December 11th -- Days of Self-Reflection

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Hello,

Fourteen days till Christmas folks!

As my previous blogpost indicated, now that the holiday season is officially here, I see this as an opportunity to do some self-reflection. Below are topics that I wish to share with you -- my readers.

December 4^th

What does the holiday season mean to me?

December 11^th

What is the driving force in my writer's life?

I remember when I first knew I wanted to be a writer, I was 11 years old, and I had just read about a dozen of Barbara Cartland's romance novels (my grandmother’s stash). At the time, I'd fallen in love with the genre and the art of story writing.

Since the early days of writing, my driving force has been introducing sassy and unique characters into my stories. Not only are unique characters engaging, but they're also fun to write. In fact, it was several years into my writing that my 'driving force' was validated when I began receiving 'fan' mail, what an honor!

Join me in the next two weeks as I continue the theme of self-reflection, please see below:

December 18^th

In what area/s do I need to improve self-discipline?

December 25^th

What do I wish for today?

Feel free to share your thoughts :)

Happy holidays!

Maria

Comments

Calgon...take me away!

Family/Friends, I understand now why some companies/celebreties hire people to tend to their Social Media networking, it is very time consuming, not to mention mentally exhausting. Point in case, just today I spent over an hour on Blogger and YouTube working out some kinks with my profile/settings. My head's spinning and I'm pooped. On the topic of Social Media, I'd like to take a moment to thank my daughter, Pamela for acting as a consultant on the topic. Pamela works in the field and has actually helped launch my first AdWords campaign. Although it is progressing slowly, I have seen an increase in site ( www.mywritingden.net ) traffic and Twitter - 10 new followers in a week. I've also been receiving sporadic emails from 'fans' telling me how much they enjoy my stories...so this keeps me going. Ohhh, and a VERY notable mention to Linus Ly who gave me the idea to use a 'new' slogan Erotica, She Wrote . Liked it so much I'm already using it. T...

Pantser + Plotter = Plantser >>> Thank you, Ms. Higgins

On November 3, 2018 I attended RWA/NYCs romance conference at the Fordham University campus in The Bronx. The conference was informational as it was fun and we were fortunate to have had on hand several best-selling authors, icons really, and for that I’m eternally blessed. Recently, I got to thinking about a comment Kristan Higgins said during one of the workshops: Not a ‘pantser’, not a ‘plotter’, but a ‘plantser’. Several of us laughed out loud, “Yeah, that, that’s me!” By design I am a pantser and enjoy making up stories as I ‘go’ rather than creating outlines as do my plotter counterparts. As you might imagine, the first draft of my novellas are quite messy as scenes are often deleted/added along the way. Second and third drafts are marginally better. I think many pantsers will tell you that allowing our imaginary friends to direct the course of a book is the most exciting aspect of the writing process. Pantsers might also tell you that this technique is equally fru...

See Forever and Then Some

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Maria's Journal

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