http://lauraraeamos.com this is not a mommy blog Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:05:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Our new walking trail in Burke, VA. Now with bridge spam and radioactive creeks! 12 new pics on my Flickr page :) http://lauraraeamos.com/2010/03/09/dude-its-like-brain-surge/ Well, that pretty much just says it all. January rocked my socks off! February... not so much. Between snow days and moving (again), my brain was put on standby and nothing was accomplished. Except for moving. We accomplished that. But no writing. Barely even any ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2010/03/08/february-which-failed-to-exist-in-an-epic-way/ I love this quote from Lorrie Moore's "How to Become a Writer": "Decide that you like college life. In your dorm you meet many nice people. Some are smarter than you. And some, you notice, are dumber than you. You will continue, unfortunately, to view the world ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2010/02/01/progress-it-exists/ The very month I decide that I'll post them weekly. I have been writing though, but just feeling antisocial and a little bit invisible. I added a works-in-progress page (linked in the about box, currently, on the sidebar). I need to get around to redesigning this thing properly some ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2010/01/27/look-at-me-not-posting-any-progress-reports/ My hubby wanted to help me reach 20,000 words on the novel. I'm not sure this one will make the final cut, but it was a nice effort. Thanks honey :) An alternate reality Danny and Lexi story, by Jim Amos Danny raised the chainsaw until it was at head-height ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2010/01/18/an-alternate-reality-danny-and-lexi-story/ So here is where I back up all that nonsense I committed to for this new year. Two of these goals are going to need some pretty hardcore planning, I think. the ass kicking: I'm starting Jillian Michaels 30-day Shred, which I'm doing 5 days/week rather than daily, but I'll do ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2010/01/05/did-i-say-that-out-loud/ I don't do New Year's resolutions (they're always just begging to be broken), but I do have some goals for 2010. Maybe resolutions and goals are the same thing? For some reason, a goal feels less likely to be broken than a resolution. Who knows... Anyway, ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2010/01/02/the-obligatory-new-year-post-2010/ not a musician: Playing this week, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark," by Death Cab For Cutie. (listen here, good guitar lesson here.) I'm in love with this song this week. It's quiet and beautiful, and it inspired a heartbreaking little story idea. not a film critic: Into the ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/12/14/climb-a-mountain-reach-for-the-stars/ Oh sheesh, I think I have book #2 brewing in my head! Can I finish book #1 first, please? Take a number, ideas, get in line, single file, and no cutsies! (I assure myself this time, book #1 will not be abandoned for book #2, no matter how it begs! ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/12/07/progress-report-take-a-number-get-in-line/ I'm a sucker for a good love story, whether that be romantic or platonic love. I don't consider myself a romance writer, but I do write a heck of a lot of stories about love, whatever form it might manifest itself in. (And I have a theory, that ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/12/02/writing-about-love/ So last week kind of fell into Thanksgiving and got dissolved, and then like a black hole, it sucked up Monday, and then Tuesday as well. I didn't work on my novel a single word last week. I'm okay with that though, little breaks can be efficient sometimes. And ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/12/02/progress-report-turkey-coma-still/ Can we call them "no thank yous" rather than rejections? Anyway, got a "no thank you" on the story I sent out a couple weeks ago. The editor was generous to offer his reasons, and said, "I liked much of the description in your story, but I rarely see a ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/11/23/progress-report-thou-shalt-not-use-second-person/ I'm finding it MUCH harder to get writing done with a three year-old than at any previous age. The "terrible twos" were difficult, in terms of behavior, but the terrible threes are just as terrible, for different reasons. Two year-olds just don't understand the things they want, which ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/11/16/progress-report-if-a-zombie-tried-to-write-a-novel/ progress report for the week of 11/2: I think I'll move my progress reports from Friday to Monday, since I do a lot of my writing on the weekends. And I'll keep them separate from any other random posts I do. Gotta have some structure up in here! I'm giving ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/11/09/progress-report-ch-6-begs-to-be-written/ I didn't jump on the Twitter bandwagon for the longest time. I'd assumed it was for professional people, you know, people who work in offices? And here I am, stay-at-home mommy/48% novelist, covered in snot and food and other questionable substances for most of the day. But ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/11/06/we-shall-learn-to-twitter-tweet/ Who's doing NaNoWriMo this year? I love using NaNoWriMo for those early vague stages of the novel, where you don't know what it's about yet, all those sketchy words you fully expect to scrap and rewrite anyway. I conceived of my current novel in the afterthoughts of NaNo last year. ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/10/31/leeching-off-your-accountability/ So what kind of penalty, exactly, is there for going in to transfer a license seven months late? My Michigan license is not expired, but I'm pretty sure in Virginia, it's supposed to be transferred after one month. (One month? What kind of bunk is that? ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/10/16/friday-and-the-girl-with-the-bum-license/ I changed the title of this blog a couple years ago. And when I wrote this new title, it wasn't to put down those who write mommy blogs. Not at all. I enjoy reading mommy blogs. But this blog isn't supposed to be one. This ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/10/12/this-is-not-a-mommy-blog/ My dad passed away this morning. He will be greatly missed. That's all. http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/09/25/and-then/ This has never been a very personal blog, apart from telling you how much of my novel hasn't been written, or some adorable thing my child did. I feel much more comfortable masking my personal life in writing by wrapping it up in fiction. There are things I ... http://lauraraeamos.com/2009/09/19/the-most-heartbreaking-thing/