What dreams may come and your Monday Fortune Cookie, 2/3/14

Old dreams never die they just get filed away.

SNARKY RESPONSE: And my office is proof of that fact.

Old dreams never die they just get filed away.

The trick is to remember to go back through those files once in a while and see if anything has changed. Time passes, we change and those changes may give us more perspective, skills, or opportunity than we had when we opted to file that dream away. Sometimes we're just not ready to take that leap of faith. Sometimes we have too many irons in the fire already--one more would create a catastrophic meltdown. Sometimes we have to gain more experience, more knowledge, more skills before we can pursue that dream.

That's what I did in 2000 when I decided to find out if I could truly write something worth publishing. I set myself on the path to publication and have trod the path as best I could. There have been the inevitable quagmires, wrong turns, and darkest nights. There have been false starts, misleading middles, and abandoned endings. And there have been tremendous friendships, amazing guidance, and unexpected partnerships. Along with victories, big excitement, and enduring determination.


What about you? What dreams have you plucked out of the archives of your heart to pursue with your soul?

Good News! Options, We Love Options!

Wishes do come true! Indeed they do!

SNARKY RESPONSE: That's not a fortune cookie fortune

Yes, Snarky Me has called me out, but she doesn't mind because we're throwing ourselves a little party today!

Why?

Because I just got official word that COLLECTOR'S ITEM is now available in paperback! Isn't it BEE-U-T FUL?

Alpha were-jaguar, Katarina "KT" Marant is trained to protect the pride so when her aunt disappears, KT naturally takes up the hunt. Her suspicion settles on the Collectors, humans who view shapeshifters as the ultimate big game.

Peyton Allers can't believe he's got to blow his cover to rescue a shapeshifter "princess." Even harder to believe is that she wants to stage her own kidnapping in order to catch the leader of the Collectors and find her aunt.

Everything goes sideways when KT is kidnapped for real and by someone she never suspected. Will Peyton find her before time runs out? Or will she become a true Collector's Item?

Available NOW at

The Wild Rose Press

 and on Amazon

It's truly yet another dream realized. I've got a book in paper!

Novellas in paper are generally not considered a profitable price point, which is why I resigned myself to not realizing this dream for a while. THEN, TWRP, who had granted my First Wish of publication, granted my Second Wish of print publication!

I have to thank my editor, Callie Lynn Wolfe, and my publishers, RJ Morris and Rhonda Penders at The Wild Rose Press, for what they do to support me and all the Roses.

I hope that if you or someone you know prefers reading physical books, you'll consider picking COLLECTOR'S ITEM to Place On Your Book Shelf!

Wow! I actually get to say that!

COLLECTOR'S ITEM can be put on your book shelf!

Happy dancing!

MONDAY FORTUNE COOKIE, 10/14/12

Never judge a work of art by it's defects.

SNARKY RESPONSE:  Hah! Tell that to all the folks who make a professional living out of judging art.

Never judge a work of art by it's defects.

I think today's fortune cookie is about self-criticism as much as it is about external criticism. Most beginning writers, and even experienced writers, can be their own worst critics. We will nitpick and second-guess ourselves into a muddle or a self-induced case of writers block.

Now, I'm not saying that judicious self-editing doesn't have it's place, but it should not become a bludgeon with which we beat our WIP and ourselves into oblivion. Be constructive with that criticism, not destructive. 

It's said that challenges should be considered opportunities and discovering issues with your own writing should be treated the same way. Look at ways to strengthen, tighten, and enliven your work not ways to delay, postpone, or just plain give up.

We have to be fearless. We have to be determined. And we have to be willing to face the good, the bad, and the ugly of our process in order to produce something that we know will be all that is powerful, beautiful, and  worthy of ourselves.

After all, we're doing something a lot of folks just talk about. We're committing ourselves to our dream, putting our visions on paper, and doing the work to reach our goals.

Keep writing and growing!

MONDAY FORTUNE COOKIE, 8/27/12

If your desires are not extravagant, they will be granted.

SNARKY RESPONSE: Okay, who's hedging their bets? So, if I don't get my desire, it'll be because it was too extravagant, eh? Fortune Cookie guru, you're leaving yourself a whopping big loophole there. And don't tell me that's the way the cookie crumbs.

If your desires are not extravagant, they will be granted.

Not only are you hedging your bets, Fortune Cookie Guru, but I think you're missing the point.

Desires, by their very nature, trend toward the extravagant. Needs are more modest, more fundamental – food, shelter, security. Nothing extravagant there.

But desires, desires are more often wrapped up in wish-fulfillment. And wishes are mostly all about big things, dreamy things, extraordinary things.

Keeping your desire small in order to have it granted is the waste of a good desire. Desires should be big, heart-pounding, pulse-racing, sweat on your brow big. In the case of desire, size matters.

If we limit our desires in hopes that fate will tip the scales in our favor, we always live in the shallow end of the life pool.

Don't do it! Dream big, desire extravagantly!

And if our efforts don't make the big leagues, at least we know we tried. We pushed ourselves. We took our shot and that is the point! The trick is that it's not the destination, but the journey that will make us more. (Okay, that's another fortune cookie saying, but it applies)

What say you?

MONDAY FORTUNE COOKIE 7/9/12

Don't stop dreaming, otherwise sleep will get awfully boring.

SNARKY RESPONSE: Actually, I think this one carries its own snark. Starting out all affirmation-like and then twisting back on you like that? And to show how synchronistic this post is to other areas of my life, check out my Facebook Author page (Denise Golinowski/Author) and the pic I shared on Sunday, July 8^th. Has to make you smile.

Don't stop dreaming, otherwise sleep will get awfully boring.

Dreaming is an integral part of the sleep experience, even if you don't remember them. Often you may wish you didn't because the sleeping mind is very different from the waking mind.

This brings to mind…dream journals. How do you like that segue?

Show of hands, who has a dream journal? Okay, you really didn't have to raise your hand. I can't see you. However, I'm betting a lot of folks have begun one. Beginning Writers are often advised to keep a notebook and pen by the bed for capturing those sudden flashes of inspiration. What a handy suggestion. How often have you had a brilliant idea just as you were drifting into or out of sleep and promised yourself you'd remember it later only to have it completely evaporate? No, don't raise your hands.

Stack of Shame

Now, be completely honest—how many of you actually kept that dream journal for more than a few weeks? You know—you go out and buy a really nice notebook, something appropriate for containing such creative concepts. Yeah, and a nice pen, something that feels nice in your hand and puts a nice solid line on a page. Then, it's all "wake right up and jot down a note or two" for a few weeks. Then, you dwindle down to a few mornings a week and then maybe once a week until your pen rolls off the nightstand and the notebook disappears under your current "to be read" stack. And I know we ALL have one of those! So, eventually, you have a collection of pretty notebooks with about a dozen pages of scribbles in each one.

And, let's face it, they are scribbles, right? I mean, you're supposed to put pen to paper as soon as you wake up. Come on! You just woke up! Who has perfect penmanship right out of a dead sleep? You can barely open your eyes and that annoying snooze button just won't take its morning beating in silence. And it's hard to form a coherent sentence, much less succinctly describe that Dali-esque landscape with the green cows and knitting mice. Besides, all those drooping trees and melting wax mountains are really disturbing when you commit them to paper. What did you eat before you went to bed last night?

No, seriously, I am in awe of the folks who keep a regular journal, no matter the frequency or intent. To be that diligent and consistent is to be admired. Just someone kick me if I ever mention wanting to start one myself. Kick me and point out that stack of notebooks collecting dust beside my nightstand.