The Best of....

Guess What! This blog is FOUR YEARS OLD! It's hard to believe, but I've been attempting to make sense on the Internet for that long. To celebrate, I'm going to run a few of my 'Greatest Hits'.

Sit back, grab a beverage and enjoy our thrilling ride through yesterday.

From February 10, 2009, The Care and Feeding of an Author.

It's a sad fact that I have to learn a lesson many times before I truly get it (I guess that makes me normal, huh?!). And today, the lesson I learned again is what makes me the most productive.

Being relaxed, well-rested, pain-free, and generally patient with myself means I have a day that rocks hard. I'll compose and edit with great ease and pleasure. Writing is a joy to me and makes me feel amazing.

The minute I tense up and start nagging myself at how much I need to get done and how lazy I am and how much I suck....

Well, let's just say I'm better off going back to bed and calling it a done day.

So to this end, I do a wide number of things to put myself in the best possible place.

I work out five days a week (don't get too excited about this, somehow I'm still a super curvy girl). I give myself permission to take naps.

The hardest thing, though, is to remember that writing is not just Butt in Chair, Fingers on Keyboard. Everything feeds that fire - reading, watching movies, doing research, even taking a long, hot, scented bath - fuels the writer.

Nagging? Not such a good motivator.

Pleasure? The best motivator ever.

What are your pleasures? What motivates you?

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Dracula's Secret, Blood Wings #1
Dracula's Desires, Blood Wings #2
Dracula Unleashed, Blood Wings #3, to be released March 21, 2013