Young At Heart

Do you ever feel like you can't possibly be as old as you are?

I often have a sort of flashback to high school feeling, where, even though I'm an adult, I feel like I'm not in control of my life.  Like I still have a bunch of people older than me telling me what to do.

Do any of you ever feel that way, or am I just weird? 

I'm not sure what it is.  It could just be normal, but I wonder if that feeling is part of why I write for teens.  In a way, I still kind of feel like one.

For example, the other day I had a friend telling me about problems she was having with her teen.  Now, this person is close to my age, and I'm a parent, too (though my kids aren't teens yet), so I should have sympathized with her.  I did, a little, but I mostly found myself feeling bad for the teen.  Now, I don't know this teen personally, and I don't know the whole story.  But it was weird.

So I wonder, is it just me, or is this normal, or is this what makes us successful at writing for teens/children?  A sort of eternally youthful outlook, or something.

Are you young at heart?

Back to School Monday: Whining edition

*Heavy sigh*

Today was the first day of school. The preschool I teach at goes 9-12 this first week, so it's not long ... except when you have a child who doesn't stop crying THE ENTIRE TIME.

Then, as of last Tuesday, I was going to be working Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I'd have three days to myself (for writing, mostly, but also keeping up with housework, grocery shopping alone, okay, so I'd probably only use it for writing). Anyway, by Wednesday, I was working Mondays, too, and today they added Friday. I have no doubt that Wednesdays will be added within the month.

What to do? I could do what my hubby suggested and tell them that I can only work three days. There is another teacher that could pick up Tues/Thurs, but then I might not be able to send youngest on Tues/Thurs, which sort of defeats the purpose of not teaching on those days. Plus, we need the money, pitiful as it is.

My other option is to try to regement my writing time. I could try to do all email/blog/twitter stuff between the end of preschool and picking the older two up from elementary, focus on the house and the kiddos from then until after dinner, and then forego my beloved tv shows for evening writing time.

So, what do you think? When do you find time for writing?

Also, prayers for this kid to get comfortable in school and stop screaming in my ear are greatly appreciated. ;)

Larissa

P.S. Don't forget that I am in desperate need of donations for the FWF Silent Auction. See this post for details.

I need your help!

So, I got myself appointed the Florida Writers Foundation Silent Auction Chairperson.  The Silent Auction is an annual fundraiser for the FWF (which is the charity arm of the Florida Writers Association), a non profit 501 (c) 3 benefitting literacy.

The Silent Auction is held at the annual FWA Conference in Lake Mary, FL (October 22-24, 2010).  Because it's pretty close to Christmas, many attendees use the auction for Christmas shopping, so literally any donation is useful.  I will take some of the smaller donations to make larger baskets, and some will be used for a raffle.

However, I'd love to get a bunch of critiques and other writerly prizes and auction those online a couple of weeks before the conference so everyone can bid!  Yay!

So how can you help?  Spread the word!  Send me donations!

I plan to choose one critique or prize for the online auction and put it up for raffle. Anyone who spreads the word (blog post, tweet, message board post, etc.) will get a free ticket for that raffle.

Please help!

Here is the donation letter:

And the donation form:

Thanks! :-)

Winners! And other contests!

Thanks so much for all the love on my Blogaversary, everyone! You are all so so awesome!

The ever-useful Random.org has chosen winners! And guess what? Jackie gave me another ARC, so I decided to add it in the mix! (I am going to read it first, so it may ship out a few days later than the others - lol).

Without further ado, I give you the WINNERS!!!!


Winner of signed ARC of FIRELIGHT is...

Sarah Olutola!

Winner of ARC of Low Red Moon is...

Christina Farley!

Winner of 50-page critique by me is...

Michelle!

And NEW! Winner of ARC of Tyger, Tyger is...

Llehn!

Winners, email me at lchardesty at yahoo dot com with your address. Also, as a favor, ARC winners, please try to post a review of the book, or at least rate it on Goodreads, especially if you like it. That's the purpose of ARCs, after all.

Other contests! Woohoo!

The amazing Rose Cooper and Matthew Rush are having a query crit contest!

Casey is having a contest on her blog, too. You can win a critique, and we all know those are invaluable!

Amie is having a contest, too! Check out her pretty new blog!

And Jessie is having a contest for the ARC of Siren! Go follow her and tell her I sent you. ;-)

Know of any other awesome contests? Tell me about them in the comments!

Also, I'm trying to write my promised blog post about the Saga of the Broken House, but I'm having trouble with how in-depth to go. So, what would you like, lovely readers? The full version, which promises to be looong (this has been an ongoing saga for over two years - seriously), or the quick version told mostly in pictures? I'll take the majority vote, and post later this week.

Thanks for reading and congrats to the winners!

Larissa :)