A Writer’s Meme…

I sort of stole this from another blog – but I thought it would be a fun Friday post.

Name a novel(s) that inspired you to write.

So many… but three that come to mind are: The World According to Garp by John Irving, Of Captains and Kings by Taylor Caldwell, and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

What’s your favorite genre to write and read?

Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense. Love puzzles and can’t resist trying to solve them.

Do you prefer to write stand-alone or series?

Series are great because you get to spend more time with beloved characters and watch them grow and develop. Although some stories are meant to stand alone. So, I guess I don’t have a preference. Although, most of my books at present, are part of a series.

Use 3 words to describe yourself.

Funny, stubborn, determined

Use an image that reveals your latest book’s Main Character or story setting.

Yes, bad things happen in the creepy woods. Hehe

How long did your first book take to draft?

Six months. Then I promptly trashed it. It’s okay, it was utter drek.

Who is your author idol?

Michael Connelly – the best crime writer out there, in my opinion.

Share a writing memory that made you determined to keep writing.

After reading a historical romance I wrote (inspired by a poem) my writing professor told me that I wasn’t ready to write novels yet. He said I needed to get more life experience first. Though he didn’t specify what that experience needed to be. Nothing like being told you can’t do something to make you want to do something.

Tell us something surprising or unique about yourself.

I’m very shy in real life. (Nobody believes me about this)

Share the hardest part of being a writer.

It’s very easy to feel as though you are all alone in the world. Writing is a solitary activity and it can make you feel isolated. You doubt whether what you’re doing matters, is good enough, and whether anyone will really care about what you have to say. You have to learn to be good at self motivation, giving yourself pep talks, and letting your intuition guide you. But despite this, there is nothing more amazing than creating a story you are proud of and want to share with others.

What’s your favorite social media and why? Share your link.

I think Facebook. It allows for a lot of interaction and enables you to connect on a deeper level than most of the other venues. I’ve made some lovely friends and found some wonderful readers on Facebook.

Share some uplifting wisdom in six words or less.

Believe in yourself. Believe in others.

Thanks for reading this fun little writing meme. Feel free to ‘meme’ yourself in the comments.

If you’re a writer: What is your favorite thing about being a writer? What is your least favorite?

If you’re a reader: What do you most like learning about your favorite authors? What book do you wish an author would write?

Have a lovely Autumn weekend.

Cheers,

Annie ❤

 

A Bucketful of Wishes

My chum Teeni, the meme queen, has tagged me to do the bucket list – it has its source in a movie by the same name (I think) wherein Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicolson make a list of the things they want to do before they kick the bucket. Not having seen the movie, I’m not sure, but I suspect they were only allowed eight items or that’s all they came up with – so in the meme, we only get eight items. I probably could have come up with more but I will behave and just stick to my top eight.

1. Sky dive. I realize this may surprise a few people, especially anyone who knows me because I am not the dare devil type. Hell, I don’t even like to drive that much. And part of the reason is because of my chicken-ness and a desire to overcome that. Moreso though, I want to know what it feels like to fly and I think skydiving is the closest you can come to that without involving massive machinery.

2. To write something breahtakingly beautiful. Perfect. So that if I were to die the next day I will have left one thing of worth behind.

3. To fall desperately in love with a man who is also desperately in love with me for some reason. Then have lots of sex – just kidding – well, maybe not – I’ll have to think about that…

4. To go Ireland and visit all the wee villages in County Cork, see if I can find any trace of my ancesters, look up the O’Riordans, the Flanigans and McCrory’s. Drink fresh cream in my coffee, Guinness in a small pub, sing rebel songs whilst sloshed on Guiness and eating multiple pickled eggs, see Stonehenge, and maybe a faerie or leprachaun or two.

5. Publish, several books if possible and hopefully to an eager audience. Boring but the dream of any writer.

6. Eat massive amounts of crab, lobster and shrimp on the Cape in the summer with some very dear friends from both near and far. And jam a lifetime of friendship into a week if at all possible.

7. Find my cabin in the sky. I don’t literally mean a cabin, but my ideal place to live the rest of my life. I have had an image in my head since I was a little girl of this place; it is peaceful, beautiful and lush, and gives me a quiet energy that is restorative, where I can write inspired pieces and feel happy, safe and loved.

8. And last but not least to be able to meet each and every one of my virtual/blogger/internet friends. I envision some wild reunion or meeting hall or something, all of us there, laughing our asses off, exchanging phone numbers, recipes, photos, invitations to visit. Being happily surprised by how different we all are from what thought and yet how much the same. Lots of food, lots of bbq’ing, lots of talk, adventures, laughs. Just the best time ever. I wonder if could rent a town for a week? Something to think about.

Okay, that’s my bucketful of wishes – and there would have been more but I think that’s a pretty good list.

I’m not one to tag, so I will leave it to anyone who hasn’t yet done the meme (and there may only be a few left) to grab it and run with it. Thanks Teens, I really enjoyed this one.

Pieces of Me

I was tagged by Teeni for this Getting to Know You Meme. It is a bit different than the average meme, if there is such a thing, in that the object is to link to past posts that tell your readers more about you, without their having to slog through your archives and figure it out on their own.

It works like this:

1. Go through past posts and link to five of your favorites, one for each of the following categories:

* Family
* Friends
* Yourself
* Something you love
* Your personal choice

2. Tag five other people to do this meme. Two of them must be people you already know so that you can get to know each other better. (disclaimer: since I don’t tag, I will leave it to you to decide if you want to tag yourself on this one.)

My picks:

Family: Lucky, My Hero
Friends: Friends
Yourself: Is Reflection a Bad Thing?
Something I Love: What do Movies Meme?
My Choice: What Would the World be Like Without You?

I hope this little walk down memory lane is fun and doesn’t make you gag too much. 🙂

WC