Quiet Keystrokes and Midnight Ramblings

Ah, July.  Normally a time of constant celebration, this month has been especially trying and filled with sleepless nights and wandering days.  I am looking forward to August when friends return from far off places, grief will be a little closer to subdued, and life will begin to return to normalcy (I hope). In a fit of sleeplessness spurred from a sorrow filled day on the horizon, a late-night emergency and lots of random thoughts and feelings I decided to hover around the internets a while until my eyes start to feel a little more heavy.  I had received a notification that there have been some updates here on Blogger/Blogspot and so I decided to check them out now that I am left with very little to do for the next 8 hours or so. You may notice that this blog, as well as my other two blogs ( A Smaller Bottom and Meet Your Marker ), has received a sudden face-lift.  I was really surprised at the new backgrounds and customizations on the templates toolbar, and ha...

It occurred to me this morning on the way to the office (out of bed, detour to the kitchen for some Chai Tea, across the living room in kitty rush-hour traffic) that there is no real and true way to define what makes a "good" writer, other than the words written on paper. When we read a good book, rarely do we find ourselves lost in thought over what the author's motivation was for writing it.  We don't wonder when we read an interesting news article if the writer was passionate about the topic, or if they were just trying to make their next car payment.  We don't search the words to try to discover if their creator was steady and dependable, writing each day from 6am to 4pm without fail; or if they were steeped in a fury of sudden inspiration and spent 5 days eating little and sleeping less with only the keyboard and furious fingers for company. From the reader's perspective, what makes a good writer has nothing to do with the company the author keeps,...

Happy 7th of July everyone.  These past few weeks have been a challenge of highs and lows for the Kawaii family, and this past week has been especially trying.  Filled with the celebration of birthdays, the grief and sadness of hospital visits, the changes and trials of helping someone start a new chapter of their life and all the regular comings and goings of good news and bad have made June and the start of July a muddle of emotion and exhaustion. It is in these particularly trying times when I begin to feel the urge to either curl into a corner and vegetate, or become inspired by the current collage of events to write until sleep finds me or my fingers fall off (luckily the latter doesn't happen very often).  Currently I am looking over a mass of writing projects and ideas, an almost-finished novel coupled with an almost-finished short story, article ideas and assignments... and wondering where the drive is going to come from to complete them all.  It is good to...

Good morning, gentle readers! June seems to have come and gone in a flash of frenzy!!  I have been busy trying to fit as much writing into my schedule as possible, which hasn't amounted to much but at least I'm back at it.  It is unfortunate that the things that we love to do, that we are attempting at making into a career, that fill our hearts and fingers with joy... always seem to be the things that get pushed onto the back burner when the going gets tough. Going through life's trials certainly points out that having a "regular" 9-5 job with a boss and a rigid schedule can be handy.  Particularly when family is ill, friends need help, the mortgage is due and our creative streaks are coming infrequently.  Yes, I can freely admit that I would have gotten far more work done this month if I wasn't able to walk 20 feet from bed to office and pound out my work wearing Spongebob Squarepants pajamas. On the other hand, when those brilliant creative streaks app...

My newest adventure has presented itself over the last couple of weeks.  I have decided to enter a writing contest just to see what happens.  Surprisingly, there are quite a few local and national writing contests that are available to new authors and I'm not sure why I didn't think to enter one before.  Perhaps it's the ominous, "Here is your deadline and the reading fee... now write something amazing and we'll give you $500." I printed out one of the contests, a new-author contest based out of Portland with a grand prize of $1,200.  I could definitely use $1,200.  Mr. Kawaii and I just rehashed the ongoing conversation about needing a new garden shed, I have flower beds to fill and a patio to build, our comforter has seen many better days and I'd really like to have some funny money to spend on salt water taffy and a trip to the casino. Not that there are any guarantees that I will have the winning entry, especially since I haven't finished writi...

This month has been a whirlwind of activity for those of the Kawaii household.  Some pretty big changes have taken place and we are now helping a family member get back on their feet.  Trips to the Social Security office, the Department of Health and Human Services, GoodWill and various other places have filled up my days and left very little time for writing. I have forced myself to put out a couple of articles this month through Associated Content and have been able to chronicle my drive for a slimmer waistline through another blog called A Smaller Bottom .  Unfortunately, I was forced to miss the 2nd meeting of the writing group I started due to working on moving our family member into the house, but I look forward to meeting up with the other authors again soon to discuss their amazing writing. As things settle out, I look forward to pressing forward with the novel writing.  I even have it marked on my calendar and scheduled out over the next several weeks w...

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!  We got to spend time with family, eat lots of delicious food and work on some big household projects for the in-laws.  *Whew!* Although I thought Sunday was going to be my day of non-exercise relaxation, I spent the last two days doing lots of bending, lifting, stair climbing and urban hiking with the family as we worked to get the family homestead ready for summer activities.  It was a lot of work and we all got sweaty, stinky and sore over the last two days doing some pretty major clean-up. The great news is, we were able to get things set up enough that ten of us were able to sprawl out for good conversation and great food at dinner last night.  The bad news is, my poor body hasn't gotten it's break yet!  Unfortunately, that doesn't give me much to blog about today as I rest my feet and hips and shoulders. I suppose my only jewel of the day centers around eating out since we did a fair amount of that th...