There are no invitations.

When you click add members, it lists the followers of your page whether they’d like to chill and drink a cappuccino with you on the coldest day of FebYo’ary without any freaking shoes or smear your endearing puss into the inkwells of self-loathing and despair. #sorry?

#2 Prepare to make apologies if you don’t follow #1!

I am used to making a quasi-triumphant backward mess of my great intentions, you, my good friend may not. Accidentally adding your peers to a list when you assume, yes, this applies here, (ass of u & me} they are in agreement is not a pleasant form of dog poo-poo in the face.

#3 Seek the advice of those who’ve gone before you.

Ummmm, croaking frogs, resembling a writer-this one, filled with crazy possibility and a bubble of vomit refusing to be swallowed. I didn’t ask anyone. I trustfully flung my body backward and am now wearing a full-body-cast of those who love me anyway.

#4 Wear 2018 Olympic verified knee-pads.

If the cues of #1 & #2 don’t slow the thrum of excitement in this fantastic idea you’ve developed…invest in yourself. Yes, you are worth it, and, at least, your aging knee-caps will be forever thankful when you go ‘a groveling.’

#5 Keep to the basics??

FB is a peculiar place. I believe the idea grand, and stupendously (adverbs were created to be abused), perplexing.

I’ve three profiles, the first produced in the fantastical errors of moi while developing my online presence as an author. Fresh from my first writer’s conference in a hasty fashion and void of other clues. 

The second, a correction of the first. 

The third to help promote my life work #SendSunshine (that social media, Instagram/Etsy, recently helped be discovered & showcased here…. rawartists.org/sendsunshine  If unable to attend event PLEASE purchase a ticket & support #IndieArtists like you and me.)

So….let’s transgress, a habit I diverge most often.

Identity #1 should be my personal page where, instead, I invited everyone my location suggested, their bathroom toilets and those who wished to never look at my precious-mug again. Every follower is organic, because, people, these beautiful organisms of never-ending judgments are waiting for spilled waste. I refuse to post a daily transcribe of why my laundry gets folded in starched unwrinkled triangles or the successes of my non-blemished straight A children, what a horrible standard, facebook fame? But, if I want to see any updates on relatives, this is where I’ll find it and their latest school pictures?? Sad, don’t you think? 

ID #2 the real deal…the single identity I should have started in the beginning, but believed I needed a page and couldn’t create without #1. 

Quit? Nose-dive off the moon? Beserkers NO! When you’re in this deep, you keep going. Don’t you?

Here I hang with my other insecure writer friends, as desperate to be seen as me. And some TRUE writing kings & queens, whom, in the most recent month, I may have lovingly splattered a dab of piddle on their bared shin. My trees. The ones I aspire and apologize for my continued ignorance of how this social media nightmare, namely FB, works.

Confession-I recently absconded the title “Aspiring Novelist” from another fantastic novelist of soon to be acclaimed fame. Love you Steph! And in this month of heralded flubs a re-discovered best friend.

Find the silver lining in all things you are passionate. I’m not afraid of transparency, I’m scared shitless of not taking the opportunity for fabulous to be found.

Write On! ❤ Jess

 

PS-If you are serious, really serious about developing the craft of writing and don’t already know everything (because, seriously, it’s highly possible you really-don’t) … These are the names you need to investigate, know, breathe, and to whom I apologize for my faux pas must humbly. I am a sincere doll of fumbling fabulosity, right?

Larry Brooks

Kristen Lamb

Cait Reynolds

Raidon Pheonix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was kidding, I swear, but then…

Why not create a group? am I the only Non-NaNoWriMo fulfiller out there?

What a concept, no nagging, just writers, dabblers, penners of varied states trying to get their act together in a communal environment, passing a virtual high-five back and forth.

No self-promotion. No writing advice. No superior attitudes. 

Because I have nothing better to do than perfect the art of procrastination, boom, it’s done. And currently, there are 2 members of my group me and moi. 🙂

Join here, right here, right now- 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/287548135103603 …ouch, did I say no pressure.

I’d love to just chill and make writing fun again without the pounding chatter of well-meaning doers of self-acclaimed fame. But cheers to those who have accomplished these feats, assured! I, personally, seem to find myself in a fetal position while living my bliss.

So gather one, gather all, real folk with writing goals big or small, even journaling or habitually making diary entries, no novel needed, who are looking for relaxed support, nothing more, nothing less join this amazing feat and event. I look forward to your holding my hand.

WE can use gifs if we don’t feel the need to talk, like recess for writers…

or something similiar…reminding ourselves we need to take breaks, hah! 

Write On! ❤ Jess

P.S…

in case you missed my social experiment link

https://www.facebook.com/groups/287548135103603

P.S.S-Hey, Chris the Story Reading Ape do you have a Facebook group or page?

the could’ves, would’ves, & should’ves…

...A top 10 for the year known as -whispering- 2017...
(I get it, like, so...eleven days ago.)

#1- Posted for #IWSG on the required 1st Wednesday of every month.

Details…details… Not much to ask, right?

Following said instruction with the included advice from my very well-meaning, makes me smile because her brain stem tingles at a rate faster than mine, baby sister, “You can schedule those…” Yeah, thanks. And, she is right. And, because self-deprecation is something I no longer indulge, inhale or include in my personal evaluations, my response is, “Brilliant.”

#2- I could’ve, would’ve, should’ve answered the damn questions in the monthly writing prompt.

Questions? Yes, it’s that easy.

As usual, I have a way of veering in a direction less traveled and impressively farthest from any ones cares. My rantings surely touch home base with my doppelganger, wherever she, or he, may reside and what a curious thought, do these strangely familiar individuals act like you or simply possess your devastatingly impressive looks?  (Note to self: too freaky to research further.) 

#3- Splurged in the wealth of information and sane advice from other Insecure Writers Group members.

Why haven’t I?

This is the real question, but one I shall relish in remedying. The site is filled with valuable, relatable, inspiring articles. If I reached out to Insecure Writers creator, Alex Cavanaugh or his helpers, without hesitation, they respond. It’s true, he has talked to me before. (An event in comments I am sure he remembers.) Also, a quality only occasionally found within these fickle writer-type creatures, well-intentioned, but most-times distracted.

The fresh theme at IWSG begs you to dive into the library and, do what? begin…unabashed, belly-flop back flat with no hesitation or fears. The Write Life for year #dos has listed #IWSG as one of its 2018 top 100 websites for writers, sectioned under Writing Communities. Bravo team! Hu, hu, huzza!

#4- I could’ve, would’ve, should’ve made time for me in whatever crazy spaces I inhabited.

Poof! Recently zapped by an acquired Hogwart’s magic wand, I remember what I’ve always known. Time is elusive and not guaranteed. Whenever feeling the need to justify my situation, instead use solutions, like, this phone has notes & a voice recorder!

I will, going forward, utilize commuting and wait times wherever this life finds me. I am sure there are a million other squandered opportunities my wayward identical twin or inspired sister will unearth in a blaring beacon of light further awakening my dragon, who now, by the way, works for me.

My eyes, my eyes, these, I need ‘computer reading glasses’ tired, inflamed eyes will embrace most assured.

#5- Shown NO fear of splashing, zinging, singing.

La, la la…

Why not? be gallant in…everything, especially life’s missteps.

4 the #LOVE of #Books #Eshow #Jessica’s #Children’s #Book #Christmas #Bash

Join me as I host an exclusive party!

Just tap the photo or these magic words & be transported to the greatest children’s book fair on earth!!

12-1-17 / 12-5-17

Just call me #Guinea – #Pig if your NaNoWriMo’ing

…my mascot is throwing down to Janet Jackson’s, “Nasty”…

There is a new heart-breaker in my world and her name is Cait Reynolds. She is an mucho-fab-lady and liaison. While I hold her in high esteem, I am afraid I still dive head-first at break-neck speeds into the #ultra #newbie category of hip and happening #AmWriting kind of peeples, deemed guinea pig and proud to wear the badge. Through her careful, non-shaming coaching and “F yeah” attitude she has taken this top-grade A #panster and shown her the light of what being a #planner is all about, or at least a fledgling dot in the outlining a novel hemisphere.

& this being the reason it is sooo important

Writing, something, isn’t the issue, but focus, laser vision, a definitive instruction sheet instead of the over-active brain stem instability I am most known for and I don’t think I am alone. Hey, but I don’t mind being on the island, believe you me. The great thing, like most manuals, is you don’t even have to follow the darn thing to a T, but use the pre-work as a guideline…(when completed it cleans up into a tight synopsis, boo ya’)

No more getting bogged down in the 30,000 word quagmire.

Here in lies the real work, for me, I whined and whimpered a bit, but my hissy-fit was a lonely dramatization for one. I doodled and assigned actors in my leading roles, classic procrastination. I was tasked with the challenge of saying NO to inking chapter 1 until I’d written the “story before the story” (see caitreynolds.com) and how my main characters interacted with each other.

If I wanted to be a part of N.A.N.O. , and she’s so stealth I’d no idea I’d be attending, I needed to honor my story-line with a sense of understanding or I’d be doing myself and my fresh “twinkle in the eye” a horrible dis-service.

W.A.N.A. International offers a variety of educational, fun and affordable classes for everyone with a slew of talented instructors.

And the great news is…I completed my challenge. Not until the final hours, because why would I ever do anything without a flair for the over-dramatic, and not without concern I’d have to start my attempt at outlining again, but I did it! 

I get to begin the real chapter 1, my golden cherry, tomorrow with a gazillion other “I think I can” writers of the world.

We will see how this new guinea progresses in the most magical month of November, but freak out I won’t. I did that already, gosh. 

In my short, 321,562 word, but whose counting? tenure I have found an incredibly fabulous group of writers, non-condescending, albeit at times cricket-like, among the W.A.N.A. nation

and their esteemed super-warrior founder/queen Kristen Lamb, who in turn led me to Cait, not because Cait needed my kind of vanilla, but because Kristen cared enough. These two are, in my mind, the greatest love affair or ice cream combination of all time. 

Now I beg all my #IWSG friends not to get in a Lizzy-kind of-tizzy over such a statement, as both groups offer support in ways I am honored to be affiliated with and writers need writers who care, remembering how the streets were paved back in their “I think I want to be a writer” days. 

November 1 question – Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published?

Well, I can dream, right? 

Write On! ❤ Jess

 

 

 

 

Raised by Wolves…a child’s interpretive

I have recently been diagnosed with an “overactive brain-stem.” I tell you this because I find the diagnosis hilarious, and not a slap-the-knee…holding-my-belly… bent-over kind of funny, after spending thousands of dollars on specialists from allergists to ENTs to neurologists and so on.

I should have quit after hearing the term “highly reactive.”

I’m not hyper-active, but my mind leans heavy on overdrive. I wish my physicality had the tendencies to stretch in the same direction. The funnier thing is I am the calmest person I know…unless you really piss me off then I will never let that shit go.